Steelers DC Teryl Austin compares T.J. Watt's holding situation with 'Hack-a-Shaq'
Speaking with the media after the Pittsburgh Steelers (7-5) 24-10 Week 13 defeat to the Arizona Cardinals (3-10) Sunday, linebacker T.J. Watt took aim at NFL officials for the lack of holding penalties enforced on plays involving him.
“The NFL has something going against me, so I don’t want to talk any more negatively toward them,” Watt said. “I don’t know what I did, but I’ll leave it at that.”
Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin went to bat for the 2021 AP Defensive Player of the Year Award winner Tuesday, comparing his situation to that of what NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal dealt with during his career.
“I think T.J. runs into what all the elite rushers do,” Austin said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “These guys are going to hold you until they can’t because a lot of times that’s the only way they can block. I mean I share in his frustration, but I don’t think there’s anything that we can do about it. We can complain and we can do all that, but that really doesn’t solve the problem. So I think we just deal with it. We just continue to fight and go. It’s almost like the Hack-a-Shaq.”
Steelers LB T.J. Watt remains productive despite inconsistencies in officiating
Like O’Neal, Austin believes officials are no longer calling holds against Watt because it’s happening so often.
“People would hack Shaq all the time, and he got fouled so much, and everybody knew it was a foul, but after a while they didn’t call it because he was so doggone good,” Austin said. “So we just got to keep plugging away. And when he has an opportunity to win — because he’ll still win — he does that. I think as Mike [Tomlin] likes to call it, it’d be sport bitching, and we’re not going to bitch about our circumstances. We’re just going to play and fight through it, and T.J. will fight through it, and he’ll do it because a good pro and he’s a great player.”
Through 12 games this season, Watt has still managed to be as productive as any defensive player in the NFL. He’s tallied 14.0 sacks, second in the league behind Khalil Mack of the Los Angeles Chargers (5-7).
“T.J.’s a special player,” Tomlin said Monday. “People go to a lot of lengths of work to minimize him, and frustration is probably a component of play for him.”