T.J. Watt and his wife Dani Watt have it all. From the loving marriage and the growing family to the successful careers which were highlighted when the Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker signed a $123 million three-year contract, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.
On Wednesday, Sept. 3, T.J. and Dani sat down with Graham Bensinger on his podcast “In Depth” where they talked about the highs and lows of their lives so far. Including the terrifying birth experience Dani endured while welcoming their 6-month-old daughter Blakely Marie Watt into the world in March.
While talking about life with their daughter, and the perspective he’s gained since becoming a father, T.J. and Dani also opened up about Blakely’s birth and the emergency c-section she had to undergo.
“They get a successful epidural and then they’re like, ‘All right Dani, well let’s rest.’ She was able to rest for like another hour or two before we started pushing again,” T.J. shared with Bensinger. “And it got to the point where the doctor said, ‘Your baby’s heart rate is plummeting. We need to do an emergency C-section right today.’”
T.J. said despite everything happening so quickly, he demanded time alone with his wife, requesting that the doctors and nurses leave the room.
Graham asked T.J. what he said to Dani in that moment. “Whatever your decision is here, I am completely with you. But at the end of the day, we need to do what’s best for our baby,” T.J. recalled telling Dani in that empty hospital room.
“I was very set on what I wanted,” Dani explained. “I did not want a belly birth, a C-section. And to have it come down to that, after doing all the things that I did to get there, all the prep work, all the labor, and then to get to a point that it’s no longer in my control – I got emotional.”
“So he asked everyone to clear the room. They were kind of taken back by that,” Dani said of that moment. “They were like, ‘We need to go today.’ But literally they cleared the room, we took a couple deep breaths together, he kissed me and they wheeled me into the OR.”
T.J. described the next several moments as “so intense.”
“The moment is just like, ‘holy crap, we’re in 2025 and this is still like life or death,’ it feels like in that moment. I mean, people have died from having C-sections.”
“She said she’s being read her rights,” Graham noted. “Yeah exactly. And it sucks. It really does.”
T.J. admitted to being concerned for his wife in those moments, noting that they “never truly had the conversation like, ‘If I had to choose you’ or ‘if I had to choose myself or the baby,’ for her.”
Despite the fear, Dani and Blakely are today both happy and healthy, as T.J. described the c-section as a “successful surgery.”
“To be able to see this human being that is half of me, half of her, is incredible,” said of the first time he saw Blakely.
In hindsight, Dani said she is “so grateful for the way it went because of the way that we fell in love with each other all over again – times a million I think. And obviously we got Blakely at the end of it.”
“We went through hell and back in a few hours I think,” Dani continued. “And so we’ve been tested many times before in our relationship with distance and hardships and injuries and all that stuff, but that was different.”
And although he admits it is “selfish” to say, being that he didn’t endure any of “the pain,” T.J. agreed, saying he “wouldn’t have wanted it to go any other way.”
“But… that brought us the best thing that’s ever happened to us in Blakely. And it’s brought us so much closer together. To see [Dani] go through that pain and suffering to sacrifice so much for us and our family is the most selfless thing that you could possibly do,” T.J. continued.
And today that he is a father, T.J. said he’s gained so much perspective in life, especially on “what’s important.”
“It’s shown me how much I love my wife. It’s shown me how selfish I can be at times and how selfless I feel like I’m working towards today. It’s keeping me grounded. It’s given me purpose. For the longest time I’d tell people, ‘I truly feel like I was put on this earth to play football and like be the best football player I can be.’ And I mean, I can sit here today and say that’s absolutely not the case,” T.J. told Bensinger.
“I’m meant to be a father and I’m meant to be a great husband and a son and all those things. And that’s what’s important to me. And it’s allowed me to take a back seat and say, ‘Holy cow, I’ve got it all wrong.’ And yeah man, it’s been the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” T.J. continued.
T.J. and Dani met while student athletes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. T.J. was a senior football star and Dani was an incoming freshman for the Badgers women’s soccer team.
T.J. told Graham that he called “dibs” on Dani, “No. 15 on the soccer team,” when he first laid eyes on her.
“I slid in her DMs and said, ‘Can I make it up to you? Can I take you out to Culver’s?’ And I think it was like that night or maybe the next night,” T.J. recalled of their first date.
But Dani wasn’t initially sure she wanted to date T.J.
“She was playing hard to get for a while,” T.J. said, though Dani denies that allegation. “I wasn’t playing hard to get. It was truly, I just got to college. I’m a freshman on campus,” she said of her hesitation, pointing out the four year age gap between herself and her today husband.
“I wanted to focus on soccer and all that. And he was a senior and the whole soccer team, they say you get on campus, it’s like, ‘Stay away from the football guys.’ Of course I meet this football guy. I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t do this. I’m just getting to college. I’m going to lose playing time,’” Dani recalled.
“I mean obviously she was well worth the wait,” T.J. said of that time. “So I was just trying to be as patient as possible and trying to be as understanding and put myself in her shoes as someone who just got on campus, probably has a million things going through her mind.”
T.J. admitted that Dani “had the worst GPA when I was at school with her and she was Dean’s list when I left. So that tells you all you need to know about how much we were going to class when I was at school.”
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