Following the creation of any beef, there comes a time when the parties involved in said beef have to make a choice: Will they escalate things with another dose of burnsauce, or will they leave the kitchen altogether? Andy Dalton and J.J. Watt have reached that point, and both men are standing down.
You’ll remember that Watt hit Dalton with a lame and scripted burn after the Texans beat the Bengals on Monday night, and that prompted Dalton to go into a bit of a tizzy during his postgame press conference. Now, Dalton says he regrets getting all riled up. From the Houston Chronicle:
“What I did wrong is that I responded to what somebody said that he said,” Dalton told Cincinnati reporters. “I never even heard his interview. So I don’t know the context in which it was said. I don’t know what he said before, I don’t know what he said after. My part, I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did without hearing what he said and actually hearing what he said. I was responding to what an interviewer tells me he said.
“My reaction wasn’t warranted just because, again, I haven’t seen it. I’m not going to watch, I don’t care. I’ve got no ill will toward J.J. There’s no feud between me and J.J. We lost the game. He said what he said, and we’re moving on. That’s in the past now.”
As for Watt, he’s moved on from the whole thing (via NJ.com):
“I haven’t paid much attention to it,” Watt said. “We got in real early Tuesday morning, and [I’ve] been trying to focus on the New York Jets ever since.”
But what about Dalton saying something about THE CHILDREN who look up to J.J. Watt?
“You’re just trying to get something to quote me on, and I’m not going to give it to you,” Watt said. “I’m sorry.”
All for the best. This particular beef was never that hot to begin with.