JACKSON ON JJ WATT’S INFLUENCE

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Clarets coach on sharing experiences with JJ Watt to better development in the squad

2023-08-03T15:45:30.414Z

JACKSON ON JJ WATT’S INFLUENCE

Clarets coach on sharing experiences with JJ Watt to better development in the squad

2023-08-03T15:45:30.414Z

Clarets coach on sharing experiences with JJ Watt to better development in the squad

“He’s a sportsman, so he understands what it’s like to be an athlete, a professional player, he’s been great around the place with us,” is First Team Coach Mike Jackson’s reply when asked about the influence of former NFL star and Burnley Football Club investor JJ Watt.

Together with his wife, former US Women’s National Team international Kealia, the Watt’s were officially announced as investors in the Club in May 2023.

Several trips to Lancashire later, the three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year has also been in open dialogue with Jackson and the Club’s first team coaching staff, to share experiences and knowledge ahead of the Clarets return to the top-tier of English football.

“Obviously from the side, he’s a world class athlete in his sport. He’s been really good, we actually sat with him in a Zoom the other day about certain things that relate from football to American football. How they might crossover. So, we had a meeting on that,” said Jackson.

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“He’s been cool with it all. All his ideas, and at the end of the day he’s a sportsman as well, so he understands what it’s like to be an athlete, what it’s like to be a professional player. He’s been great around the place with us. He obviously came over, but as I say we had a meeting with him the other day which was really good and he’s up for doing anything he can to help.”

In addition to knowing all too well the mindset it takes to get to the very top, it’s also the learnings from this crossover between the two sports that Jackson believes can be beneficial to the squad.

“It’s more of a technical, tactical sort of thing to be honest. More of that than the other side of it because, there are certain crossovers in sports, that you can learn from and that’s another thing that we try and look at, is there anything that we can take from somewhere else that might help a certain part of the team.”

Open discussions with former NFL legends such as JJ Watt showcase the revolution of Burnley over the past year, with the Club seeing significant changes on and off the pitch. Jackson, who took interim charge of the squad in April 2022 following the departure of Sean Dyche, has been well placed to witness firsthand the change brought about by manager Vincent Kompany.

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“You never know from when somebody makes a decision to bring somebody in but obviously, they’d done their homework on what they wanted and the line they wanted to go down, which is credit to the board and the Chairman for that. So, you never know how it’s going to turn out but for manager’s that I’ve seen work and been involved with, you’ve got to have a true belief in what you’re doing, you can’t coach it and you can’t develop it unless you make the players believe in it as well. To do that you’ve got to really believe in what you’re doing, and Vinny is very good at doing that.”

It's this belief that is also instilled in the coaching staff, who’s focus, desire and winning mentality draw many parallels to JJ and his NFL experience and is at the beating heart of the coaching setup.

“I think everyone, there’s people involved in the staff that have played at different levels of football. We’ve got Bellars as well with us and I think you only have to watch our staff games out there that everyone wants to win at everything, you just think you’re going back in time, playing football again.

“Ultimately that’s what you’re here to do and no one likes losing but it’s finding a way when you do, and that again, we’re really good at trying to do that here, where its what’s next, we don’t dwell on that, it’s gone. We’ve had meetings on it before, we learn from it and go again.”