‘Do I need to look at real estate?’ - Burnley bet has JJ Watt worried as James Trafford heroics threaten to force him back into the NFL

American football legend Watt, who is married to former USWNT star Kealia, hung up his cleats back in 2022. He has no intention of putting his body on the line again, but did sign up to a wager with Clarets goalkeeper Trafford that is causing some concern.

Watt agreed that he would join the Cincinnati Bengals if Trafford does not concede another goal this season, and the 22-year-old is currently on a run of six successive clean sheets. After seeing Burnley sweep Plymouth aside 5-0, Watt posted on social media: “Another clean sheet from Traffs… Do I need to start looking at real estate in Cincinnati?”

Watt has also told the Pat McAfee Show of his bet with Trafford: “We were just joking around. He’s a big Bengals fan. We were messing around and he said, before the Bengals played the Steelers and he was trying to rile me up, ‘How about you come out of retirement and play for the Bengals?’ I said ‘If you don’t allow a goal the rest of the year, then I’ll do it, it’s a deal’. We have played five games since then, he has allowed zero goals and he saved two penalties in 10 minutes in one game. He’s taken it very seriously. After three games, I messaged him and said ‘Hey, you’re taking this a little too seriously’. He messaged me saying ‘How do you eat a whale? One bite at a time’. After this last game I said you are getting real serious and he said ‘I want this pretty bad’. It’s heating up a little bit, but we still have 18 games left.”

Burnley will need Trafford to continue doing the business, putting more pressure on investor Watt along the way, in order to book an immediate return to the Premier League. They sit third in the second tier table as things stand, two points adrift of the automatic promotion spots and three behind leaders Leeds.