For the first time in five years, J.J. Watt brought his charity softball game back to the Houston area on Saturday night at Constellation Field in Sugar Land. The event raises millions for Watt's foundation, whose cause is to raise money for sports equipment at the middle school level in underprivileged areas. Over the years, Watt has raised over $7 million, and he and his former teammates, and several current Texans packed the place on Saturday.

The format for the game was Texans Legends versus current Texans players, and the game itself was a rout, with the old guys flexing their "dad strength" muscles to the tune of a 14-1 victory. However, the game itself, and all the money raised, were not the big topics after the game on Saturday night. What had everyone talking was the slight crack in the door that Watt left open to a return to the Texans, so let's start there.

Here are four thoughts on the J.J. Watt Charity Classic:

Watt leaves the door ajar
This all stemmed from a question that my SportsRadio 610 colleague Brandon Scott asked J.J. about the temptation to return, given his competitive streak. Here's what Watt said:

I asked J.J. Watt how he resists the temptation to return to football, especially given the Texans’ rise. His answer was interesting.

Watt told DeMeco Ryans he’s still training and is ready if he absolutely needs it. pic.twitter.com/Z3gbfqjOA1

— B.Scott from Hiram Clarke (@brandonkscott) May 4, 2024

Just in case the video isn't synched up for you, here was the key quote:

“I’m not going to keep training the way I’ve been training, but he knows if he ever does truly need it, I’ll be there for him. But I don’t think that’ll happen. They’ve got a very good crew. I hope that everybody stays extremely healthy, and they dominate and they don’t need any bodies and I just get to watch and enjoy it from the couch.”

Now, if I had to handicap the chances of Watt playing for the Texans this season, it would be less than a five percent chance, and I'd handicap his chances of playing for anyone else aside from the Texans at practically zero percent. But, let's be clear — that is NOT a "no." The other tell that playing again is at least on the table was the distinction in workout plans, present and future. Something still burns inside J.J. Watt to play football again. We shall see.
The "olds" dominated the "youngs"
As I mentioned above, the final score was Legends 14, Current Dudes 1, perhaps showing a microcosm of the narrative that baseball is declining in popularity with young folks, because the Legends, all north of 35 years old, all seems to know what they were doing, while most of the current Texans, most of them below the age of 27, seemed to be kind of clueless. It's not surprising the two best players from the Legends team were Case Keenum and Jon Weeks, both of whom are older than J.J. Watt himself.
Shane Lechler went Vlad Guerrero, Jr. on the Home Run Derby field
In an appropriate metaphor for the evening, in which the old dudes walloped the young dudes, the one Texans Legend who put on the most impressive display was probably the one least likely to win any sort of cardio contest — former punter and future Hall of Famer, Shane Lechler, who put on a Vlad Guerrero-like display in the pregame Home Run Derby, hitting 12 home runs in the preliminary round and then easily topping Case Keenum in the finals. Score one for punters! Also, know that Will Anderson, Jr. looked like he'd never picked up a bat before, but volunteered to be in the Home Run Derby. Predictably, he hit zero home runs, but his energy was infectious, and he did it all with a smile. Will Anderson is the best.
The event was a perfect storm of past and future glory
I will repeat what I said above about the crowd at Constellation Field — the place was packed to the gills, and the crowd was into it. The relationship between Watt and Houston has always been one where both sides have been ultra supportive. Watt's acts of kindness, random and otherwise, here in Houston are the stuff of legend. Similarly, Watt said multiple times in his pregame press conference that the city is "family" to him. I think even if Watt had done this event two seasons ago, when the Texans were downtrodden and bad at football, he'd have popped a big crowd.

I have no idea what a 2022 Texans roster would have looked like, and I don't really care to think about it. Just know that, with the current Texans team on the rise, Saturday was a great celebration of past and present, and hopefully future, with the young Texans getting a chance to really commingle with the first set of Houston Texans to put the franchise on the map, the 2011 and 2012 AFC South winners.

All in all, a very cool night.

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.