Watson makes super impression during visit
For a day, Chiefs Kingdom dominated Pittsburgh Nation when Friendship Village of South Hills painted the town red as it welcomed Kansas City wide receiver Justin Watson to celebrate his most recent Super Bowl victory.
A South Fayette High School graduate and Bridgeville native, Watson was in town April 16 to visit his grandmother, Ginny Hughes, and her friends in the assisted-living community. They dined on authentic Kansas City BBQ, participated in a Q&A and received autographs. During the private and intimate event, Watson even allowed them to try on his Super Bowl rings, much to their delight.
“Wow,” said Sara Schneider. “(The ring) is heavier than I thought. It’s beautiful.”
“Super heavy,” added Meghan Ziegelmeyer, a vice president of sales for health services for the company that owns Friendship Village. “I never had that much bling on a finger before.”
Ziegelmeyer added, “It was so wonderful for Ginny to have this memory with her grandson. For all of our residents to enjoy and to celebrate in the success of the Watson family was amazing.”
Remarkable, indeed, is Watson’s story.
At age 28, he is already a three-time Super Bowl champion. He helped the Chiefs win their second-straight NFL title on Feb. 11, 2024, when they edged San Francisco, 25-22, in overtime at Allegiant Stadium in Nevada. Before the 2023 championship, Watson played for Tampa Bay when the Buccaneers ironically defeated the Chiefs, 31-9, in 2021.
“I could not have imagined this,” said Watson’s mother, Terri.
She thought they had reached the “top of the mountain” when South Fayette football coach Joe Rossi called to say Bucknell University had offered Watson a full scholarship. It would be the first of many, Rossi predicted.
After helping the Lions win a state championship and becoming The Almanac’s Athlete of the Year in 2014, Watson went on to excel at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned a business degree while setting several Ivy League records before being selected in the fifth round of the NFL draft by the Buccaneers in 2018.
“I grew up like everyone in this room is a Steelers fan but when they didn’t draft me or sign me as a free agent, well,” he said to the crowd in the community room. “I still root for the Steelers but when push comes to shove I’m a Chief through and through.”
Watson is a fan of hard work and remembering his roots.
He recalled working at the Shop ‘N Save bagging groceries and pushing shopping carts. With the Little Green Machine leading the parade as Watson and his grandmother walked into the multi-purpose room, festooned with red and gold balloons, he remembered running onto the football field on Friday nights to the South Fayette fight song. But most of all, he recollected how Ginny influenced his life.
In addition to the youthful visits to Grandma’s house, he recalled her wisdom and strength. Ginny is the mother of seven daughters and grandmother to 19. She also has 18 great grandchildren. After her stroke last May, she came to Friendship Village. At 94, she thrives there.
“Gram’s always looking out for me. She would still slip me $5 to take my wife (then my fiancée) out to get a coke, even though I didn’t quite need it,” Watson said. “She’s the absolute best grandmother anybody could have, but she is such an inspiration in my life. I look up at her in awe.
“Her strength to have raised that many children and how she overcame her stroke,” he continued. “It took a long way to get back to where she was but she was determined. She said ‘I’m going to get back. I’m going to be doing all the things I loved to do. Nothing’s going to stop me.’
“She passed that mindset down to her daughters and myself. When I look at her today, I’m reminded that if you put your mind to it and believe you can, then you pretty much can do it.”
Ginny saw greatness in Watson. She believed in him.
“There’s a saying in life,” he said. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, either way you are right. Gram told me, ‘I think you are going to move mountains and change the world and she hoped that she would be here to see it.'”
Watson reached the top in football because he stuck to that advice and focused on the steps in the process.
“I didn’t start as the best athlete. Hardly anyone, myself included, thought the NFL was a possibility, but honestly, I just focused on the day or the year in front of me.
“My whole life growing up, I never dreamed of playing in an NFL uniform. I just wanted to be a really good South Fayette High School football player. If that is all you want to be, then you end up being a really good football player at South Fayette and you win a state championship.
“Because of that, you get a chance to play college football,” he continued. “When I was in college, I just wanted to be a really great Penn football player and I knew that if I won championships and did all those things, then the next stage was the NFL. So I think I had really good mentors that kept me right in the moment and focused on where I was at in life.”
Watson’s mentors were not just coaches. They were educators. He praised his high school math teacher Maureen Sirc for “challenging” to get better grades that opened the door to the Ivy League. “If not for her, who knows where I would have gone to school or if I would be in the NFL or here today,” he said. “She was my all-time favorite teacher.”
During his playing career, Watson cited some favorite and not so favorite opponents.
Hits by Carolina Panthers linebacker Jadeveon Clowney hurt the most. Richard Sherman was the best defensive back he played again. He learned the most from Tom Brady because he was a “good leader” and obviously “phenomenal” player, but Patrick Mahomes is a “magician” out there at quarterback “because he makes throws and plays that no one else can.”
Nobody transformed Watson’s life more than his son. Last year, on April 12, he and his wife, Erica, welcomed Zion Lee into the world.
“It all changed,” said Watson. “Perspective is the biggest thing. no matter what happens, good or bad, if I have a great game or a bad game, or if I get injured or I’m healthy, when I come home, my son is smiling and can’t wait for me to come through the door. So I think, for myself, my fondest memories aren’t some crazy vacation, it was just watching movies or playing board games and being together as a family. It brings you back to the perspective that some things in life are to be just happy with your own family. My son is always a reminder of that.”
Watson is content with his immediate as well as extended family at Friendship Village. He embraced the opportunity to visit with the residents during his special appearance.
“This is what makes playing in the NFL so cool,” he said. “Because of what you do for a living, you get to make people feel special and lift people up.”
For Ginny, it was indeed a most memorable day.
As she wiped tears from her eyes she said, “I’m thrilled he came here. If I die today, I will be a happy person.”