Andy Dalton not happy with J.J. Watt’s ‘Red Ryder BB gun’ comment

J.J. Watt’s postgame comment about Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton was surprising enough that ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters let out a “Wow!” as soon as he said it.

“Our goal was to come in here and make the ‘Red Rifle’ look like a Red Ryder BB gun, and I think we did that,” the Houston Texans star defensive end said. 

And Watt, seemingly realizing what he just said on live television, started talking about how Dalton was a great player and the Bengals are a great team (because goodness knows we can’t have an athlete display any personality), but he wasn’t going to take back that line.

And it probably would have died there, but Dalton took it personally after the Bengals’ 10-6 loss.

“There’s a lot of kids and a lot of people who look up to him,” Dalton said in his postgame news conference. “For him to make comments like that, he’s showing that’s acceptable to do that kind of stuff, to say that kind of stuff. It’s disappointing for one of the best players in this league to come out and say something like that. That’s all I’m going to say about that. I think J.J. is a good player, but for him to be one of the best in this league and to show that integrity, and to show that type of … it shows what he’s about, which is disappointing.”

Ah, the “Won’t someone think of the children!” angle. This all seems tame. Watt was obviously fired up after the game, ripping critics who didn’t think the Texans could beat Cincinnati (how dare they doubt the 4-5 Texans!). Dalton was likely upset to have just lost a game, and then had to hear that he was mocked afterward by an opponent on national TV. Still, it seemed strange to be so angry over kind of a lame insult. Let’s just say this isn’t exactly a worthy sequel to Tupac and Biggie’s beef.

The game might have been dreadfully boring, but at least it started one of the strangest feuds we’ll see in the NFL this season.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab