‘SNL’ Parodies ‘Rudy’ With J.J. Watt in ‘Robbie’

Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt hosted SNL on Saturday night, making him the latest NFL player to grace the NBC soundstage. Given his success chasing down quarterbacks, it would be expected that football would be a prominent theme during the skits. This was certainly the case with one specific scene parodying the Sean Astin film, Rudy.

The football-themed skit featured the coach of a football team (Beck Bennett) trying to rally his troops for a playoff game against the Clemson Tigers. Several of the team members try to persuade the coach to let Robbie (Chris Redd) play despite being a member of the practice squad. However, Watt’s character, Riley, did not approve of this idea.

“F– no,” Watt yelled. “He f–ing sucks at football! You guys want Robbie to play in a playoff game. That is bats– crazy. We are going to lose!”

To prove his point about Robbie, Watt specifically mentioned several times that he had made the practice squad player defecate himself during team drills. He finished off the interaction by facing off with Robbie in a head-to-head drill. If the young football player could get past Watt, he would be eligible to play. If not, he would remain on the practice squad.

While SNL did receive criticism for relying on skits about Rudy and Frozen instead of mentioning the impeachment trials, Watt was praised for his comedic talents. There were certainly questions heading into the weekend about whether or not he could carry a skit, but Watt did just that with several moments. Launching Robbie across the locker room was one specific example.

Watt also drew praise for his role during the Madden 21 sketch. He was tasked with reading lines for his character in the upcoming video game. However, these lines portrayed the defensive end as someone that drops interceptions, cries about making bad plays, and picks on kids in wheelchairs. With each line read, Watt grew more and more uncomfortable.

Having Watt as the host should have been the perfect set-up for Sunday’s Big Game action, but the reviews for this SNL episode were fairly mixed. Although the three-time Defensive Player of the Year was viewed as one of the better aspects. Fans enjoyed his skits, especially the ones involving sex talks or trading “favors” for pizza. They just didn’t appreciate the lack of controversial topics.

Photo Credit: Jake Doolittle/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images