“64 years old WHOOPS Steelers” – NFL fans react as Steelers defenders T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, and Alex Highsmith got schooled at pickleball
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T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Meg Burkardt, and Alex Highsmith
Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive stars T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, and Alex Highsmith got their butt handed to them by a 64-year-old grandmother at the North Park pickleball courts on Saturday.
The trio was out playing pickleball after finishing their minicamp earlier this week when they were joined by Meg Burkardt an attorney from Lawrenceville. The NFL stars were brutally defeated in pickleball by Burkardt who was totally oblivious of the fact that these were the Steelers’ defensive core.
“She taught us some lessons” – T.J. Watt says the trio was schooled by Meg Burkardt
Med Burkardt arrived at the North Park when she saw that a group of three young men was playing at her usual spot. She was two men playing a one-on-one game while the third sat and watched them play. So, she went ahead and said to the third guy, “Hey, do you want to take these guys on?” and that’s how their game started.
Burkardt was stunned when she saw people watching her play. She was into their fourth or fifth game when they started to wrap things up and that’s when people started coming up to the stars asking to click pictures with them. That’s when she realized she had stumbled into her “15 minutes of fame.” She soon came to the realization that she was crashing into Watt, Fitzpatrick, and Highsmith’s weekend plans and that these guys were the reigning defensive player of the year in the NFL, a two-time All-Pro safety, and a starting outside linebacker.
When Burkardt sent her picture with her new friends in the family chat her daughter Natalie posted it on Twitter. T.J. Watt shared the picture with the caption: “Meg was serving the HEAT. We had trouble all day.” Watt said via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “She taught us some lessons. She had a wicked serve with a lot of spin on it, so it made for a fun afternoon. She won when it counted. I don’t know how much Minkah actually did. She definitely carried the team.”
Burkardt was stunned upon learning the identity of her pals. At first glance, she could tell that these guys were athletic but figured that they might be marines or something similar. “It’s very exciting,” Burkardt said. “It was one of those surreal things that you get in your car to leave and you’re like, ‘I can’t believe that just happened.’”
Twitter poured in praises for Meg Burkardt
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Yash Karandekar
(1023 Articles Published)