Sports British Columbia

Real Salt Lake apologizes after JJ Watt calls them out for not identifying his wife Kealia, a former NWSL player

Kealia Watt played eight seasons in the NWSL and grew up not far from Salt Lake City.

Real Salt Lake apologizes after JJ Watt calls them out for not identifying his wife Kealia, a former NWSL player
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Kealia Watt played eight seasons in the NWSL and grew up not far from Salt Lake City.

Real Salt Lake welcomed NFL great JJ Watt and former NWSL player Kealia Watt to a game on Wednesday. Just not necessarily by name. The MLS squad found itself apologizing a day later after JJ called them out for only identifying him in a tweet welcoming the family, despite a) Kealia being the one who professionally played the sport in question; and b) growing up in nearby Draper, Utah.

JJ listed his wife's accomplishments as "probably worth a mention." Four hours after Watt's tweet, which did not go unnoticed by the rest of the internet, Real Salt Lake apologized for the "honest mistake" and proceeded to reel off a two-paragraph bio about Kealia's soccer career. That career included four Utah state championships in high school, a national title at North Carolina and eight NWSL seasons between the Houston Dash and Chicago Red Stars.

Kealia now works as an analyst for Amazon Prime Video. The couple also owns a minority stake in EFL Championship club Burnley. Real Salt Lake defeated Burnley, 4-1, in Thursday's exhibition match.

Published
Jul 16, 2026
Updated
Jul 16, 2026
Source
Yahoo! News
Category
Sports
Read time
1 min
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SectionSports
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SourceYahoo! News
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PublishedJul 16, 2026
UpdatedJul 16, 2026

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PublishedJul 16, 2026, 4:52 PMThis story was published by BC Post.
ImportedJul 16, 2026, 6:01 PMThe item entered the BC Post source pipeline.
UpdatedJul 16, 2026, 6:01 PMThe article record or local context was updated.
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Yahoo! News Published Jul 16, 2026 Imported Jul 16, 2026
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Yahoo! News Jul 16, 2026
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