The Houston Texans used their 2026 schedule release to bring back one of their most recognizable old faces, Brian Cushing, in a video built around his famously intense style.
The team posted the clip as “Cushing Reveals the 2026 Schedule,” and the framing made the joke obvious from the start: this was supposed to feel like Brian Cushing at full Brian Cushing volume.
J.J. Watt jumped in on the fun almost immediately, and the reaction clip gave the whole thing a second life.
In the Texans’ video, Watt watches Cushing’s schedule reveal, laughs at the suit, reacts to the whispering, and then lands on the line that makes the family connection impossible to miss:
“So you gotta understand, Brian’s my brother-in-law. So I see him every day. That’s just him in real life.”
The clip turns a normal schedule release into a family inside joke, which is exactly why it traveled so well.
The family tie behind the reaction
The reason Watt can call Cushing his brother-in-law is simple. Kealia Ohai Watt and Megan Cushing are sisters, and Megan is the older sister.
Brian Cushing is married to Megan, while J.J. Watt married Kealia in February 2020 after getting engaged in May 2019. People and other public profiles traced their relationship back to early 2016, when they met through Cushing.
That connection has been part of the Watt story for years. Kealia Ohai Watt was already a decorated soccer player before she became part of the Watt-Cushing family circle, and Brian Cushing’s place in the middle of that story made the whole thing feel more natural than forced.
The family tree has been public for a while, Cushing is married to Kealia’s older sister, which is how Watt and Cushing ended up as brothers-in-law instead of just ex-teammates.
J.J. Watt and Brian Cushing also go back to the Texans years. They were teammates in Houston through the 2010s, and the Texans’ own archives show them as part of the same defensive core across multiple seasons, including games where both were major pieces of the lineup.
The Texans later released Cushing in February 2018, ending his playing run with the club after nine seasons.
Why the video hit so hard
The schedule video worked because it played off exactly what Texans fans remember about Cushing, the energy, the edge, the slightly unhinged vibe that made him such a memorable linebacker in Houston.
The team even leaned into that reputation in the caption and video description, calling it “true Cushing fashion.”
Watt’s reaction lands because he is not pretending to discover a new side of him. He is basically confirming that the version fans saw on screen is the same version he sees at home.
That is also why the brother-in-law line matters more than a normal teammate joke. Watt is not reacting like a random former player seeing a funny team video.
He is reacting like family, and he says it plainly in the clip: “Brian’s my brother-in-law.” He follows that by explaining that Cushing acts like that every day, which turns the schedule-release bit into a pretty good snapshot of the family dynamic.
The broader family link starts with the Ohai sisters. Megan Ohai Cushing is the older sister, while Kealia Ohai Watt built her own athletic name in soccer before marrying J.J. Watt.
Public profiles and relationship timelines make the path clear: Kealia and J.J. were introduced through Brian Cushing, began dating in 2016, got engaged in 2019, and married in the Bahamas in 2020. That is the kind of background that makes a one-off Texans schedule video feel like more than a one-off.
Watt’s personal life has also continued to grow since then. He and Kealia now have two sons, first Koa James, born in October 2022, and then Niko Benjamin, born in June 2025.
That gives the brother-in-law joke a little more texture, because the family connection is not just about the past Texans years. It is still active now, and Watt’s reaction video made that obvious without needing any extra explanation.
The best part of the clip is how casual Watt makes the whole thing sound. He is laughing, he is teasing the suit, and he is basically saying the public version of Cushing is not much different from the private one.
That is the kind of line that gives a short Texans schedule release a bigger hook: old teammates, family ties, and a video that was funny enough on its own before Watt even got involved.
Houston gave Brian Cushing the spotlight. J.J. Watt gave it a family twist. And once the brother-in-law connection came back into the conversation, the whole video felt less like a simple schedule drop and more like a Texans-era reunion with a very personal punchline.
