No matter how much you try to tell yourself it doesn’t matter, when you’re at the doorstep of accomplishing something remarkable, you’re likely going to succumb to human nature and start caring. Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt doesn’t set goals for himself to hit certain sack totals, treating every play made as helping toward the greater goal, but even he acknowledged when he entered the finale with the chance to set the NFL sack record, he was invested.
And it didn’t help that there was some uncertainty going on. During the game, he was credited with only one sack, which was enough to tie the record, but he also had half a sack negated by penalty.