How James Trafford’s incredible form had Burnley owner J.J. Watt panicking over ‘ridiculous’ promise

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Burnley are very lucky to have a goalkeeper like James Trafford between the sticks, but the club’s high-profile owner, JJ Watt, will have been cursing him at one stage this season.

It’s been a brilliant season for Burnley so far, with Scott Parker getting the Clarets well-organised and being very difficult to beat.

With eight games to go in the final run-in, Burnley are third in the Championship table and just two points behind Sheffield United and Leeds United.

When you’re chasing a title, it helps to have a goalkeeper like James Trafford in the team. It also helps to have a very rich owner like JJ Watt, but the Burnley head honcho was close to regretting one big decision.

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JJ Watt almost came out of retirement thanks to James Trafford

In an in-depth interview with BBC Sport, former NFL star Watt explained how Trafford’s record-breaking form almost ended up dragging the Burnley owner out of retirement.

Turns out, Watt had promised Trafford that, if he could keep his run of clean sheets going until the end of the season, he would return to the NFL and join Trafford’s favourite team, the Cincinnati Bengals.

At that point, Trafford had 12 clean sheets in the bag, but his momentum was halted by Cardiff City, who bagged in a 2-1 defeat to Burnley earlier in March.

Watt said: “It started to get picked up really big in America once he hit 12, and they put up a graphic that showed Manchester United had hit 14.

“It was on every single show, so my wife came in and said, ‘you’re not serious about this are you?’ I said, ‘if he does 24 matches in a row, that will truly be one of the greatest performances in the history of sport and I would be ridiculous not to honour my side of it’.

“So I had been training slightly differently for about three weeks leading up to the goal, and I did take a day off after they [Cardiff] scored that goal.”

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James Trafford has been key to Burnley’s success this season

Simply put, James Trafford is one of the best players in the Championship, and it’s hard to argue against him being the very best goalkeeper in the division.

He has conceded just 11 goals in 37 games this season, with a massive 26 clean sheets in the 2024/25 campaign so far.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LeedsLeeds	38	23	11	4	76	25	51	80
2	Sheff UtdSheffield Utd	38	25	7	6	53	28	25	80
3	BurnleyBurnley	38	21	15	2	52	11	41	78
4	SunderlandSunderland	38	19	12	7	55	37	18	69

Pundits have cited Trafford as a difference-maker for Burnley, and claimed he has already, and could still, have a big say in the title race this year.

That solid defence, which is built around Trafford, has been crucial to Burnley’s relentless march this season. What’s worrying for their rivals is the fact that Burnley are now firing in attack, too.

Whether we see Burnley win the league, go up in second, or have to fight it out in the play-offs remains to be seen. But one thing’s for sure, Trafford will be a key figure in whatever happens.