Jadeveon Clowney enjoys month of firsts, including fatherhood

Jadeveon Clowney notched an important milestone last month, and it was not his first sack as an NFL player.

Clowney, the former South Carolina defensive end who was selected No. 1 overall by the Houston Texans two years ago, saw his first child born on Oct. 19 – a son named Jahlil.

“Now you’ve got something to worry about besides yourself,” Clowney said. “I worry about what is going on with him now. It’s like I have to go check on him, I have to get home and see what he’s got going on.

“Watching him grow is the thing I get the most joy out of.”

The nighttime noises? Not as joyful.

“That ain’t me,” Clowney said of his son’s nighttime feedings. “I go upstairs and sleep, tell my mom to handle that. In the daytime, he sleeps all day. He’s got his days and nights mixed up now. We are trying to change that. Nine o’clock, I’m asleep.”

Clowney needs his rest for his day job. He and the Texans (2-5) will be trying to turn around a disappointing season on Sunday against Tennessee in NRG Stadium at 1 p.m.

The Rock Hill native is coming off his best game as a professional. In addition to his first sack, he had a career-high eight tackles in a 44-26 loss to Miami. It was a big step for Clowney, who played in only four games last year because of injury and already missed a game this year with an ankle injury.

“I think he’s getting better. I really do,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said. “This guy is a disruptive player. He’s basically a rookie because he didn’t play a whole lot last year due to injury. He’s a guy that will get better and better the more he plays. I think you saw that at times, especially in the second half of the game last week.”

Clowney has 20 tackles, four tackles-for-loss, three quarterback hurries and three passes defended from his outside linebacker position this season. He agrees with O’Brien’s assessment that he’s essentially a first-year player because of all the time he missed last year.

“I just know there is a lot more to the game than I am doing right now,” he said. “I am just working on everything. I ask guys every day, ‘How do you do that?’ Or, ‘How do you do this?’”

“Get the rookie out of me,” Clowney said he tells his teammates, particularly veteran linebacker Brian Cushing.

Houston cornerback Johnathan Joseph, a fellow Gamecock, can’t tell Clowney much about playing linebacker, but he can provide a lot of insight into the professional life, which the 10-year NFL vet tries to do whenever he can.

“He has handled (the injuries) the only way I think you can in this league and that’s put your nose down and continue to grind,” Joseph said. “I was a first round pick, but I wasn’t the No. 1 overall pick so there is a type of pressure you face being in that position. I definitely try to be there and available anytime he wants to talk about anything.”

Clowney’s sack last week came when the Texans were trailing the Dolphins 41-0, which took a lot of shine off the accomplishment, he said.

“I was like, ‘This is the worst time to get a sack,’ but I was happy about it,” he said. “It kind of wasn’t a big deal.”

Texans star defensive lineman J.J. Watt didn’t celebrate Clowney’s first sack too much either.

“You’re expected to get sacks when you play in this defense. That’s your job,” Watt said. “Just got to continue to make strides. You have to continue to get better and continue to improve. Whatever he can do to continue to excel as a player and go out there and do the things that he’s expected to do, that’s what we expect.”

Clowney, who had 24 sacks in three seasons at South Carolina, expects improvement from himself as well.

“If I am healthy, I can do what I want to do,” he said. “I am very far off right now. I am just going to keep doing everything I can.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 11:16 PM with the headline "Jadeveon Clowney enjoys month of firsts, including fatherhood."