PHOTO: J.J. Watt thanks fan for painting of grandfather

Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt tweeted a very special thank you to a fan that sent him a painting of him and his grandfather on Tuesday.

Watt has spoken at length about how much his grandfather meant to him and his development as a person, and football player.

"I just tried to tell him how much we appreciate him," Watt said through tears in a recent ESPN feature. "He was always there. His dad was an alcoholic and he wasn't proud of the family name that he was handed down. So he worked his whole life to make his family name proud and to make it a name that meant something. So now, that's the one thing I remember him saying is how proud he was of what my brothers and I were able to do for our family name. So that's why we go out there and try to live our life the right way and work hard and do things the way we do things. Because we want to make our family proud."

Watt's grandfather died in February 2014.

"That's what I told him on the last day. When I was holding his hand. I told him, 'We're going to make your name proud.'"