PHOENIX — A young journalist from Houston is celebrating a huge exclusive interview. He became the first person to talk with Arizona Cardinals' defensive end since his shoulder injury, suffered against the Houston Texans on October 24th.
The young man's name is Maanav Gupta. The 18-year-old aspiring sports broadcaster runs "Maanav's Sports Talk," a YouTube channel where he interviews some of the biggest names in Houston sports, including Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, Texans play-by-play commentator Marc Vandermeer, makes picks for NFL games, and much more.
Yesterday, he released one of his biggest interviews yet, a more than 16-minute Zoom interview with former Texans and current Cardinals star, J.J. Watt.
Watt has kept a low profile since his injury back in October. He is supposed to be out for the season, but he and the Cardinals keep dropping hints that he could be back for the playoffs.
12 News caught Watt treating a goal post like a punching bag before the Cardinals Monday Night Football game against the Los Angeles Rams.
But, he told Gupta his recovery is going "really well."
"It's going much better than I think we could have hoped or expected for it to go at this time," Watt said. "I'm feeling really good, I'm doing a lot of stuff to try and push it as hard as I can to smartly and safely get back as fast as I can."
For Gupta, getting this scoop has been extremely exciting.
"It's honestly just amazing. It's been crazy today, honestly," Gupta said when asked what it has been like since he released his interview with Watt.
It has been quoted by professional journalists all over the Internet, including by ProFootballTalk, NFL.com, and AZCardinals.com.
Gupta reaches out to all of his guests on Twitter and when the cameras turn on, he knows exactly what to say.
"It's easy to stumble over your words or kind of get lost in your train of thought, you haven't done any of that," Watt said when complimenting Gupta. "You're killing it! You're doing great."
"That really boosts my confidence (and) really motivates me to keep going," Gupta told 12 Sports. "If he thinks I'm doing great then I think I'm doing something right."
Gupta grew up watching sports. In high school, his family and friends convinced him to put all of his knowledge into a blog.
"And I started writing about NFL predictions and basketball and baseball and then a couple months later, I decided, why not come on camera and talk about it, so I started my YouTube channel."
That was in 2019. More than 200 episodes later, he has interviewed some of the biggest names in sports, including Watt, Altuve, and the NFL Network's Rich Eisen.
"This is just honestly the beginning for me and I just want to keep going," Gupta said.
Gupta loves shining the spotlight on others, but he has his own story. He battles Muscular Dystrophy. He is not able to climb stairs or run, but he's got the gift of gab.
"I think just having a sports talk YouTube channel and interviewing some of my favorite star players, really it just keeps me going and just keeps me motivated for the future," Gupta said. "It doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't really matter what you're going through, you can still accomplish your dreams. And like J.J. Watt's Twitter bio says 'Dream Big. Work Hard.' That's really something that anybody can do in their life. You can do it because I'm doing it right now."
You can see all of Gupta's interviews on his YouTube channel by clicking here.