“They were burning so many calories,” said Connie, 45, a retired vice president for a building-inspection company. “It wasn’t to try to get them to the N.F.L. or next level. It was just trying to take care of them.”

If the brothers were a boy band, J. J. would be the leader, T. J. would be the one who gets some of the best solos and Derek would be the mischievous cult favorite.

Or the manager.

“Derek is very smart, very calculated, very diligent,” J. J. said of his brother, a marketing major. “One of those guys that sticks to his schedule. He’s probably the smartest of us three.”

Connie recalled that Derek would wake up on Saturdays and do homework while his brothers watched cartoons. On cruises (the family still takes one every year, even though one Watt has become a famous athlete), J. J. and T. J. tend to head to the cabin after dinner while Derek goes to find the people he met during the day.

John and J. J. said T. J. is shy. J. J. also described T. J. as nostalgic and goofy.

“J. J. and T. .J. are alike in a lot of ways — in their personalities, in their body frames,” said Mike Lecher, a defensive coach at Pewaukee High who had all three Watt boys as well as their father in his charge at one time or another.

John and Connie live in the same yellow Victorian they moved into a dozen years ago so they did not have to drive J. J. across town to 6 a.m. football practices. Proximity remains important. Lecher said he recently saw J. J. emerge from the Pewaukee High weight room around 5 a.m.; he had a golf tournament in Madison to attend later in the day.

J. J.’s focus on conditioning and improvement is well known. His brothers share it, and by several accounts, that traces back to their father.