Jason Witten got choked up as he meandered back and forth between dissecting Week 17’s 47-16 win over Washington, reflecting on his comeback season after a year of retirement, and summarizing his 16 years playing in Dallas. The 11-time Pro Bowler says he hasn’t made up his mind about whether he will return for another season as a Cowboy. But after the 2019 finale, his teammates, his coaches, and even Witten himself spoke lovingly about lessons learned and legacies left over the 37-year-old’s Hall of Fame career. They spoke in reverent tones. It was almost as if it were a eulogy. They even used past tense.
Witten says he doesn’t know. But he sure sounds like a Cowboy who’s saddling up for a ride off into the sunset. Again.
“We’ll have to see,” Witten told the press after Sunday’s win. “There’s a lot of moving parts, I think, that we all know. Anytime that a season ends and you’re at this point in your career, you’ve got to take time. The organization has to make a decision; you have to make a decision on what you want to do. I know I left everything I had out there. And when you empty the bucket like that, like I tried to do every single day, that takes a lot out of you, takes a lot out of your family. But their support was unwavering every step of the way: ‘Have a chance and go compete.’ Being out there on the field in critical moments, maybe it was a little bit of a different role, but damn, I sure enjoyed it.”
Witten finished the day with an unremarkable 4 receptions and 24 yards to add to his mind-boggling lifetime totals: 1,215 catches for 12,977 yards and 72 touchdowns. He played in 255 of 265 games over 16 seasons, missing just one contest in his 2003 campaign because he had had three plates surgically inserted into his jaw after breaking it in a game against Arizona as a rookie. Witten owns the franchise records for receptions and receiving yards, and he sits 19th on the league’s all-time leaderboard for receiving yardage.
With those astounding stats, Witten’s place in football history was already secured when he retired in April 2018 to take a broadcasting gig with ESPN’s Monday Night Football crew. Rejoining the Cowboys in 2019 didn’t add monster numbers to his resume, but it sure enhanced his legendary status in the annals of America’s Team.
“It was a heck of a year for me to be able to come back, play this game,” Witten said. “I was proud of the way I played all year. It’s never perfect; there’s always plays that I want to have back. But to be a part of this team, be one of the 53, in this franchise, and have an opportunity to compete for a division, have a chance to go to the playoffs, that was something that motivated me every day when I woke up to go to work: to make myself better, make this football team better, to make my teammates better. Those young guys, it was great to work with them every day and be a mentor to them. We came up short, but it’s that group of guys. It’s a show-me game. It’s a hard game. We had our opportunities, but unfortunately, we didn’t get them. But I’ll take a few days, figure out what’s next. But as I said to you guys a year ago when I retired: to have the opportunity for 16 seasons to put on that helmet and run on that field with the star on your helmet, that’s an opportunity of a lifetime.”
It was originally thought that Witten’s return might be in a reduced role. Young tight ends Blake Jarwin and Dalton Schultz had played well in the year of Witten’s absence; maybe the team would look to use Witten as a sort of player-coach to help them in their development. That proved to not be the case; the Tennessee alum’s 2019 stats were nearly identical to his 2017 stat line.
“There wasn’t any moment this season- through training camp, through the offseason, in games, in practice- that I felt I couldn’t win and do my job at the level I’ve always done it,” Witten offered. “This is a different offense than in ’07 [the most prolific season- 1,145 yards- by a tight end in club history]. A different offense in 2012, when I caught 110 passes. It’s not always apples-to-apples when you start comparing, because this is a different system. It really is, even though there are a lot of similarities still around with the scheme. So I don’t measure it on those things, even though I think on the surface, it’s easy to look at production from a stat line and probably say it wasn’t.”
It wouldn’t really be a drop in production that convinces Witten to walk away a second time, but rather the missed opportunity of what he might have seen as his last best chance to reach the ever-elusive Super Bowl. That’s why he came back, not to pad his stats. Starting over with another offseason, another training camp, another coach? That might finally be too much for the big tight end.
Man, Jason Witten walking around the stadium high-fiving fans and soaking up the moment.
Really feels like a guy who’s about to say goodbye one final time.
— Mike Leslie (@MikeLeslieWFAA) December 30, 2019
“One of the best decisions I made was listening to to my gut to come back and play. I’m sure that decision can be picked apart a million different ways, but I’m really proud of the way I played. I love this game. This game’s given so much to me.”
And Witten’s given a great deal back. He’s been a leader both on and off the field, having won the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2012.
He is unquestionably one of the true leaders of the team, looked up to by all the other players on the roster. And they all seemed to know that Sunday’s win over Washington may well have marked the end of an era.
“Jason Witten is the ultimate pro,” running back Ezekiel Elliott said of No. 82. “I watched the guy since I started playing football; he’s played in the league as long as I’ve been playing football, period. He’s one hell of a player. One hell of a man. Hell of a father, hell of a husband, hell of a teammate, and obviously, one of the greatest tight ends ever. Every day he comes into work, he leaves it all. Special dude.”
“He’s a legend. He’s smart,” wideout Michael Gallup told media members on Sunday. “He does everything the right way. That’s just what I want to get to, hopefully if I stay in the league as long as he did. He’s great leader. He’s a great dude. He was really the hype man in the huddle; a lot of people didn’t even know that. But he’s someone that you want on your football team. We should all strive to be like Jason Witten.”
Quarterback Dak Prescott was asked how much Witten’s return has meant to his own progress.
“So much,” the fourth-year passer said from the podium in his postgame address. “The disappointing part is you’ll never get to play with some of these people again. And who knows if that’s what it is for Witt, but he’s meant everything to me. Everything as a leader, someone I can look up to on the field, off the field. Somebody, ever since I was a little boy, who’s worn the star the right way, and I hope I can do that throughout my career.”
Prescott choked up as he said that last part. And he wasn’t the only Cowboys connection who let his emotions show when talking about the player they call Big Witt.
“You know, we had a good hug in the locker room afterward,” head coach Jason Garrett relayed in his postgame remarks, stopping himself from elaborating, but clearly touched as he spoke. “Witt’s a special, special guy.”
Even the guy whose playing time has taken the biggest hit spoke glowingly of his mentor.
“He’s going to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” backup tight end Blake Jarwin told reporters, “and he deserves every bit of that recognition. I can’t be any more appreciative. The guy means the world to me and what he did for me.”
But not even the other guys in the tight end rotation know what’s going to happen moving forward.
“I’m not sure what Witt’s decision is, but I respect it either way,” Jarwin said. “If he’s back, great. It gives me another year to learn under the guy. But like I said, I think I’m ready. It goes back to work. I’m going to put a lot of things up on a big whiteboard in my room and start chipping away come time to start training again.”
That sounds like something Witten would do.
And that’s the part that may make up Witten’s mind for him. The grind. He’s long repeated his mantra that “the secret’s in the dirt,” a testament to his uncompromising work ethic. But Father Time catches up to everyone. And his tackle becomes gradually harder to break. Witten knows just how difficult it was to get himself back on the field for what was ostensibly one last ride in 2019.
“I’m not naive enough to think at 37 I’m the same player I was at 25. But I worked really hard. The coaching staff, the trainers, the strength staff, all the sacrifices and work they’ve put in, I felt like there wasn’t a game where I showed up that I couldn’t make plays to help this team. I had mistakes, too. It wasn’t perfect. But they weren’t perfect in 2007, either. That’s what makes it hard.”
Witten himself fought back tears as he reflected on a career that was filled with big plays, big games, and big stats. But what hit him the hardest was thinking about the big goal that has gone unrealized.
“If this is the end, I’m really proud of how I played today and hold my head up high. But it’s never about that. It’s never about a catch or 1,200 catches. It’s about winning. And to not have that opportunity to hold up a trophy, to bring that to the Jones family, to bring that back to Dallas, you know? It’s hard.”
Witten was even asked to comment on his own legacy, how he hoped he would be remembered. After all, not many people get the chance to write their own eulogy.
The moment was a lot like this last chapter of Witten’s amazing career. It looked like he was going to bow out… but then came back to give it his best shot.
“My legacy? That’s for other people to talk about, but… ‘A guy that brought it every single day, he was prepared, he loved the game, he cherished the opportunity, and he was never going to be outworked.’ And that’s how I tried to approach it.”