Jason Witten‘s NFL career appears to be over, but he’s certainly planning to stay in the public eye.
Witten will reportedly retire after 15 seasons as tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Witten is an 11-time Pro Bowl selection and played his entire career in Dallas, starting with the team in 2003. He will finish his career with more than 12,000 yards receiving and 68 career touchdowns and go down as one of the most reliable targets of an era where the tight tight end position was radically transformed by players like himself, Antonio Gates, Rob Gronkowski and Tony Gonzalez.
ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported Friday that Witten would hang them up and join ESPN as a broadcaster, essentially replacing Jon Gruden on ‘Monday Night Football.’
Jason Witten is planning to retire after 15 years to join ESPN's new Monday Night Football broadcast team as a lead analyst but will meet today with owner Jerry Jones before making his decision final, per sources.
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) April 27, 2018
The move to the broadcast booth might be a surprising one, but it’s not a shock that ESPN would look for a former player to fill the role. He becomes the second Cowboy in two years to retire and go directly into broadcasting on a national scale, following former Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo after he retired and went straight to CBS last year.
In what might be some alarming news for Cowboys fans, apparently Witten didn’t tell the Cowboys ahead of time that he was considering retirement.
Cowboys were not prepared for Jason Witten to retire. The irony is he blindsided them late in process like they did Dez Bryant. What will make you laugh will make you cry. He did what was best for him in terms of timing. It ain't personal its business.
— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) April 27, 2018
That might change the team’s draft plans as the event moves into its second day on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, but Witten appears to have made his mind up on his future: broadcasting.
