Tight end Jason Witten will be retiring from the Dallas Cowboys and will be joining Monday Night Football (MNF) as an analyst, as per several sources. The announcement about eth retirement will be made at a news conference that will be held at 2 pm CT on Thursday. He will reportedly be taking the vacant seat of Jon Gruden on the MNF broadcasts.
Till now, Witten has wrestled about the decision by alternating almost hourly between taking the MNF job and playing for the Cowboys and marking a record 16th season, the sources said. Witten has informed Jerry Jones, the owner as well as general manager of Cowboys along with the team’s coach Jason Garrett about his decision.
As per sources, Witten leaned a lot on Jones to take a final decision and come to a conclusion. Witten, who will be turning 36 years old on Sunday, could not be reached out to get a response on the matter. Stephen Jones, the executive vice president, said on Wednesday that there was no timeline on when would Witten make a final decision.
As per sources, another network had approached Witten with an interesting offer which would allow him to continue playing and potentially retire in the year 2019. However, he chose to retire now and start a new phase of life after having one of the best runs in the franchise’s history.
Witten leaves the Cowboys as its all-time leader in consecutive games played, starts receiving yards and catches. In January when Witten played in his 11th Pro Bowl, he had tied up with Bob Lilly for the most time known in the history of the franchise. He stands behind Jerry Rice, Tony Gonzalez and Larry Fitzgerald at the fourth position in the NFL history in catches. Among the tight ends in the league’s history, it is only Gonzalez who has more receiving yards.
