Move over, Tony Romo. Another Dallas Cowboys player is coming to TV.
Tight end Jason Witten has decided to retire and will join ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcasts, he announced in a news conference Thursday afternoon.
With Jon Gruden’s departure from the “Monday Night Football” booth to coach the Raiders, Witten’s arrival means a reboot for the program. ESPN already replaced play-by-play man Sean McDonough with longtime college announcer Joe Tessitore for the 2018 season.
Witten, who turns 36 on Sunday, had been mulling his decision over the past week, and he follows in the footsteps of his longtime quarterback, Tony Romo, who retired last year and immediately joined CBS’s top NFL broadcasting team. He received high praise for his first season on the job, curbing the pain of retiring without a Super Bowl, something Witten said weighed on him, too.
“The hardest part of that decision is knowing I would not get to hand you that Lombardi Trophy,” a crying Witten told Cowboys owner Jerry Jones during his news conference.
“I never wanted this day to come, but it does come for all of us,” Witten added. “My mind-set used to be, they’d have to drag me off the field, and I was all right with that.”
Cowboys Coach Jason Garrett called him “one of the best and most complete tight ends to ever play this game.” Former coach Bill Parcells said Witten was a surefire hall of famer, in a tribute video that preceded the news conference.
Dallas players and staff greeted the tight end at the front door of The Star, the team’s headquarters in Frisco, Texas, where he entered the facility to a rousing round of applause. As Witten shook hands, he walked over the building’s iconic marble-engraved floor, for which Jones solicited all-time Cowboy greats to provide inspirational quotes for future generations of football players.
Witten stepped over his own quote — “Some succeed because they are destined. Some succeed because they are determined” — as he shook hands and hugged quarterback Dak Prescott.
“I was never the most talented. Never the flashiest. I relied on grit,” Witten said. “Other players may have been more talented, but I assure you, nobody was going to outwork me.”
ESPN2 carried the ceremony live until it ran into the time slot of “SportsNation” at 4 p.m.
Romo told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram last week he thinks Witten will do well in the booth, following the legacy of past Dallas greats such as Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, Daryl Johnston, Darren Woodson, Don Meredith and Jimmy Johnson.
Witten, who missed only one game in his 15-year career, finished with 1,152 receptions (fourth behind Jerry Rice, Tony Gonzalez and Larry Fitzgerald). He is the team’s all-time leader in receiving yards with 12,448 and is third all-time on the Cowboys with 68 touchdown catches.
“His humility and his dependability are unmatched,” Jones said, wiping away tears. “You’re leaving with our hearts, and we’re with you.”
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