Jason Witten insists he didn’t leave his shaky turn in the broadcast booth for the familiarity of the playing field due to the criticism he received over his rookie year as ESPN’s lead analyst for “Monday Night Football.”
But the once-again Cowboys tight end admits he heard and read many of the critiques aimed at his broadcast-booth debut, and he was stung by them.
“I wasn’t immune to it. It sucked going through it, at times,” Witten said on Ryen Russillo’s “Dual Threat” podcast. “Once the narrative formed, I knew it was going to be a long-game approach.
“I thought as the season unfolded, when (broadcast teammate Booger McFarland) moved up to the booth, I thought we had two or three really good games and we were starting to kind of hit our stride. I didn’t make this decision [to return to the Cowboys] off of the noise and the criticism. … It was really just, ‘I want to play.’ The scoreboard matters, and I want to be a part of that.”
The 36-year-old Witten, an 11-time Pro Bowler who ranks fourth on the NFL’s all-time receptions list with 1,152, signed a one-year deal worth $4.25 million to return to Dallas for his 16th NFL season.
Despite the criticism, he likely will give broadcasting another shot once his playing career finally ends.
“I’d check my texts and I’d found out I was sick, or somebody died in my family. ‘Hey, praying for you’, ‘Keep your head up!’ I’m like, my gosh, it wasn’t that bad!” Witten said.
“I said ‘pull a rabbit out of his head’ instead of ‘rabbit out of his hat.’ You guys knew what I meant, right? I screwed up, but it wasn’t the end of the world, in my opinion.”