LISTEN: Jason Witten candidly tells Dan Patrick what brought him back to playing in the NFL
By Keith Farner
Published:
Former Tennessee TE Jason Witten made a unique job change this offseason when he left the Monday Night Football booth to return to the NFL and play for the Dallas Cowboys. During a segment on the Dan Patrick Show, Witten candidly described what brought him back to the field.
Patrick asked Witten if he would still be playing again following his retirement if he had been more successful as a broadcaster.
“I think I’d be playing still,” Witten said. “I knew fairly early, and that’s not a knock at that, but I felt a strong desire and fire that I had to go play. Did I make the right decision to play again? If I didn’t have the opportunity to play again, you could say it was wrong. But I’m better, not only as a player, but as a person, through that experience. Go through some adversity, you want to get humbled and you survive that year … I’m appreciative of that.”
Witten added that he didn’t think you’re more alive than when you’re playing the game you love.
“It was always kind of pulling on me,” Witten said.
The example Witten used that put him over the top was when he called the Kansas City Chiefs-Los Angeles Rams game last year and how exciting it was.
“You finish the game, I didn’t play in the game, I didn’t help the team win,” Witten said. “We didn’t screw up the broadcast too bad. I wanted that feeling, I wanted to be part of a team, I wanted to go out and play and experience what winning and losing matters.”
DP: “If you had been more well received, would you be playing football again, or would you have stayed in MNF booth?”@JasonWitten: “I think I would be playing still…there was a strong desire and fire that I still had to go play.” pic.twitter.com/UI0v8U7WT5
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) September 10, 2019
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
