Jason Witten turns down request to come out of retirement, which is unfortunate for those who watch Monday Night Football

It’s no secret that a lot of people do not like the setup for Monday Night Football this season. Whether it’s criticism from the media or from viewers, it’s just simply not good for a variety of reasons. One such reason has been the insertion of former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten as an analyst.

The pieces were there. Witten was a top tight end who played for “America’s Team” and was popular with fans when he played. And since CBS struck lightning in a bottle with Tony Romo, maybe Romo’s favorite target would do the same for ESPN. That hasn’t happened and among many things to be critical about Monday Night Football, Witten is getting the bulk of that criticism.

While this obviously wasn’t his motive, Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett indirectly tried to help viewers out because according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Garrett tried to convince Witten to come out of retirement and help the Cowboys into the playoffs. Don’t get your hopes up, Witten turned down Garrett’s request and will remain in the MNF booth.

Dallas has struggled at the tight end position because of poor performance and injury, and Garrett was convinced that Witten could step right back in and become another asset on an offense that has come alive in recent weeks since the acquisition of wide receiver Amari Cooper.

Witten, however, ultimately is committed to the Monday Night Football booth and to his new craft as a broadcast analyst, according to sources.

All kidding aside, as much as I don’t personally care for Witten in the broadcasting booth, if he’s serious about making a career out of broadcasting, he needs to be all in. While coming back and helping out your former team through one more playoff run sounds great, it would take away from Witten’s future career, a career that not many people are that thrilled about in the first place. Even though we’ll be watching Witten in the booth for the rest of the season, he made the right decision to focus on broadcasting.

[ESPN]