Jason Witten’s Career Summed Up in One Speech

At Jason Witten’s retirement ceremony, head coach Jason Garrett could barely hold back the tears recalling a story about the retiring tight end.

.@JasonWitten was asked to give a presentation on his signature play. And it brought his head coach to tears. pic.twitter.com/LVKnvgrxx0 — NFL (@NFL) May 10, 2018

Garrett tells of his favorite Witten moment. Each player was asked to deliver a presentation on one of their plays. The exercise was meant for the player to explain what he saw, how he reacted and why it was successful.

The former Vol picked out one of his most clutch plays: a converted 4th and 6 late in the fourth quarter in the Cowboys last playoff win against the Detroit Lions.

The play call was Y option. As the Cowboys coach points out, Jason Witten probably had over half of his catches on this play. It’s the simple route where Witten runs about seven yards down the field and either cuts to the inside or outside.

In this particular play, Witten comes up clutch. Instead of taking it to the outside, where Garrett says the play should have gone, number 82 fakes to the outside, cuts inside and comes up with a big first down to set up the game winning touchdown.

It would have been an easy play to highlight. Instead, Garrett starts to get emotional as he recalls Witten’s presentation. In his film breakdown, he started with a focus on Dez Bryant and points out that this defense was called to try to double team Dez. He points out the offensive line protection. He urges the team to look at the way Romo slides to make a perfect throw.

Jason Garrett had to stop and compose himself as he was talking before driving home his main point. That Jason Witten was always about the team, first and foremost.

As he retires and moves to the Monday Night Football booth, the Cowboys will have to find another locker room leader to replace him. It’s going to be tough.