Jason Witten hasn't made his “Monday Night Football” debut yet, but he's already contributing to ESPN as a writer. This morning, an opinion piece was published in which the former Dallas Cowboys tight end discussed the dangers of social media for the current era of NFL players.
Witten, who retired from football last May after 15 seasons, will be a commentator on ESPN's football flagship this season. Evidently, his employment with “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” will involve more than just talking on Monday nights.
Jason was able to watch the rise of social media use over his career. His first season in the NFL was 2003, and Facebook was started a year later. Twitter wasn't founded until 2006.
You can view Witten's full article here:
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/24201240/how-twitter-become-nfl-locker-room-poison
Jason's renowned leadership qualities, and the mentality that drove him to a Hall-of-Fame-worthy career, are obvious just from reading. His concern for fellow athletes, the league-wide locker room brotherhood, is obvious.
While the entire article is worth your time, I found this paragraph particularly strong.
“The best players in the league block that out. The mental focus it takes to compete against the best players in the world is not easy to maintain. Developing mental toughness is a learned trait, and if you can't develop it in your pursuit of success, you likely won't last in any competitive line of work for more than a cup of coffee.”
If you watch the talking heads on ESPN and NFL Network, you will often hear guys talk about being “the best.” Many times, they were never the best at their position. Some of them never even played.
But when Jason Witten speaks, any player who strives for greatness would do well to listen.
And if you found this article via our Facebook page or Twitter….. well…….
