Cowboys tight end Jason Witten began his season with a lacerated spleen, and finished with a record.
But mostly, he’s glad he still has a chance at the postseason.
Witten caught his 103rd pass of the year in yesterday’s overtime loss to the Saints, breaking the single-season tight end record set by Tony Gonzalez (102) in 2004.
“It’s hard to enjoy that,” Witten said, via Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com. “Ten years playing obviously the goal is to get in position to try to compete for a championship, but it’s probably a little more sweet this year than any of the records just because of the way the season started for me and to feel like the bar gets raised higher and higher every year. To kind of answer that bell, it’s special. And nobody lost confidence in me and I didn’t lose confidence in myself. I’m sure it’s something I’ll look back on and say, ‘Boy, I’m glad I took that approach and it paid off for me.’
“It means a lot because there’s been so many great tight ends over the years that I’ve got respect for.”
Witten has one more chance to add to that record, next week against Washington, when they have a division title and a playoff berth on the line.