Witt retires from NFL

By JASON JUNO

[email protected]

Bruce Crossing — Jake Witt has made memories the rest of us never will.

He heard his name called in the NFL Draft. He was an Indianapolis Colt for a year and a half. He was a pro athlete.

And now he’s saying goodbye to football.

The offensive tackle from Bruce Crossing didn’t make the Colts’ 53-man roster last week. And the next day, rather than taking one of the offers he received to join a practice squad, he announced his retirement from football, unwilling to risk his health for an uncertain future in a sport his heart wasn’t fully into anymore.

Normal life awaits Witt.

But what a ride his time as an NFL player was. And for that, Witt is grateful.

“I’m just super positive about the entire experience and super happy that it happened,” he said, “because I got to meet a lot of great people and make a lot of great memories that I’ll take with me for a lifetime. I’ll be able to say I was drafted by an NFL team and competed on an NFL field. And that’s just something cool I can take with me down the road.”

He had been thinking about it for some time, what to do if he didn’t quite make the active roster but was offered a spot on the practice squad. And he talked about it with those closest to him.

After the preseason ends, teams must cut their rosters down to a maximum of 53 players. It can then sign up to 16 on the practice squad. Those players practice with the team and can be called to the active roster when needed, or another team can even add them to their active roster.

But that’s no sure thing. Maybe a team eventually comes calling with a spot on the active roster, maybe they don’t. The pay and benefits are reduced while on the practice squad, but the injury and health-related risks are still there.

“My heart wasn’t into it enough for myself to be able to justify the potential long-term risks that it could have on me,” Witt said.

He said he has struggled for the better part of a year to find his heart in the sport of football.

“And in that league, you can’t be half in,” Witt said. “You have to be fully in, especially when it’s a dangerous sport mentally and physically.”

He said he’s at peace with moving on. No regrets.

“For me, it was the worry long term with the wear and tear on your body, especially in the head injury department,” Witt said. “Playing on the offensive and defensive line, you’re taking a car crash on every single play. It’s something being on practice squad I couldn’t justify.”

— — —

Witt has shined in whatever sport he took part in. He played Division II basketball at Michigan Tech before eventually switching to football at Northern Michigan. He started at tight end and then excelled on the offensive line, where NFL scouts noticed.

He announced his intention for the NFL Draft and made waves at his pro day. His size and athleticism for an offensive lineman were among the best ever recorded. It helped him overcome his limited time — just over one college season — at the position.

The Colts drafted him in the seventh round. His first season ended on the injured reserve thanks to a hip injury suffered early in training camp. He was back and better than ever this year, though, fighting to make a roster spot.

He entered his first preseason game for a couple of fourth-quarter series in a game broadcast nationally on the NFL Network. He saw much more action in the second game and graded favorably, enough to be highlighted in media reports.

He fell short of making the 53-man roster. But he still made an impression and had multiple practice squad offers.

“The last month for me was amazing,” Witt said. “Obviously everybody down there was super supportive and happy for me, being a guy that came off of IR and did well in preseason. With meetings with the coaches and the general manager, they said it was a tough decision as a guy they drafted a year ago to waive. It’s just the competition in that league is so high. But to be that guy that just misses the cut was tough for me, and tough for them to make that decision.

“At the end of the day, I’m super grateful for it and it gave me the opportunity to compete on an NFL field and have fun with it.”

He figured it would continue to be a process with perhaps a year or two on the practice squad before making an active roster.

“I do think down the road if I were to stick through with it, that I could be a player playing in the league,” Witt said. “For me that would be a great thing, but at the end of the day, I’m very happy with where I’m at and what I’ve done. I’m just very excited to go onto the next phase.”

He expects to be back in the area for a bit and then look for work long-term, possibly in the northern part of the Lower Peninsula.

He has a degree in management health and fitness. One of the top options on his list is to work in the outdoor field — he seems happiest with a fishing pole in his hand — perhaps working for the DNR or the forest service.

The community here has always supported him, he said, from his playing days at Ewen-Trout Creek to college to the Colts. He noticed the positive energy in the lead up to the NFL Draft and once he got drafted. He got many encouraging messages after getting injured.

“This past training camp when I was able to play and compete in preseason, be on national television for the fans and community back home to watch was super special to me,” Witt said. “I felt a lot of people were proud and happy to see a Yooper out on the field. I was super proud and happy to represent my community and the U.P. as a whole. I’m super proud and happy of where I came from. I think at the end of the day, the U.P. as a whole, especially the smaller communities like the ones that I came from, are just one of a kind as far as the support that they put out.”

That is led by his parents, Bill and Patti, and sister Gracie, who he said have been his biggest supporters all his life. After he was done at Northern, he figured his parents traveled nearly 40,000 miles to his games. A lot of the GLIAC games involve long-distance travel and they made it to every one of them.

He hopes he has been an inspiration to people of all ages, but especially younger people who have dreams of doing something big.

“Hopefully I can be an inspiration to show that you can do that regardless of where you’re from, especially our communities,” Witt said.

— — —

Witt made great strides on the field in his short time as a Colt, helping push through his inexperience at the position.

“Coach (Tony) Sparano and coach (Chris) Watt and especially my teammates down there helped me along and honed my skills, especially in stuff that I needed to work on,” Witt said of the Colts’ offensive line coach and one of Sparano’s assistants. “They were able to strengthen my strengths and let me play to those strengths.

“In pass protection, obviously I can move well having my basketball background, which is a big attribute they looked at me on the football field for. They helped me hone in my pass protection skills and I think that played a big part in my success … I guess you could say my coaches’ ability to hone my skills of being an athlete into being a good pass protector and that’s where I graded my highest in the preseason games was in pass protection. I think it’s just natural coming from my past and being a basketball player and a tight end.”

He’ll be rooting for the Colts this season.

“I’m always going to be a Colt,” Witt said. “They drafted me and took a chance on me. I left on fantastic terms with everybody there. I’m just super grateful to have been part of such an amazing organization. For the rest of my life, I’ll always be a Colts’ supporter and a Colts’ fan. I’m going to be watching them at every chance I get.”

Quarterback Anthony Richardson returns this season and the Colts have high hopes after just missing the playoffs last year without him. He missed much of his rookie season due to injury.

Witt has seen the continuity the team has with players, personnell and the playbooks on both sides of the ball along with the injured players they have coming back.

“I think there’s no reason they can’t be, at minimum winning, the division and I think that’s the best basement for them,” Witt said. “Obviously they can do bigger things, but I think winning the division is a good starting point. That’s the lowest point of what that team can achieve. They have so many great athletes and players, a great offensive line and defensive line and skill position players, coaching, there’s no reason they can’t obviously win it all. But at the very basement for them, I think, is winning the division and going from there.”

— — —

One thing Witt can always do is fire up his video game console and be himself in the Madden football games. He has been on there the last two years.

“It was pretty cool to be able to play as myself and have people send me videos of them playing with me in the game,” Witt said. “I’m able to pick that game up now and play it down the road. I’ll always forever be in that game, which is pretty surreal to think about.”

Kind of like his whole experience, where a kid from Bruce Crossing, like he called himself, was selected in the NFL Draft.