Andrew Whitworth will go down as one of the Rams’ best free-agent signings ever. He joined Los Angeles in 2017 after a successful career with the Bengals, but one that lacked a single playoff win in 11 seasons. With the Rams, Whitworth was a Pro Bowler, first-team All-Pro, Super Bowl champion and winner of the 2021 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award – one of the most prestigious honors in the NFL.
Whitworth has a resume that warrants Hall of Fame consideration, but he’s not someone who thinks much about whether he’ll make it to Canton one day. He told D’Marco Farr that he doesn’t think about his candidacy much.
“I don’t. I really don’t,” he said. “Obviously, if you sat there and said, ‘Hey, let’s have an argument about why you belong.’ Yeah, I think there’s plenty of things that I did that haven’t been done and not only just at the offensive line position. I think Sean (McVay) said this when I retired. I forget the statistic. But it’s like the amount of games I started, won a Walter Payton Man of the Year trophy and a Super Bowl, there’s only three people in NFL history that have accomplished that. I think it’s me, Peyton (Manning) and Eli (Manning). You’re in rare, rare – like, a lot of those things put you in rare positions.”
One record Whitworth wishes he had broken during his playing days was the one held by Jeff Saturday for the most career wins by an offensive lineman. Whitworth came up one win short, which had him feeling last year like he wishes he would’ve gone out for one or two more games.
“Last year, as good as I felt, there was a couple times where I was like, ‘Dangit, I should go back out for a couple games because I did end my career one game short of the winningest O-lineman ever.’ Jeff Saturday holds that. He’s got one more win than me,” he continued. So you never know, I may try to suit up this fall. No, that’s not happening.”
Whitworth knows he’s got the resume to potentially make it to the Hall of Fame, and he could make his case for Canton, but he’s not interested in doing that. He’s more focused on giving back.
“It’s like, yeah, could I argue it? But I don’t really want to,” he said. “I think I got everything out of this game that I could ever dream or ever want, and I can’t wait to keep giving back to it. There are so many guys that I get to mentor and lean on, and to me, that’s what I think about right now. What can I give back to the game and help some other guy get to where he wants to get and reach his dream.”
