Jon Kitna is riding off into the Texas sunset.
The NFL veteran, long associated with the Cowboys and Texas football has taken on a new head coaching position, as FootballScoop is reporting that he's on his way back to the Cincinnati area to take on the helm of Lakota East High School's program.
Kitana spent the past three years at Burleson High School, about a 45-minute drive away from his final of four NFL stops in a playing career that began as an undrafted free agent in Central Washington in 1996. He served as a backup to Tony Romo and came up big during the 2010 campaign when the starter missed a majority of the year due to a broken clavicle. Kitana posted a career-best 89.2 passer rating over nine starts, posting a 4-5 record.
Though Kitna retired after the 2011 season, he immediately entered the coaching ranks, starting at Lincoln High School near Tacoma, WA. He briefly came out of retirement during the final week of 2013 to serve as an emergency backup to Kyle Orton and donated his game salary to Lincoln afterward. Kitna returned to Texas in 2015, coaching Waxahachie High School for three seasons before moving on to Phoenix's Brophy College Preparatory. Before accepting the Burleson job, Kitna served as the Cowboys' quarterbacks coach in 2019.
In moving on to Lakota East, Kitna will enjoy a return to the Cincinnati area, having played five seasons with the Bengals. He earned the 2003 Comeback Player of the Year Award throwing a career-best 26 touchdown passes and guiding the Bengals to their first non-losing season since 1996.
Kitna's son Jamison is currently still enrolled at Burleson and reportedly has offers from Baylor, Houston, North Texas, Texas-San Antonio, and Texas Tech. His other son Jalen was enrolled at Florida but was dismissed due to child pornography charges.
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