As he approaches a career milestone and a piece of NFL history, Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth has no plans of hanging up his cleats at the end of the season. He intends to keep playing as long as possible, Lindsey Thiry of ESPN.com notes.
When the 16-year veteran suits up for the Rams’ game against the Cardinals on Monday, Whitworth will become the first left tackle to start an NFL game at the age of 40. The game will come one day after his birthday and make him the only active player other than Tom Brady to be playing into his 40s.
A Bengals second-round pick in 2006, Whitworth played in Cincinnati for the first 11 years of his career. The four-time Pro Bowler and two-time All Pro has been with the Rams since 2017 and has consistently been one of the league’s pass protectors.
“To me, the only way that I would retire is there’d have to be a situation where either financially the Rams can’t afford me or there’s just some way where it doesn’t work out for the both of us for me to be back,” Whitworth said, via Thiry. “So that would really be the only scenario where I would ever really see me retiring.”
Whitworth is under contract through the 2022 season, when his cap hit rises from its current figure of $5.67M to $14.67M.
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