There's no questioning Jason Witten's toughness. Along with playing through a broken jaw and a broken rib, the Dallas Cowboys tight end has run halfway down the field during a game without a helmet on.
So it probably doesn't surprise anyone in the Cowboys organization that Witten, who is recovering from a lacerated spleen, wants to play in Wednesday night's season-opener against the New York Giants so badly that he reportedly is willing to sign a waiver to do so.
According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, Witten has informed the team he is willing to sign a medical waiver that would not hold the Cowboys or team doctors liable in case he re-injures his spleen Wednesday night.
The report also stated that the Cowboys will not accept any waiver as a path to Witten playing in the game.
Witten, who hasn't missed a game since his rookie season in 2003, is listed as doubtful on the official injury report.
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said Tuesday that the team was waiting for the results of a CAT scan. Even without those results, however, Jones said Witten already had been cleared to play against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 2.
"I don't want to be overly optimistic, but if you went by the way he's worked, the work he's got in, how he feels, then you'd give him a go [against the Giants]," Jones said on 105.3 The Fan's "New School" show. "Until you had things such as CAT scans, which we have and we should use them, players I'm sure played with this degree of spleen injury a lot because all of the signs were on go. I think we'll look at that, we'll look for the improvement and then we'll go by the doctor's opinion."
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