The Los Angeles Rams announced that left tackle Andrew Whitworth will return for the 2019 season.
The Rams’ announcement came after Whitworth, 37, tweeted:
“A ship is safe in the harbor, but that is not what ships are built for”
-John A. ShedCan’t wait for the opportunity to ride with the boys again! #keepmovingforward #squadup#letsride pic.twitter.com/4KoSlPJUXP
— Andrew Whitworth (@awhitworth77) February 26, 2019
A source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that Whitworth notified the Rams two days after the Super Bowl that he would be returning.
Whitworth would not publicly comment on his future plans immediately after the Rams’ 13-3 loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII, saying he would “let the offseason play out and kinda see what’s best for the franchise, what’s best for me, and we’ll kind of see what happens.”
Whitworth was named the NFL Players Association’s Alan Page Community Award winner in 2019 for his charitable actions. In Week 10, he donated his game check (approximately $60,000) to the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Conejo Valley Victims Fund after the mass shooting at Borderline Bar and Grill that killed 12 people in Thousand Oaks, California, on Nov. 7. He also auctioned his game jersey to benefit the American Red Cross after the California wildfires in November. Whitworth was forced to evacuate his own home because of the fires.
A four-time Pro Bowl selection, Whitworth has started 195 of the 199 games he has played in over 13 seasons. He spent the first 11 seasons of his career with the Cincinnati Bengals, who selected him in the second round (55th overall) of the 2006 draft.
He will be playing on the final season of a three-year, $33.75 million contact that he signed with the Rams as a free agent in 2017 for a scheduled base salary of $10.25 million.