National Football League

Andrew Whitworth denies conversations with Cowboys

Updated Aug. 28, 2022 6:38 p.m. ET

Former All-Pro tackle Andrew Whitworth hasn't played a down of football since winning a Super Bowl ring last season, but that hasn't stopped his name from being linked to a number of teams since his retirement.

And Thursday, Whitworth connected himself (perhaps inadvertently) to "America's Team" after mentioning the Cowboys in an interview during Thursday Night Football.

When asked whether his phone had been ringing during his retirement period regarding a potential comeback, Whitworth responded: "It has."

"Obviously, there's been some things with the Cowboys and losing Tyron Smith, which was an awful deal. He's such a great player, and God I've always loved watching him play — but it's been a busy day of answering calls.

"The problem is, they're calling and texting the wrong person," Whitworth joked. "They need to be texting and calling Melissa Whitworth and the kids because they have final approval over whether I'm going to play football again."

Though Whitworth didn't directly claim that he'd received a phone call from the Cowboys brass, several outlets ran with his comments, concluding that he was in fact alluding to Jerry and Stephen Jones as culprits behind the calls.

Pro Football Talk and Blogging The Boys were just a few of the sites that began reporting that Dallas had reached out to the 40-year-old, but after receiving word of the stories, Whitworth quickly took to Twitter to denounce the reports.

Here are some of his posts from Thursday and Friday:

Whitworth's wife even jumped into the fray.

Cowboys superstar linebacker Micah Parsons also hopped into the fun as well, popping on his recruiting hat to convince Whitworth to join forces with his crew.