Written by Jake Martin
Composed for the LSWA
Asking Andrew Whitworth to list Netflix shows that are worth binge-watching is not a good idea.
He probably hasn’t seen it. One would have to sit down and, you know, observe in order to participate in the discussion. That’s not going to happen, if you know anything about this year’s Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductee.
“No,” Whitworth answered, “I don’t binge watch.” I enjoy being active. I recently struck golf balls while walking seven or eight miles. I’m outside all the time. That’s what a great day looks like to me. I went to the beach with my kids after getting up, getting my coffee, hiking a mountain, and hitting 6,000 golf balls. I dislike sitting down.
It makes logic when you consider it. An All-Pro career in the NFL does not come with longevity by accident. 16-year NFL veterans also don’t exactly exhibit laziness.
Headlining the LSHOF’s Class of 2025 enshrined June 26–28 in Natchitoches is the former West Monroe High School and LSU standout who assisted teams at all three levels in winning championships. Details on the event can be found at LaSportsHall.com.
The never-sleep Growing up, Whitworth played a lot of sports, including powerlifting, baseball, basketball, tennis, and golf. In track and field, he even hurled the shot put. However, each was significant. The future Los Angeles Ram learned something from every sport, which helped him become the oldest offensive lineman to win a Super Bowl when he retired. Whitworth’s action was, in a sense, his greatest gift.
Play a variety of sports, Whitworth urged passionately. I became 6′ 7″ and 330 pounds. I was going to use my gift from God to push people about. However, I learned a skill from playing track, baseball, tennis, and all those other sports. For instance, basketball improved my pass protection. What does it look like to play defense in basketball? It’s similar to attempting slide protection. You must keep the opponent between you and the quarterback if you want to be an excellent blocker. Using your body to keep them away from the goal is similar to that in basketball. Many things are carried over.
Whitworth, who takes great pride in his mobility, finds it ironic that his most well-known photo was of him sitting on the floor of SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Shortly after Whitworth was awarded the 2021 Walter Payton Man of the Year, his career reached its zenith when the Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI, which he played with for the first eleven NFL seasons. Quite the whirlwind. The West Monroe native sat with his family and informed his kids that it was Daddy’s final ballgame amid all the confetti on the field.
“It will always be unique,” Whitworth added. When you meet someone, you can tell they’re attempting to explain who you are to their wife. They will then claim that you most likely witnessed him and his family on the ground during the Super Bowl. And they instantly recognize me at that point. That was the time for me to sit down and take a breath with my children, something I never do. It was one of the most serene times in my professional life. I was aware that it was over.
Sean McVay, Whitworth’s head coach, was perhaps the most devastated to see him go since he was blunt about Whitworth’s value to the team.
Getting a left tackle with 250 NFL starts at the end of his career was a brilliant move, so McVay was undoubtedly shielding quarterback Matthew Stafford from an All-Pro with experience. However, it also gave a new head coach a sense of leadership.
According to McVay, I believed I understood the value of his leadership and his ability to help me hear what I needed to hear rather than what I wanted to hear when he passed away. I believed I appreciated it greatly, but after he retired, I came to appreciate his uniqueness as a person. There are too many positive things to say about him. What he means to me is beyond words. He must rank among the all-time finest free agent signings, in my opinion.
Whitworth’s rough start contrasts sharply with a spectacular finale for a career that included four Pro Bowl appearances and three first-team All-Pro honors (2015, 2017). In other words, at Whitworth’s first live middle school football game at Ouachita Christian School, no confetti dropped. Not during his first session when he stood across from Molly Harper, the coach’s daughter. Over the next thirty years, what transpired would be again recounted.
I think, “This is the 1990s,” when I get in line and see that I’m facing someone with a lot of hair. Long-haired boys are not very common. Whitworth said that other players were saying, “Hey dude, you better lock in.” Since she’s a girl and she knocked me down after pancakeing me, I’m not sure how hard I want to punch her.
Since I was a basketball kid at the time, I recall thinking, “Perhaps football isn’t for me.” I enjoy sharing the tale because, if you were to put your career on a totem pole, what people think of you when the coach’s daughter trucks you must be near the bottom. But it isn’t the point. I didn’t give up. I committed to completing something, and I ultimately fell in love with it.
Then came redemption. With the West Monroe Rebels, Whitworth rose to prominence as one of Louisiana’s best prep players very rapidly. He was a member of two national championship teams in 1998 and 2000, which were perhaps the pinnacles of that esteemed football program.
At West Monroe, Whitworth played for the legendary Don Shows, the 2011 LSHOF inductee who holds the fifth most wins in LHSAA football history. Whitworth, who grew up watching Steve Spurrier and the Florida Gators, switched from tight end to tackle his senior year and eventually decided to play football for Nick Saban at LSU.
Whitworth valued Saban’s candor when he said that he projected better as an offensive lineman. Whitworth firmly felt that Saban brought out the best in him, while Shows made him tough.
Whitworth said, “Don lived hanging off my facemask, chewing me to pieces.” To make his point, Don would take me down. His goal was to eliminate our top player and motivate the other players. In a way, it was manipulation. He reminded me of Vince McMahon. He was an entertainer.
Nick was all about having a sense of urgency to be great. Here s the playbook, what all has to happen and what it looks like to chase greatness. Can you keep up? I loved that challenge of matching his urgency every day to be great.
Whitworth played for legends in high school and in college and ultimately played for a Super Bowl winning coach in McVay.
He s the closest thing I saw to Nick Saban, Whitworth said.
It s quite the compliment for McVay, who isn t afraid to give Whitworth immense credit for changing the culture of the Rams organization. McVay astutely pointed out the Rams had 10 straight losing seasons before Whitworth joined in 2017. The Rams went 55-26 with five straight winning seasons, four playoff runs and two Super Bowl appearances with Whitworth at left tackle.
I just finished up my eighth year, and I can t imagine what that would have looked like without him to help me as a first-year head coach, McVay said. That was a big edge for us.
Before Whitworth completed the trifecta of winning a ring at every level, he was a valued member of an LSU football team that broke through and won the 2003 national championship.
We were freaking rock stars, Whitworth said. Every single day, going back-and-forth to practice, we felt like we were a part of Guns N Roses or Aerosmith. Fans were outside our hotel. They were shaking and hitting the busses. Playing in New Orleans for the national championship when it s been almost 50 years since you won it, that s hard to replicate. Yeah, they ve had talented teams since, but what that one meant, it was really special.
Changing the culture is what Whitworth s career is all about. He was front and center of Saban ushering in the golden era of LSU football. And you could argue he did the same for Cincinnati, as the Bengals morphed into a consistent winner from 2006-16 after posting just two winning seasons in the previous 17 years.
The numbers and accolades speak loudly, but his leadership inside the locker room reveals even more about the man whose Big Whit 77 Foundation donated $250,000 to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank during the pandemic.
Former Cincinnati offensive lineman Clint Boling, who was drafted in 2011 during the NFL lockout, had no communication with the Bengals for three to four months due to the work stoppage. A week after being drafted, Whitworth reached out to Boling, invited him to a charity golf tourney in the offseason and paid for his flight and hotel room to stay and bond with all the offensive linemen that came. Later on, Whitworth organized voluntary workouts, and once more flew Boling out to practice at the University of Cincinnati with other Bengal players. Boling never forgot it.
One of the best ways to describe his leadership is to describe the void when he left in 2016, Boling said. There weren t very many guys who could take on that leadership role because he was such a big presence with the way he would lead our group.
Football remains a focal point of Whitworth s life, even though it s in a different capacity. His work now consists of breaking down the game in front of a camera, rather than taking on many hall of fame pass rushers he s faced through the decades.
Evolution was a big part of Whitworth s game, as he slimmed down and embraced flexibility exercises to counter the speedy pass rushers that flooded the league in the latter stages of his career. And here he is parlaying retirement to evolve once more.
Surprisingly, Whitworth admitted this new venture is a little more nerve-wracking too. Some might think he s making a fashion statement with the hoodie under his suit on Amazon Prime s Thursday Night Football telecast, but it actually has little to do with that.
When you get feedback from people who say they love seeing you on T.V., it makes you feel good because you just don t know, Whitworth said. I m not super confident in it. That s why I wear my hoodie. It makes me feel comfortable to be myself. I m just trying to be me.
Traveling from one NFL city to the next as part of a broadcast crew is a fitting retirement for the Louisiana legend. Nope, you won t catch Whitworth slowing down any time soon. For a man who is seemingly always on the move, it s a lifestyle well earned.
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