Pro Football Rumors
It’s not easy to have a 12-year career in the NFL. It’s even more difficult to have a 12-year career when you’re not a perennial Pro Bowl contender. Regardless, Cowboys veteran cornerback and special teams ace C.J. Goodwin has done just that, and yesterday, he decided to hang up his cleats and retire, according to a report from WTOV9 news.
Growing up in West Virginia, Goodwin was an athlete, competing in track and basketball, but he didn’t play football until his senior year at The Linsly School. He went to college initially for basketball, playing two seasons at Bethany College before transferring to Fairmont State. He walked on to the Fighting Falcons football team, earning a scholarship after one season as a wide receiver. When then-head coach Mike Lopez was fired and accepted a defensive coordinator position at California University of Pennsylvania, Goodwin followed to continue playing under Lopez, but he ended up playing mostly on special teams.
As a result, Goodwin went undrafted in 2014 as a Division-II transfer special teamer. Goodwin had gone to high school with the son of Steelers Hall of Fame cornerback Mel Blount and worked as a farmhand for Blount for seven years while growing up, so Goodwin called Blount and asked if he might convince Pittsburgh to give him an opportunity. He ended up signing as an undrafted free agent with the Steelers following a workout, and he spent his rookie year on the team’s practice squad. Pittsburgh signed him to a reserve/futures deal but waived him in final roster cuts the following year.
Over two months later, Goodwin signed to the Falcons’ practice squad to finish the 2015 season. In training camp the next summer, Atlanta converted him to cornerback. In 2016, he made his NFL debut playing 14 games and even earning his first and only start as the Falcons played their way to the Super Bowl. Though they were defeated, the former D-II walk-on notched three tackles on the biggest stage of the sport.
The next season, Goodwin was waived after 12 more games with the Falcons. The Cardinals claimed him and played him in the last two games of the year before cutting him in the offseason. Goodwin spent two shorts stints with the Giants and 49ers that offseason before landing in Cincinnati to finish out the summer. The Bengals waived him in final roster cuts but re-signed him to their practice squad the next day.
Later into the year, the Cowboys signed Goodwin off Cincinnati’s taxi squad, but Goodwin broke his forearm shortly after, landing on injured reserve for eight games before returning for the regular season finale and the playoffs. Returning healthy with the team in 2019, Goodwin played in all 16 games for the first time in his career. Aside from a season-ending pectoral injury costing him 12 games in 2023, Goodwin would go on to have perfect attendance for the rest of his career.
In the end, as a core special teamer, Goodwin’s stats don’t...
