Prescott handling fame well so far
Pro jocks who hold camps for kids are always doing a good thing, but when they open themselves up to questions from the campers themselves they unknowingly sit in a dunk tank full not of cold water but razor blades.
Kids will ask anything.
So it is with great disappointment, and amazement, that during Dak Prescott’s camp last weekend, no kid asked him about that subject. No kid asked him about “The Contract.”
“No, thankfully not,” Prescott said. “They are letting me make it so far.”
Maybe we should take a cue from the kids; this subject is just about dead.
Prescott will soon effectively own a Brinks’ Truck full of cash. Good for him. As I have come to learn in covering sports, root for the player to get the money rather than the owner who keeps it; the owner is not giving that cash to you.
Maybe the player will put it to good use, and just not blow all of it.
Whatever you think of the Dallas Cowboys turning their quarterback into “Dak Zuckerberg,” get over it and deal with it. They have to do it, and they will very soon.
The “latest” on Prescott’s contract is that his agent seeks to get his client $34 million a year. Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles recently signed a deal that paid him $32 million a year.
Prescott may not be the next Troy Aikman, or even Tony Romo, but in one area he is the next Drew Brees.
Like the future Hall of Fame quarterback in New Orleans, Prescott is a sincere guy who is genuine in his desire to be a role model and to help and inspire others.
You may not be crazy about the way he plays, but you will seldom be disappointed in how he acts.
Since the moment the Cowboys drafted Prescott in 2016, he has not changed other than he has become the starting quarterback of the most visible franchise in North American sports. To his credit, and this is not easy, Dak Prescott has remained Dak Prescott.
Most guys when they make the transition to the Famous Side, they believe they are just that great.
Actor/comedian Bill Murray once said of becoming famous, “Anybody that becomes famous is an ass for a year and a half. You’ve got to give them a year and a half, two years. They are getting so much smoke blown, and their whole world gets so turned upside down, their responses become distorted. I give everybody a year or two to pull it together because, when it first happens, I know how it is.
“There aren’t many downsides to being rich, other than paying taxes and having relatives asking for money. But being famous, that’s a 24 hour job right there.”
As we have seen with a certain Dallas Cowboys running back, not everyone is adept at handling fame 24 hours a day.
For the third time in as many offseasons, Prescott held a football camp for kids in Dallas-Fort Worth. This particular camp was at Northwest High School, and featured a little more than 400 kids.
When Dak was a kid, he didn’t exactly have the funds to attend a football camp.
“I didn’t necessarily go to any camps like this but I imagine if I did, I’d imagine looking up to a quarterback and being able to go to his camp and being able to take something from him,” he said. “To be able to idolize him, to be like the guy. I know how excited I would have been. To be on the other side of it, is great.”
The challenge for the NFL player in these types of situations is to try to give everyone enough time to so they feel like they were special. To feel like a big-time NFL player acknowledged them.
Much like Brees, something Dak has done exceptionally well since he arrived to the Cowboys is convey he is both approachable, and sincere. Again, for a man in that situation is not easy.
For Dak, he makes it looks easy. “I’m a real person. I was once the kid they are,” he said. “I try to leave them at the end of each camp that I was once in their shoes. I was a kid who dreamed about being in the NFL and playing college football, and playing for the Cowboys, and look — I am here now. I am no different then them and they are no different than me. They control their dreams and never let anyone tell them what they can and can’t do. If they can leave here today and take that away I am happy.”
You don’t have to be happy the Dallas Cowboys are preparing to make a franchise-altering financial commitment to Dak Prescott, but you should be happy that the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys is a genuinely good guy.