USA TODAY International Edition
PRESCOTT IS A MAN AMONG ’ BOYS
QB’s ability to unify team key to rookie success
FRISCO, TEXAS At the end of the locker room at the Dallas Cowboys practice facility sits a room with a hidden set of cubicles.
Wide receiver Cole Beasley strolls by, on his way to the shower.
“Whassup, Pops?” Dak Prescott calls out.
Beasley nods in stride, then disappears behind a wall.
Prescott lounges on the padded leather seat of an unassigned locker. It’s Thursday of Week 17. One of the most prolific regular seasons for a rookie in NFL history will soon be his, and Prescott is reflecting on how he took control of the most valuable sports franchise in the world.
The clearest example comes in the form of another unexpected visitor, different from Beasley in one obvious way.
“Come on, bruh,” practice squad tight end Rico Gathers says. “You can’t just come back here and take my other locker.”
“What?” Prescott replies. “You got your stuff back here, too?”
Gathers, sliding open a drawer to uncover body wash, lotions and other toiletries stashed away from teammates, says, “This is my ( expletive) right here.”
Beasley is a 27- year- old white receiver from Houston. Gathers is black, 24 and from LaPlace, La. Prescott’s gift is his ability to bond with both.
“I grew up in Haughton, La.,” he tells USA TODAY Sports. “I go to my white grandparents’ house, and then I cross the railroad tracks and hang out with my black grandma. We have English teachers on my white side. My grandpa is a principal. And then you go to the other side and people have been in jail.
“I was put in all those different situations. I’ve been in situations where I was the only black guy. We’re in a time now where nobody wants to see that. But it still happens. Depending on where you come from, it happens. To be able to wipe that clean and see and live both sides, it’s just who I am. Being mixed allows me to connect with everyone.”
NFL locker rooms are fragile. They have their structure, their hierarchy, and sometimes, if disrupted a certain way, they can crumble. That’s what makes Prescott’s rise remarkable. When he arrived, there was a well- paid, well- liked player at quarterback. A favorite of the team’s owner, too. Now, Tony Romo is an insurance policy, one likely playing his last season in Dallas.
CROSSING CULTURES
One day during offseason workouts, coaches furrowed their brows at Prescott in confusion. At first, he didn’t know why. But later, he figured it out.
During a pre- practice stretching period, when Wiz Khalifa’s We Dem Boyz pulsed through the speakers, Prescott rapped every verse. Minutes later, when the guitar of George Straight’s All My Ex’s Live in Texas twanged through, he swayed along and belted the chorus louder than anyone else on the field.
“Being biracial and being from the country, I can talk to guys like Travis Frederick from Wisconsin and Doug Free from Wisconsin,” Prescott says of two Cowboys offensive linemen.
“And then I can go over and talk to Dez Bryant. I mean, think about the two different standpoints you need to have a real conversation with both, to really understand what they’ve been through. I don’t think many can do it. For me, it’s not hard. I’m blessed because it’s natural.”
This is not to say that white or black players cannot assimilate into NFL locker rooms as quickly or as easily as multiracial players. But Prescott slips in and out of different forms of self- identification in a way others never could. So when Romo writhed in pain during Week 3 of the preseason with a broken bone in his back, a void formed that Prescott quickly filled because teammates saw him work and saw his success. He fostered trust, and he clicked with almost everybody in the building.
“Not to crap on Tony, because he has done so much for this team,” says one white Cowboys player who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the topic. “But no matter how hard he’ll try, there are just some things that he can’t do, some ways that he can’t connect with some of the guys in here like Dak can.”
Multiple factors are at play. Prescott is 23. On a roster whose average age is 26, Prescott’s youth is another commonality. But after speaking to multiple players, Prescott’s race came up — unprompted — in nearly every conversation as one of the reasons he has become one of the team’s unquestioned leaders.
“People who were raised in an all- white town, it’s hard for them to relate to black people or other cultures,” says safety Jameill Showers, another multiracial Cowboys player. “That’s why you can sometimes see divides in locker rooms. Dak gets a feel for both sides to know what he can and can’t relate to — what is and isn’t offensive.”
Also significant is the approval from some of the team’s notable figures. Running back Ezekiel Elliott, veteran tight end Jason Witten and Bryant have vouched for the rookie. Prescott has even befriended Cowboys of the lowest rank, calling practice squad receiver Andy Jones one of his best friends on the team.
When Romo, on Nov. 15, made his first remarks after Prescott shot to stardom, he heaped praise on the rookie, saying he “earned the right to be our quarterback.”
Prescott’s ability to connect and motivate would be nothing if not for what he does after the ball is snapped. He completed 67.8% of his passes for 3,667 yards, posted a 23- to- 4 touchdown- to- interception ratio and ran for 282 yards and six scores. He tied Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for the most victories all time by a rookie starter ( 13). He established a record for rookie passer rating ( 104.9) and a low for rookie interception rate ( 0.9 %).
Prescott and the Cowboys plowed their way to a 13- 3 campaign ( tying the franchise record), the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed and expectations that they should compete for Super Bowls this postseason and beyond.
“That’s the easiest way to get accepted,” he says. “If you’re good on the field, yeah, people are going to want to follow you. They want to hang out with you because you’ve got success. The rest of the stuff, it can’t be taught.” COURAGE AND CONFIDENCE A midday practice in early August caught the attention of the Cowboys front office.
Romo had a day off. Backup Kellen Moore had broken his ankle in the first week of training camp, which meant that on this day Prescott would get all of the first- team work.
Prescott flung a back- shoulder toss to Bryant at the front pylon. Bryant didn’t quite come back to the ball the way Prescott thought he should, so the ball skipped across the grass incomplete.
The rookie pulled the veteran aside and, without showing Bryant up, informed him that he didn’t run the route properly.
A rookie in his first camp telling an all- pro receiver how to run a route? Gasoline, meet fire. That Prescott was instructing animated, mercurial and often- heated Bryant only heightened that. But Bryant listened. “It takes a lot of courage, or whatever the word is — personal confidence — to go up to a Dez Bryant and say that,” quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson said.
Prescott earned his degree at Mississippi State in educational psychology and completed a mostly online master’s degree in workforce leadership.
He is a people watcher and is fascinated by differences in characters and how relationships are formed, how different people pursue their goals.
Once he retires from the NFL, Prescott wants to become a sports psychologist or coach.
From the moment he stepped into this building after the team drafted him in the fourth round with the 135th overall pick, he started analyzing people.
At first, he didn’t say much. He was a rookie, after all.
But once he started to build confidence, he formed relationships and asked questions. Now, he has a pulse on everyone. BOUNCING BACK Prescott’s back- to- earth moment came in Week 14, a 10- 7 loss to the New York Giants. It was the rookie’s worst game. He completed 17 of 37 attempts for 165 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions. It reignited the debate: Romo or Dak?
“That week, I had a little extra juice than I had the week before,” Prescott says. “I knew what was going on. I didn’t really pay attention to the he said, she said. ... I knew the best way to handle it was to work my ass off, play one of my best games and win.”
Prescott responded by going 32- for- 36 for 279 yards in a 26- 20 victory vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and 15- for- 20 for 212 yards and three touchdowns in a 42- 21 win against the Detroit Lions.
“When I bounced back, I wasn’t surprised,” he says, “but it was a relief.”
So what’s next? Once the season ends, Prescott is planning to take a break.
“That’s my time to get my body back right, to kind of ‘ re- humble,’ ” Prescott says. “I know what’s going to happen. It’s going to be: ‘ Can he do it again?’ Or, ‘ Was that a fluke season?’
“I know all the things that are going to be said. That’s just going to flip my switch a little higher to show I’m never complacent in anything. I want to win the Super Bowl. But I want to make sure I put myself in a situation to do it again.”
“Being mixed allows me to connect with everyone.” Cowboys rookie quarterback Dak Prescott