Dallas Cowboys’ Dak Prescott wants a Super Bowl trade ... from pitch man to player
For the last four years, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has had the same role during Super Bowl week. And he’s not happy about it.
He’s been an associate, not an athlete.
As a rookie, he was in Houston mainly to accept the award as the 2016 NFL Rookie of the Year with the promise of returning soon in a helmet and pads.
But the last three years have offered nothing but the same role as pitch man for his many sponsors, honoring media marketing obligations and doing charity work.
His appearance at the Miami Rescue Mission Wednesday was no different, though fulfilling in its own right.
Prescott joined Campbell’s Chunky soup to donate more than 100,000 bowls as part of the brand’s Champions of Chunky campaign.
He served meals to the residents and also surprised the Mission’s Head Chef, Calvin “Big Mac” McFadden, with tickets to Super Bowl LIV Sunday between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
“I am thankful to be a partner with Campbell’s and giving back,” Prescott said. “Today was nothing short of that. I was able to meet Calvin, somebody who benefited from this program and now is clean off the streets and giving back. Meeting him has been inspiring.”
But Prescott doesn’t deny that coming to the Super Bowl as part of the NFL’s entourage is getting more and more frustrating with each passing season.
“At the beginning of the year, that is the goal,” Prescott said. “It is to play in this game. I would much rather be playing. It’s definitely frustrating.”
Prescott echoed Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman and Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson in saying the Cowboys had the talent in 2019 to be at Super Bowl LIV.
Aikman and Johnson made their comments on Tuesday with the three three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback saying their 8-8 finish was puzzling because a number of teams would have traded with rosters with the Cowboys.
“We definitely had the pieces,” Prescott said. “You are in the games but you are not winning. You look at it and even just a year ago you look at the difference in the record in the close games and the one score games. Why weren’t we doing that this year? Not to be able to pinpoint that, fix it and win games is frustrating.”
Even more unsettling for Prescott is trying to reconcile how, statistically, his best season — he set career-highs with 4,902 passing yards and 30 touchdowns — still wasn’t enough to carry his team into the playoffs.
“As a leader of the team it’s about what the team does together,” Prescott said. “It’s something I have never been apart of in my career where my performances didn’t directly correlate to wins and losses. I will live and learn, and be a better player moving forward.”
Although Prescott is a free agent and still unsigned, but he is confident he’ll get a deal done in the off-season. The Cowboys have said signing Prescott to a long-term extension is their top priority.
Prescott’s new hope for getting back to the Super Bowl as a participant lies in coaches changes the Cowboys implement since the end of the season, replacing head coach Jason Garrett with former Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy.
“We’ve had a number of phone conversations,” Prescott said of his interaction with McCarthy. “Just excited with one another and sharing the excitement for him to coach me and me play for him, a coach who has won a Super Bowl. That’s what I want. That’s what everybody in this locker room wants.”
Prescott is excited to work with McCarthy because of his noted history as a quarterback guru in a career that includes work with Hall of Famers Joe Montana and Brett Favre, as well as current Packers signal caller Aaron Rodgers.
He knows Rodgers personally. But he will not talk to him about McCarthy because he wants to develop his own relationship and not have his opinion warped by someone else’s impression or experience. Beyond that he said he was excited because “a guy like that is going to offer you something different that is going to help me and my play.”
His focus is getting on the same page with McCarthy and seeing what changes, if any, lie ahead for the offense in terms terminology and scheme. The return of Kellen Moore as offensive coordinator and play caller with also ease the process.
“That is great,” Prescott said. “Looking forward to the off-season and learning and figuring out what I’ve got to do to get better.”
