‘Monday Night Football’ pays respects to Marshawn Kneeland before Cowboys’ game
ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown” talked about the death of Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland before the Cowboys’ game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
The show started with a clip of lineman Solomon Thomas talking about dealing with grief, and the studio crew, made up of host Scott Van Pelt and former players Ryan Clark, Jason Kelce and Marcus Spears, responded to Thomas’ comments.
“That’s what makes this a really unique situation is a lot of the times, sports ends up being a sanctuary away from things that are happening outside, off the field, right?” Kelce, a former Philadelphia Eagles center, said. “When I was struggling with something off the field when I played, you get to go play the game and be with your teammates and forget about all that.
“Well, this is unique because it’s happened, tragedy has struck their team, and they’re going to have to deal with this for the rest of the year, for the rest of their lives together. In some ways that’s beautiful, but in some ways it’s just different.”
Spears, a former Cowboy, talked about going through a similar experience in Dallas when linebacker Jerry Brown was killed in a car wreck in 2012. The driver, teammate Josh Brent, was lated convicted of intoxication manslaughter.
“I think sometimes you need to have a reminder that people are the most valuable commodity, right?” he said. “And we get lost sometimes in the things that are going on around us, the glitz and the glamour of this great job that we have, and I think it’s important to realize, like, this game has given all four of us so much to be a part of it, to talk about it. ... [These] are men, and they have families, and they bond as family. That is what this game does more than anything.
“... I went through this with when I was in Dallas, and I lost a teammate during the season, and death is weird, man, because it galvanizes you when you have family around, right? The first thing we want to do when we dealing with grief is be around people that we love, and you spend more time with these guys during this time of the year than you do with your family, and the fact that they are able to go into that locker room and lean on each other, and they all have an experience with Marshawn. They all understand the type of guy that he was. I think it’s going to help them, and that’s why you heard Solomon talk about: We want to play our best game.
“It’s not about playing the best game because you get some extra superpower. It’s remembering that people are the most valuable commodity, and you honor them by how you act and the things that you do, and fortunately for a lot of these players tonight, they get to do football in honor of them.”
The Cowboys are honoring Kneeland with a helmet decal they will wear for the rest of the season and warmup T-shirts featuring Kneeland’s image.
This story was originally published November 17, 2025 at 6:24 PM.
