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It’s been a difficult week and a half for the Dallas Cowboys as they deal with Marshawn Kneeland’s death by suicide on Nov. 6. Players are coping and at the same time preparing to face the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night.
‘Just a great dude,’ quarterback Dak Prescott said of Kneeland, per the Cowboys’ official website. ‘Spirit was always high. Any time you crossed him, very contagious attitude. We spent a lot of time throughout the training room passing each other, having small conversations here and there. Very loving, contagious guy. I know it’s been noted his saying was ‘One Love,’ I think you just felt that. You felt that aura, you felt that demeanor, you felt him carry that and that’s everything that he did.’
Cowboys players have been deeply impacted by suicide
Prescott has dealt with similar grief before. His brother died by suicide in 2020. The Cowboys quarterback admitted playing football helps him cope.
“Having dealt with loss, that is the best medicine for me,” Prescott said. “Getting back out there, handing the ball off and sprinting an extra 10 yards and making sure I’m doing it hard. Marshawn went through my mind a few times in practice today, and I just countered that with running harder after a play or trying to do something to better this team and to show that.’
Cowboys defensive tackle Solomon Thomas’ sister died by suicide in 2018. His family started a nonprofit “The Defensive Line” in her honor to help impact the lives of young people of color struggling with suicide.
‘If we all play like Marshawn, we’ll play as a better team. I’m not saying Marshawn was a perfect player, but the way he would go out there and play is the way football is supposed to be played,” Thomas said of Kneeland this week, via the team’s official website. “He would run to the ball, no matter how tired he was. He would play with intensity and tenacity, and he went out there because he loved the game, and he played with love.’
Cowboys helmet decal, memorial fund for girlfriend, child to honor Marshawn Kneeland
The Cowboys will wear a special helmet decal for the rest of the season to honor Kneeland. The team also started the “Marshawn Kneeland Memorial Fund” in part to help Kneeland’s girlfriend, Catalina, who is pregnant.
“We’re going to honor Marshawn and his family a number of different ways,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said.
The Cowboys travel to Las Vegas to take on the Raiders on “Monday Night Football” in Week 11. It’ll mark the team’s first game since Kneeland’s death.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas on Nov. 14 that he hopes Monday’s game will be “therapeutic” for the players.