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https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/10/19/dak-prescott-dallas-cowboys-mom-cancer
FRISCO, Texas — Dak Prescott is holding a silver marker in his right hand and standing over a table covered in piles of No. 4 Cowboys jerseys. It’s two days before a home game against the Packers, and this 24-year-old is staying late at work on a Friday afternoon, signing his name over and over.
He doesn’t mind; his only concern is when his hand slips and his signature zig-zags off the blue number on one jersey. He’s wondering if he should try to fix it? Don’t worry, a team staffer quickly assures him. There are plenty more. With a few piles down and several more piles to go, Prescott shrugs. “This is easy,” he says.
This unflappable attitude has distinguished Prescott ever since he arrived in the Dallas area, the fourth-round draft pick who was thrust into a starting role in the first game of his pro career, and played so well that he couldn’t be taken off the field even after Tony Romo returned from his back injury. Prescott’s second season has presented different challenges, a 2–3 start after last year’s 13-3 record, but the pressure of being the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys doesn’t compare to the conversation he had in the summer of 2012 before his redshirt freshman year of college: His mom, Peggy, broke the news to her youngest son that she had Stage 4 colon cancer. “If you’re not tripping,” Prescott replied, “I’m not tripping.”
Peggy Prescott succumbed to the disease in November 2013, just as her son’s star on the football field was taking off. After her death, he would catapult Mississippi State to the No. 1 ranking for five weeks during the fall of 2014, and he’d earn the most important job in Dallas, where he changed his jersey to No. 4 in honor of Peggy’s birthday. If you know anything about Prescott, you almost certainly know about his mom. That’s how Prescott wants it to be.
FRISCO, Texas — Dak Prescott is holding a silver marker in his right hand and standing over a table covered in piles of No. 4 Cowboys jerseys. It’s two days before a home game against the Packers, and this 24-year-old is staying late at work on a Friday afternoon, signing his name over and over.
He doesn’t mind; his only concern is when his hand slips and his signature zig-zags off the blue number on one jersey. He’s wondering if he should try to fix it? Don’t worry, a team staffer quickly assures him. There are plenty more. With a few piles down and several more piles to go, Prescott shrugs. “This is easy,” he says.
This unflappable attitude has distinguished Prescott ever since he arrived in the Dallas area, the fourth-round draft pick who was thrust into a starting role in the first game of his pro career, and played so well that he couldn’t be taken off the field even after Tony Romo returned from his back injury. Prescott’s second season has presented different challenges, a 2–3 start after last year’s 13-3 record, but the pressure of being the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys doesn’t compare to the conversation he had in the summer of 2012 before his redshirt freshman year of college: His mom, Peggy, broke the news to her youngest son that she had Stage 4 colon cancer. “If you’re not tripping,” Prescott replied, “I’m not tripping.”
Peggy Prescott succumbed to the disease in November 2013, just as her son’s star on the football field was taking off. After her death, he would catapult Mississippi State to the No. 1 ranking for five weeks during the fall of 2014, and he’d earn the most important job in Dallas, where he changed his jersey to No. 4 in honor of Peggy’s birthday. If you know anything about Prescott, you almost certainly know about his mom. That’s how Prescott wants it to be.
