I kind of agree with this. Zeke was a good player, pretty class guy while with us. He had that off-the-field stuff, and I personally think the guy has a substance abuse problem. That's called being a human being. But it's not like he was a bad guy or something. He just declined really fast, and it's a business. But he was a good guy all around, and a good player.
He deserves respect because he earned it.
Look you say the guy declined fast and that's not true,
you know how hard it is to live up to what he did as a rookie??? he had near 1700 yards and a rushing crown right out of college which BTW was one of the best rookie season EVER in the nfl for an RB. That's better than both Tony Dorsett and Emmitt Smith rookie years put together...
How can you do much better than he did his rookie year, of course the next couple of years he was also great but weren't going to be as great as he did as a rookie?? had nothing to do with substance abuse had everything to do with the way he was on A roll back-to-back 1800 yards in college close to 1700 yards is a rookie he should have been rookie of the year, not Prescott, he's the one that carried that team much like Emmett Smith carried the 90s teams. He did it for three straight years he nearly had three rushing crowns had it not been for a false suspension and really 2017 and he did as well as he could with the offensive line changing with Travis Frederick gone with Kellen Moore here, things started changing quickly in 19 he was still good he got paid and he did as well as he could with things here things started changing quickly.
Then you have 2020 eleven different offensive line combinations, no Prescott it was a horrible year a new head coach and again things started falling apart around zeke.
And here's why this argument doesn't work,
if you look at the first halves of the last two seasons he started out averaging 4.9 yards per carry for the first 8 to 9 games, then he tears his PCL and stays in and plays through the pain versus what most players would have done and just shut it down had surgery.
but he was a team player but he still got close to 900 yards on one leg same thing with 2022 starts off the season strong he looked faster he looked slimmer and he was working hard and that got that same knee and thigh hit again 900 yards 12 tds splititgn carries on a bad knee.
SO, yes, when you have that many yards on you with that many carries and that much workload that he put in from the time he was in college up until recently, there wasn't a big drop off ,he had injuries and there was a lot of changes around him the man looked really good when he was fresh and healthy the last two seasons. He didn't look like he had a eating problem or a substance abuse problem.
Oh yeah sure when he's young coming out of college he went out and partied but when you're on the Dallas Cowboys and you're a big name like him you have TMZ and about 40 other media outlets following you around of course he was being signaled out for doing what young men freshly drafted and rich at his age typically do...
they're out running around partying and stuff you want to ask Gronk how that feels there's guys like him all over the NFL better known for going out hanging out , do you need to be reminded of the 70s and 80s and 90s teams not just the north Dallas 40 stories but the White House stories of players on these teams partying imagine if social media and the Internet existed back then?? I mean you can go all the way back to Broadway Joe and The Jets I mean these dudes wearing burgers and out partying all the time we can go to Lawrence Taylor with his cocaine issues in Hollywood Henderson and people here did it affect their careers that much? But people sweep that under the rug now because we didn't have this much media coverage I don't remember one story with all this media coverage from zeke having any substance abuse problems the man went out and partied.. Not sure how that's any different than a lot of us at his age and now you add in fame and fortune and people following you around and that's all they can dig up on him is a few weird moments that concerts and stuff where he was a little wobbly..pretty sure Michael Irvin was caught with much more than that..
this did not affect zeke's play on the field IMHO and that's my opinion that's I just backed up with facts.. Zeke broke down naturally from all the carries and the injuries that went all the way back to Ohio State,
I mean this man had back-to-back 1800 yards he carried those offenses into the college playoffs they had sorry quarterbacks the teams were only good because of zeke on offense.. So yes his second contract was probably a mistake given Jerry had all the information and all the mileage he had but his drop off is extremely exaggerated.. It was just natural..
Lastly you can't ignore what he did as far as stats go I mean as a running back what else do you have the man had a better career stat wise then Terrell Davis that a lot of Hall of Fame running backs he had a better first two seasons then GAIL Sayers had his whole entire career but he gets no respect. I'll leave it there I'm just saying the man got no respect I wish him all the luck in the world over in New England even though we all know his careers over much like Emmitt Smith and the cardinal debacle.
I'm just trying to remind fans this man was more special than people think and yes he wore down naturally but he had a big reputation to live up to when you look at what he did for three straight years from college and his rookie year it's going to be hard to top that so he was fighting his own goals he set so early on.
