Why Dak Prescott was miffed after man called Cowboys’ loss to Buccaneers ‘embarrassing’
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- Dak Prescott and the Cowboys lost at home to a previously winless Buccaneers team, prompting one man to call the defeat “embarrassing” as Prescott walked toward the locker room.
- Prescott said the remark itself was fair; what bothered him was that the man looked away and then spoke again, rather than standing by what he had said.
Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys suffered an unexpected loss to the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their undrafted rookie quarterback, Jalon Daniels, in front of a home crowd on “Thursday Night Football.”
Some might describe the loss as embarrassing — in fact, one guy actually said that in the Cowboys tunnel within earshot of Prescott as he walked to the locker room.
Online video shows Prescott looking back at the man — who was there as a transportation service driver — while still walking, then turning away. The man then said something else, possibly “you heard me,” which prompted the veteran quarterback to look back and say, “You say it once I look off, huh?” while still walking.
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Prescott then can be seen speaking to Cowboys security and gesturing toward the other man. Footage shows the security guard going down the tunnel, presumably in search of the heckler, but it is unclear what resulted. The Cowboys declined to comment.
Prescott was asked about the incident during his postgame news conference. At first, he simply acknowledged that the man wasn’t necessarily wrong in his assessment of the loss.
“He’s free to speak his mind,” Prescott said.
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The four-time Pro Bowl selection then was asked if the comment was disrespectful.
“When he said it, I just happened to look at him, and at that point he looked away, didn’t look. And when I turned my head back, he said something else,” said Prescott, who completed 24 of 42 passes for 316 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.
“So that’s the part that — just as a man or as a person, feel free to speak your mind. Just speak it. Don’t coward away from the reaction that you’re going to get. If you’re saying it’s embarrassing, say it’s embarrassing. If you’re saying it to me, then say it to me. Don’t go back on it. So that’s all that was, and hate it that it’s even being talked about, to be honest with you.”
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The Cowboys led 10-7 at halftime, but Tampa Bay scored 17 unanswered points in the third quarter to take control. Dallas pulled to within 24-16 late in the fourth quarter, but Prescott threw his second interception deep in Buccaneers territory with 1:16 remaining to seal the defeat.
Owner Jerry Jones called the loss “extraordinarily, extraordinarily disappointing.”
“I’ve been so disappointed before with losses, but this was disappointing,” Jones told reporters. “And I’m disappointed because I see potential growth here. And we need to have good experiences on an individual basis as well as a team. And this was not a good experience.”
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Prescott said he hesitates to use “embarrassing” to describe the loss because “I feel like I’m discrediting the NFL if I use that and particularly the Tampa Bay Bucs and a great Todd Bowles-coached and defensive-coached team.”
But, he added, “when a winless team comes into your home stadium on a Thursday night prime-time game, yeah, we’re supposed to win that. So it sucks and it’s right up there close to ‘embarrassing,’ but I don’t know if I would say that.”
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