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Dak Prescott will get chance to meet standard set by Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman
7:00 AM CT
Jean-Jacques Taylor
ESPN Staff Writer
FRISCO, Texas -- These days, Dak Prescott is enjoying the benefits of being the quarterback of America’s Team.
Everywhere he goes he feels the love. It’s a privilege he’s earned.
Prescott went 13-3 as a starter, winning the respect of his teammates as the Cowboys won the NFC East.
Coach Jason Garrett has been effusive in his praise of Prescott, and the quarterback probably has tripled or quadrupled his $450,000 salary in endorsements since the offseason began.
A paid autograph session last weekend kept Prescott from watching his beloved Mississippi State play South Carolina in the NCAA women’s basketball championship, and he recently posted a picture on Instagram trumpeting his new relationship with a company that rents private jets.
The day Tony Romo left football for a television job, Prescott posted a picture on Instagram of him and Romo during a game with this comment, “From a Fan Of Yours to Being Your Teammate: THANK YOU for The Advice On & Off the Field to Making Plays that I'll Never Forget!”
That should surprise no one.
Prescott is the same guy who sent Emmitt Smith flowers when his mom died last season and a birthday text to Troy Aikman. He helped Dez Bryant deal with the death of his father by sharing how he coped with the death of his mother while he was a sophomore at Mississippi State.
Prescott also was so emotionally invested in Mississippi State’s win over Connecticut in the women’s Final Four semifinal that the cameras couldn’t stop focusing on him as his emotions soared and plummeted with every basket and turnover.
Prescott had met with the players before the game, and a day after the victory that ended UConn’s 111-game winning streak, he presented the team with Beats By Dre headphones.
It’s all good now for Prescott, which is what happens when you pass for 3,667 yards with 23 touchdowns and four interceptions.
But Dallas is fickle. It’s been like that since the 1960s, when its vitriol encouraged Ring of Honor quarterback Don Meredith to retire rather than continue to face the city’s wrath after every disappointing loss.
Romo, who owns virtually every franchise passing record of note, found out the same thing Meredith did: The city only loves you for so long as a player. It treated Troy Aikman and Danny White the same way.
Roger Staubach, if you think about it, is probably the only quarterback the city loved at the end of his career -- and that was 38 years ago, after the 1979 season.
At some point, this city will turn on Prescott like it has turned on every quarterback. At the end, Cowboys fans even booed Aikman because they thought Randall Cunningham was a better option at quarterback.
For now, Dallas will continue to love Prescott and praise him, but the reality is the scrutiny will be intense and the criticism harsh if he doesn’t play as well as he did last season.
And after being Rookie of the Year, it will be virtually impossible for Prescott to meet the expectations he established in 2016.
When Romo had poor games, fans ripped him for playing golf, saying he would have been more productive for the Cowboys if he spent more time honing his craft. It was a silly premise, but a faction of fans believed it. If Prescott struggles at times this season, critics will point to the distractions that accompany being the Cowboys’ quarterback.
Now that he's retired, Romo will be turned into a mythical hero, a player who would’ve turned every potential loss into a win, a player who never threw a key interception or made a poor decision.
“Obviously, there are a lot of external expectations that we're all confronted with in life, but our focus is on the stuff that we need to do,” Garrett told reporters last month at the NFL owners meetings. “The standards that we have and the expectations that we have for ourselves are higher than anybody else's. So that's what we're going to challenge him with."
Remember, the standard for the Cowboys’ quarterback is never going to change. Staubach and Aikman, both in the Hall of Fame, combined to win five Super Bowls and established the standard for the franchise.
Prescott will either lead the Cowboys to a title and meet the standard or he’ll find himself dealing with the same type of scrutiny and criticism Romo received much of his career.
7:00 AM CT
Jean-Jacques Taylor
ESPN Staff Writer
FRISCO, Texas -- These days, Dak Prescott is enjoying the benefits of being the quarterback of America’s Team.
Everywhere he goes he feels the love. It’s a privilege he’s earned.
Prescott went 13-3 as a starter, winning the respect of his teammates as the Cowboys won the NFC East.
Coach Jason Garrett has been effusive in his praise of Prescott, and the quarterback probably has tripled or quadrupled his $450,000 salary in endorsements since the offseason began.
A paid autograph session last weekend kept Prescott from watching his beloved Mississippi State play South Carolina in the NCAA women’s basketball championship, and he recently posted a picture on Instagram trumpeting his new relationship with a company that rents private jets.
The day Tony Romo left football for a television job, Prescott posted a picture on Instagram of him and Romo during a game with this comment, “From a Fan Of Yours to Being Your Teammate: THANK YOU for The Advice On & Off the Field to Making Plays that I'll Never Forget!”
That should surprise no one.
Prescott is the same guy who sent Emmitt Smith flowers when his mom died last season and a birthday text to Troy Aikman. He helped Dez Bryant deal with the death of his father by sharing how he coped with the death of his mother while he was a sophomore at Mississippi State.
Prescott also was so emotionally invested in Mississippi State’s win over Connecticut in the women’s Final Four semifinal that the cameras couldn’t stop focusing on him as his emotions soared and plummeted with every basket and turnover.
Prescott had met with the players before the game, and a day after the victory that ended UConn’s 111-game winning streak, he presented the team with Beats By Dre headphones.
It’s all good now for Prescott, which is what happens when you pass for 3,667 yards with 23 touchdowns and four interceptions.
But Dallas is fickle. It’s been like that since the 1960s, when its vitriol encouraged Ring of Honor quarterback Don Meredith to retire rather than continue to face the city’s wrath after every disappointing loss.
Romo, who owns virtually every franchise passing record of note, found out the same thing Meredith did: The city only loves you for so long as a player. It treated Troy Aikman and Danny White the same way.
Roger Staubach, if you think about it, is probably the only quarterback the city loved at the end of his career -- and that was 38 years ago, after the 1979 season.
At some point, this city will turn on Prescott like it has turned on every quarterback. At the end, Cowboys fans even booed Aikman because they thought Randall Cunningham was a better option at quarterback.
For now, Dallas will continue to love Prescott and praise him, but the reality is the scrutiny will be intense and the criticism harsh if he doesn’t play as well as he did last season.
And after being Rookie of the Year, it will be virtually impossible for Prescott to meet the expectations he established in 2016.
When Romo had poor games, fans ripped him for playing golf, saying he would have been more productive for the Cowboys if he spent more time honing his craft. It was a silly premise, but a faction of fans believed it. If Prescott struggles at times this season, critics will point to the distractions that accompany being the Cowboys’ quarterback.
Now that he's retired, Romo will be turned into a mythical hero, a player who would’ve turned every potential loss into a win, a player who never threw a key interception or made a poor decision.
“Obviously, there are a lot of external expectations that we're all confronted with in life, but our focus is on the stuff that we need to do,” Garrett told reporters last month at the NFL owners meetings. “The standards that we have and the expectations that we have for ourselves are higher than anybody else's. So that's what we're going to challenge him with."
Remember, the standard for the Cowboys’ quarterback is never going to change. Staubach and Aikman, both in the Hall of Fame, combined to win five Super Bowls and established the standard for the franchise.
Prescott will either lead the Cowboys to a title and meet the standard or he’ll find himself dealing with the same type of scrutiny and criticism Romo received much of his career.
