You know it's a bad 72-hour stretch when police knocking on your door is the least of your problems. That's how a long weekend went for Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who in 2020 is starting to lose a contract battle he had seemingly won by playing out his contract in 2019.
First, the police.
They were called to his Prosper, Texas, home Friday due to reports of a party going on that would violate local and state orders regarding gatherings and social distancing. The catered food spread, captured in a short video by TMZ, would feed a heck of a lot more than five or six people. Maybe Dak just likes a lot of leftovers.
One witness alleged there were 30 people there, but when the police arrived, they were unable to confirm the size of the gathering and simply issued a warning about social distancing.
The police statement said that Prosper seeks "voluntary compliance with local and state disaster orders but will consider additional enforcement options."
ESPN's Marcus Spears was much tougher than the police. "If you pay any attention to Instagram, to TV, you see nurses crying, you see that people are dying. This was one of the most disrespectful things I've seen in a long time," the former Cowboy said Monday on First Take.
Combine that with Prescott working out with teammates and Dez Bryant and posting photos arm-in-arm. It's clear that whatever team leadership qualities Prescott exhibits in the locker room have vanished in his "all about me" offseason.
As I said, though, this is a problem of image, of public perception. A few touchdown passes can change attitudes on all that. This is not Prescott's larger problem.
That arrived Monday afternoon in the form of a release that stated the NFL and the players association had reached agreement on offseason workouts and activities and that teams such as the Cowboys could begin virtual meetings next week. Pro Football Talk reported that Prescott, who hasn't signed the franchise tag and is seeking a long-term deal, will not participate although that is by no means unusual. It's simply unusual for teams not to reach agreements with starting quarterbacks.
The difficult part for Prescott -- anticipated, perhaps, but not spelled out until now -- was the portion that stated NFL workouts will remain virtual until all the states that have NFL teams have emerged from lockdown orders. In other words, if Frisco seems to be relatively safe and virus-free at a certain point, it won't matter as long as California or New Jersey or any other state with a serious coronavirus issue remains in "stay at home" mode.
And that brings us to the leverage Prescott won by playing out his rookie contract and passing on whatever guaranteed money the Cowboys offered last summer. Once that risk was accepted and that hurdle was cleared, Prescott moved into franchise-money territory which, for a quarterback, is an enormous salary cap hit. That's what all but demands the Cowboys reach a long-term agreement with him.
On top of that, with new Coach Mike McCarthy in place, the Cowboys get to start offseason workouts one week ahead of teams with existing coaches. Who's the one player the team most needs in attendance at those meetings, OTAs and minicamps? Without a doubt, it's the starting quarterback.
That negotiating leverage was diminished the minute those meetings became "virtual." The real work does not begin until you have 11 offensive players huddling on the field and executing plays. And with the news that, essentially, as California goes so goes the NFL, you can erase any real team participation until training camp. I'd say it's a safe bet the club isn't in Oxnard, Calif., in late July, either, although for personal reasons involving fried clams and fairways, I sincerely hope that's not the case.
The final piece of the puzzle is one of pure speculation. What happens to the NFL in the post-pandemic era? Business as usual? All the regular advertisers come rushing back for those million-dollar spots that make the league a multi-billion dollar industry?
I'm guessing that as an eternal optimist, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones doesn't sweat the future as much as most. But he certainly thinks about it. And the notion that the league's next TV deal with networks would take off into the stratosphere has to have diminished a bit with businesses failing across the board.
Whether or not that impacts Prescott's status as a $100 million quarterback, I'm not sure. But if you wondered if his behavior might change the day he went from underpaid fourth-round pick to richest man in the league, it seems that Dak didn't even wait to sign on the dotted line to provide us the answer.
Sports on 04/15/2020