Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott opened up about having to cope with his brother’s suicide this past spring and the effect that it’s had on his mental health.
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“I got the help I needed, and I was very open about it. … Emotions can overcome you if you don’t do something about it,” Prescott told reporters on Thursday. “Mental health is a huge issue and it’s a real thing in our world right now, especially the world we live in where everything is as viral and everyone is part of the media, I guess you can say, and can get on social media and be overcome with emotions or be overcome with the thoughts of other people and allow that to fill into their heads when those things aren’t necessarily true, whether it’s getting likes on Instagram or something being viewed or being bulied or whatever it may be.
All of those things can put thoughts into your head about yourself or about your situation in life that aren’t true. I think that it’s huge. I think it’s huge to talk, I think it’s huge to get help and it saves lives.”
However, he’s got getting any sympathy from Fox Sports host Skip Bayless. In fact, Bayless is catching all kinds of heat right now for his shockingly ignorant take on Prescott’s comments on Thursday’s episode of Undisputed, saying that it’s a hindrance on his leadership abilities on the field.
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“Okay, all well said from you, all very good points. I’m going to disqualify myself right up front on this question, I’m the wrong one to ask about this when it comes to him as the face of that franchise, of America’s Team. I’m going to ask our audience to feel free to go ahead and condemn me if you choose as cold-blooded and insensitive on this issue. I have deep compassion for clinical depression.”
“But when it comes to the quarterback of a NFL team, you know this as well as I do or better than I do, it’s the ultimate leadership position in sports, am I right about that? You are commanding an entire NFL franchise, what’s the roster at now, 53 guys? …And they’re all looking to you to be their CEO, to be in charge of the football team. Because of all that, I don’t have sympathy for him going public with ‘I got depressed, I suffered depression early in COVID, to the point that I couldn’t even go work out.’”
“Look, he’s the quarterback of America’s Team, and you know and I know, this sport that you play, it is dog-eat-dog. It is no compassion, no quarter given on the football field. If you reveal publicly any little weakness, it can affect your team’s ability to believe in you in the toughest spots, and it definitely can encourage others on the other side to come after you. You throw an interception, you’re going to hear ‘You depressed, number four?’ That sort of thing. You get sacked, ‘How’d that feel? You getting down about it?’ You just can’t go public with it, in my humble opinion.”
We certainly hope that Bayless re-evaulates his viewpoints.
– – Quotes via Andrew Bucholtz of Awful Announcing Link – –
