Long-running Dallas drama ends

By David Mullen

The lengthiest melodrama in Dallas — since “Dallas” — mercifully concluded as the Dallas Cowboys baron J. W. Jones and the Jones family inked franchise quarterback Dak Prescott to a reported four-year, $160 million dollar contract after years of negotiations. 

Fans had begun to boil as the media continued to toil and Prescott played the foil. Jones thinks he struck oil.

On March 8, J. W. Jones gave Prescott the second highest average contract in NFL history at $40 million per season. That is 100 times more than the President of the U.S. earns annually. But they have a sporty lot in common. Prescott plays professional football. President Joseph R. Biden rides a stationary bike. Former President Donald J. Trump cheats at golf. 

For years, Jones and Prescott couldn’t agree on a contract extension. Prescott agonized, although handsomely rewarded, with the uncertainty associated with being labeled “franchise player.” Jones locked up the quarterback with no other signing options. It was “take it or leave it,” albeit he could not sign and leave the following year as a free agent. It took a gruesome leg and ankle break in game five of the 2020 season for Jones and Prescott to finally comes to terms. That’s adding injury to insult.

No tears should be shed over Prescott’s end result. Reportedly, Prescott received a $66 million signing bonus. A signed LeBron James 2004 rookie card recently went for $1.8 million at auction. A signed original copy of the Declaration of Independence is valued at around $10 million. At $66 million, that puts Prescott’s signature into perspective.   

The last time the Cowboys found the hallowed grounds of the Super Bowl was in January 1996. You couldn’t rent the DVD of the Cowboys 27-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Sun Devil Stadium from Netflix and play it on your flat screen TV. You couldn’t pull up the highlights from YouTube on your iPhone and post them on Facebook. The last time the Cowboys were in the Super Bowl, the DVD, Netflix, flat screen TVs, YouTube, the iPhone and Facebook weren’t available to the public.

Olympian Simone Biles, 2019 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Nick Bosa, 2019 NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, two-time NBA MVP (2019, 2020) Giannis Antetokounmpo and Dallas Mavericks franchise player Luca Doncic have never seen the Cowboys play in the Super Bowl live, because they weren’t alive. NASCAR’s Chase Elliott and 2018 NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes were two and four … months old. Mahomes wasn’t scrambling out of the pocket. He could fit in his father’s pocket.  

Jones has been wandering for more than 25 years in search of the promised land. After toying with the idea of an exodus, Prescott will remain to lead the Cowboys. After multiple years of being assigned the franchise tag, what took so long to sign Dak?    

The risks associated with signing Prescott can’t be denied. He is coming off of a major injury. His support team is suspect at best. 

While he appears to be surrounded by plenty of offensive weapons, the Cowboys defense is a sieve. A team needs 45 players, not one highly paid signal caller, to make it to the Super Bowl.    

Rayne Dakota “Dak” Prescott, 27, played college football for Mississippi State in (unlike his bank account) Starkville and was chosen by the Cowboys in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. Despite his new bounty, he is not the Bulldogs’ wealthiest alum. Author John Grisham is said to be worth about $350 million.

Prescott took over for Tony Romo, who was undrafted out of Eastern Illinois, after an injury convinced the sometimes golfer that the comforts of the CBS broadcast booth were safer.

He played well as a rookie, earned the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and made the Pro Bowl team. Prescott has a career passer rating of 97.3, which currently ranks seventh all-time, slightly better than Romo and among the likes of seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady.

Prescott’s record is 42-27 as a starter and 1-2 in the playoffs. Active quarterbacks Jared Goff, Derek Carr, Kurt Cousins, Ryan Tannehill and teammate Andy Dalton have more wins. His winning percentage is bested by Mahomes, Jackson, Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Buffalo’s Josh Allen, Jimmy Garoppolo and Joe Flacco. Joe Flacco? 

Of course, due to longevity and Super Bowl victories, Prescott is not in the same conversation with Brady, Rogers, Drew Brees or Roethlisberger. Another Super Bowl winner, Seattle Seahawks’ QB Russell Wilson, 32, has nearly three times more wins than Prescott, is seeking a trade and chose the Cowboys (with the Raiders, Bears and Saints) as one of four teams where he would go to. As of today, make that three teams.

There has been some question whether Seattle would actually trade Wilson, who makes $5 million less per year than the newly signed Prescott. And he certainly would have come at a hefty price. High draft picks and younger players are too valuable for the Cowboys to part with as they desperately need to rebuild. Plus, there is this whole issue of the NFL salary cap which Grisham could write a book about. 

But in a letter to Seahawks’ season ticket holders in early March, Wilson’s name was left out of the list of star players, which included D. K. Metcalf, Jamal Adams and Tyler Lockett and coach Pete Carroll. It looks like Wilson could have been a Cowboy. J. W. Jones opted to lease Prescott for four years. 

By all accounts, Prescott is a great guy and team player. Jones, on his local station of choice 105.3 The Fan, said: “He has great ability in my mind to win games. He’s talented. He certainly has experience. And, so, he has all the things as substantiated by what we’ve offered Dak.”

J. W. Jones passed on Wilson, and perhaps Carr, Houston’s Deshaun Watson or San Francisco’s Garoppolo, because he thinks he inked a deal that struck oil. Fans of the Cowboys hope it’s not snake oil.

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