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'Tony Romo wins and I win;' why you should bet on Cowboys' unapologetic mama's boy Dak Prescott
By Brandon George
Editor's note: This story originally ran in June 2016. SportsDay periodically brings back past stories. Today we focus on Dak Prescott, who could be asked to step up and be Tony Romo's backup quarterback to start this season after Kellen Moore broke his ankle.
As quarterback Dak Prescott waited to hear his name called during April's NFL draft, his thoughts seesawed from his soon-to-be glory to his mother.
Prescott was on the verge of fulfilling a lifelong dream, surrounded by 30 of the closest people in his life at a lodge at Toledo Bend Reservoir, but something was missing among the heart-racing anticipation and tears of joy.
Prescott is an unapologetic mama's boy. He would often sleep in his mother's bed when he returned from college to his hometown in northwestern Louisiana.
By all accounts, Margaret "Peggy" Prescott was one of a kind, a devout single mother who worked from daylight to dark to raise three boys.
"The strongest, most independent woman ever" is how Prescott describes his mom. "I like to say I'm the male version of her," he said. "Hopefully she would agree with that."
Peggy molded Prescott into the man he has become, but she didn't get to enjoy many of his greatest successes. She died in November 2013 at the age of 52 after a year-and-a-half-long battle with colon cancer.
"I knew how proud she would be at this moment," Prescott said about when the Cowboys, his favorite team, used a fourth-round pick to select him on the final day of the draft. "It was a little bittersweet. Bitter because she wasn't there, but sweet because I know how she's feeling."
Tad, Prescott's oldest brother, used two words to describe the scene: expected and emotional.
"She was a Cowboys fan because he was a Cowboys fan, so they would have gone crazy together," Tad said of his mother. "A lot of those tears were tears of joy, but a lot of those tears were in memory of her."
Prescott is only the third quarterback drafted by the Cowboys since 1992. They hope he can develop into the eventual replacement for starter Tony Romo.
If history means anything, Prescott will overachieve with the Cowboys.
Prescott led his high school team in Haughton, La., to the only undefeated regular season in school history as a senior before setting 38 school records at Mississippi State against the best competition college football has to offer in the SEC.
He became one of the most revered athletes in Mississippi State history, leading the Bulldogs to three consecutive wins over Top 10 teams in 2014 and the program's first No. 1 ranking while catapulting himself into the Heisman Trophy conversation.
After earning two degrees at Mississippi State - his undergraduate in educational psychology and his master's in workforce leadership - Prescott impressed NFL scouts at the Senior Bowl in January and was named the game's most outstanding player.
Now he'll mostly learn behind Romo. Prescott said he does share a similarity with Romo.
"Romo wins and I win," he said. "That's the biggest thing you can take from the quarterback position."
'If you can't run with the big dogs ...'
Prescott and his two older brothers, Tad and Jace, grew up in a trailer park in Princeton, La., about 30 miles from Shreveport.
Their parents divorced about the time Dak was starting school. Even though they remained close to their father, Nathaniel, the boys mostly relied on their mom.
Peggy worked long hours managing a truck stop - the I-220 Travel Plaza near Louisiana Downs - before rushing home to the Pine Creek Mobile Estates to cook dinner.
Peggy was a football mom. She rarely missed one of her son's practices or games. She often critiqued her sons' play, earning her the nickname of John Madden from her boys. She even timed Dak's runs on his return trips home from college.
All three boys became standout prep players for former coach Rodney Guin at Haughton.
Guin said Tad - now 29 and living in Orange, Texas - was probably the most athletic of the three boys even though he was the smallest. Tad played defensive end and once had seven sacks in a game.
Jace - now 28 and living in Vinton, La., about 15 minutes from Tad - was the giant of the three. Tad said Jace played left tackle and nose guard for Haughton at 6-6 and 420 pounds.
Jace became one of the few freshmen to ever start for Guin at Haughton. He went on to play three years for Northwestern State (La.).
But it was Dak - the baby of the family - who would accomplish the most. Because of the seven-year age gap between brothers, Prescott often played with boys much older than him while growing up.
"From the time he could walk he had a football in his hands," Tad said. "He'd be out in the backyard in the field behind our house with 12- and 13-year-old boys playing tackle football, just getting it handed to him. He'd go in the house crying and mom would tell him, 'If you can't run with the big dogs stay on the porch.' "
Prescott mostly played at linebacker and running back in youth football. Tad recalled that Dak was so dominant in games that the announcer started referring to him by his first name.
"He'd say, 'On that play, you know who that was! That was Dak!'" Tad said.
Dak started playing quarterback in middle school. Tad remembers sitting by one of his friends at a game who was in awe of his baby brother, noticing that Dak was already meticulously going through progressions after dropping back to find the open receiver.
"My buddy said, 'He's going to be great. Your brother is going to be the man,'" Tad recalled. "And he just carried it over."
Dak's first opportunity in high school came in a district game his sophomore year when the starting quarterback was hurt, leading Haughton to a come-from-behind win.
"He never lost the job after that," Tad said.
Guin's favorite Prescott story came with Haughton playing for the district title against its rival in the last game of his junior season. Haughton trailed by three with about 1:30 left with the ball 80 yards from the end zone.
"Dak comes off the sideline and says, 'Coach, we got this,'" Guin recalled. "He completed eight passes in a row and we scored a touchdown with 20 seconds left.
"He got better from there, but to me that was a turning point for him. It showed what he could do and he just took off after that. People still talk about that around here."
Dak then led Haughton to an undefeated regular season as a senior before the Bucs lost in the state quarterfinals. But he was just getting started.
Grass and ashes
Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen knows a little something about quarterbacks. He's had a hand in developing Donovan McNabb, No. 1 pick Alex Smith and Heisman Trophy-winner Tim Tebow.
But it wasn't Prescott's athletic ability that first grabbed Mullen's attention when he attended a Mississippi State camp before his senior year at Haughton. He was struck by Prescott's leadership.
"Nothing skill-wise really stood out to you, but at the camp they go into a weight room with all the top recruits around and our strength coach came out and said, 'This is the guy we want to be our quarterback. He's a leader,'" Mullen recalled. "He's around these guys who are all top national recruits, no one really knows each other, and here he is just separating himself. That is what you wanted. He has that 'it' factor."
Entering his redshirt freshman year at Mississippi State, Dak learned his mother had been diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer.
Peggy chose not to tell him right away so that she didn't become a distraction. Prescott said she had known about the cancer for a month or two before she told him.
"It was just the woman she was," Prescott said. "I think she was scared of how it was going to affect me. Obviously I wanted to go home and be with her, but her words were, 'No, you're not coming back here. You're right where you want to be and that's where I want you to be.' That obviously allowed me to go out there and clear my mind and just play ball."
Just like in high school - and now with the Cowboys - Dak had to wait his turn at Mississippi State. He didn't get his first chance to start until his third year in the program.
As a sophomore in 2013, Prescott started seven games for the Bulldogs. But his mother's health began to take a turn for the worse. Chemotherapy took his mother's hair and she eventually spent a lot of time in a wheelchair as the disease ravaged her mobility.
On Nov. 3, the day after Prescott threw three interceptions and fumbled in a loss to South Carolina, Mississippi State coaches and some of their wives called Prescott into the football complex. Prescott's father was on the phone. His mother had died.
Prescott flew home for the funeral but was back at practice by Wednesday.
"His mom would have been pretty pissed if he had been moping around and not out at practice," Mullen said.
Prescott said practicing football is where "mom wanted me to be."
"I remember watching Brett Favre play the night his dad passed, and I remember we had talked about that. She said, 'Whatever happens to me, if it is in that situation, you go play,'" Prescott said. "Football has always kind of given me that freedom away from everything else."
A few days later, Prescott was back on the field at Texas A&M, rushing for a career-best 154 yards. He injured his elbow in the fourth quarter, however, and would miss the next three weeks with what Mullen described as a "triple stinger."
Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott (15) points skyward in remembrance of his mother after scoring a touchdown during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Kentucky in Starkville, Miss., Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015.
Mullen didn't think Prescott would be ready to play against rival Mississippi in the Egg Bowl because "he couldn't move his arm for weeks."
"Doctors came in and said there is no chance of him playing," Mullen said, "and then all of a sudden the specialist came in the day before and said it must be a miracle, 'We're going to clear him to be able to play.'"
Prescott didn't start, but with the Bulldogs trailing 10-0 in the fourth quarter, Mullen put him in the game. Prescott led two scoring drives to tie it and then scored the game-winning touchdown in overtime.
"If you were a Mississippi State fan and you were in the stadium that night," Mullen said, "it's just something that you'll be telling that story to your grandkids about 50 years from now."
MSU Football ✔ @HailStateFB
Hey @dallascowboys,
Here's what @15_DakP meant to us and now we can't wait to see what he does for you!#HailState
11:12 AM - 3 May 2016
Prescott used the Egg Bowl rally and an MVP performance in the Liberty Bowl (he accounted for a bowl-record five touchdowns) to propel him into a 2014 season that put him in contention for the Heisman.
In leading Mississippi State to a 9-0 start, he guided the Bulldogs to three consecutive victories over Top 10 teams LSU, Texas A&M and Auburn to reach No. 1 in the polls.
The win at LSU was special in many ways for Prescott. He was from Louisiana, and it was Mississippi State's first win at LSU since 1991. He passed for 268 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another 105 yards, including a highlight reel 56-yard touchdown run through the heart of the Tigers' defense.
Tad was there for the game and took home a chunk of grass from Tiger Stadium to remember the moment.
"I still have it to this day in my bedroom in a cup next to my mom's ashes," Tad said. "That was a big win, big day, big day."
Owning up
Prescott considered making the jump to the NFL after his standout junior season but ultimately chose to return to Mississippi State.
He finished the year accounting for 39 touchdowns and 4,381 yards of offense. Most of all, he improved his draft stock.
Cowboys coach Wade Wilson met with Prescott three times in three states the first three months of the year, including working him out in Starkville.
One of the Cowboys' coaches who worked out the 6-2, 226-pound Dak that day quipped to his agent, "Dang, you brought me a linebacker."
Prescott's only hiccup leading to the draft came when he was arrested April 23 for speeding in Starkville, He was charged with driving under the influence. The trial was recently pushed back to July 20. His attorney has been trying to get the DUI charge dropped because his initial test returned an "invalid sample."
Regardless, Prescott immediately apologized and took full responsibility.
"It was a mistake and I learned from it," he said after the Cowboys drafted him, "and it won't happen again."
The Cowboys wanted to draft a quarterback to develop behind Romo - they also had strong interest in Memphis' Paxton Lynch and Michigan State's Connor Cook - but eventually selected Prescott with the 135th overall pick.
Prescott chose jersey No. 4 with the Cowboys because his mother's birthday is Sept. 4.
Some have compared Prescott to Tebow because Mullen coached both dual-threat quarterbacks.
"To me they're both competitors and winners. I can see those comparisons," Mullen said. "You look at guys who are going to will themselves to win no matter what it is they're doing, that's the comparison. On the football field they're very, very, very different in their styles of games."
I'm going to tell you what, if you had to get into a foxhole with somebody you'd feel pretty good if you had either one of those two guys next to you whatever it is you're doing in this life."
'I love my job, but it's 100 percent work'
Prescott has tiptoed through the stages of grief like a soldier navigating a minefield. Head down. Slowly step forward. Watch for trip wires.
Along the way, he has remained focused on his craft.
Tad said when his brother was in college, he'd spend entire trips between Shreveport and Starkville in the passenger's seat studying Mississippi State's playbook.
That apparently hasn't changed with the Cowboys.
A few days ago, Tad texted Dak to check in on him:
Tad: What are you doing?
Dak: I just left work.
Tad: You just left work, Lol
Dak: Yeah, I just left work. What would you call it?
Tad: I would call it living the dream.
Dak: Trust me, I love my job, but it's 100 percent work.
"That right there tells you everything about him," Tad said. "I see it as, 'Oh my god, you're living the dream as an NFL player,' and he sees it as 'No, I'm a guy trying to make a roster spot and trying to show everybody why I belong here.'"
By Brandon George
Editor's note: This story originally ran in June 2016. SportsDay periodically brings back past stories. Today we focus on Dak Prescott, who could be asked to step up and be Tony Romo's backup quarterback to start this season after Kellen Moore broke his ankle.
As quarterback Dak Prescott waited to hear his name called during April's NFL draft, his thoughts seesawed from his soon-to-be glory to his mother.
Prescott was on the verge of fulfilling a lifelong dream, surrounded by 30 of the closest people in his life at a lodge at Toledo Bend Reservoir, but something was missing among the heart-racing anticipation and tears of joy.
Prescott is an unapologetic mama's boy. He would often sleep in his mother's bed when he returned from college to his hometown in northwestern Louisiana.
By all accounts, Margaret "Peggy" Prescott was one of a kind, a devout single mother who worked from daylight to dark to raise three boys.
"The strongest, most independent woman ever" is how Prescott describes his mom. "I like to say I'm the male version of her," he said. "Hopefully she would agree with that."
Peggy molded Prescott into the man he has become, but she didn't get to enjoy many of his greatest successes. She died in November 2013 at the age of 52 after a year-and-a-half-long battle with colon cancer.
"I knew how proud she would be at this moment," Prescott said about when the Cowboys, his favorite team, used a fourth-round pick to select him on the final day of the draft. "It was a little bittersweet. Bitter because she wasn't there, but sweet because I know how she's feeling."
Tad, Prescott's oldest brother, used two words to describe the scene: expected and emotional.
"She was a Cowboys fan because he was a Cowboys fan, so they would have gone crazy together," Tad said of his mother. "A lot of those tears were tears of joy, but a lot of those tears were in memory of her."
Prescott is only the third quarterback drafted by the Cowboys since 1992. They hope he can develop into the eventual replacement for starter Tony Romo.
If history means anything, Prescott will overachieve with the Cowboys.
Prescott led his high school team in Haughton, La., to the only undefeated regular season in school history as a senior before setting 38 school records at Mississippi State against the best competition college football has to offer in the SEC.
He became one of the most revered athletes in Mississippi State history, leading the Bulldogs to three consecutive wins over Top 10 teams in 2014 and the program's first No. 1 ranking while catapulting himself into the Heisman Trophy conversation.
After earning two degrees at Mississippi State - his undergraduate in educational psychology and his master's in workforce leadership - Prescott impressed NFL scouts at the Senior Bowl in January and was named the game's most outstanding player.
Now he'll mostly learn behind Romo. Prescott said he does share a similarity with Romo.
"Romo wins and I win," he said. "That's the biggest thing you can take from the quarterback position."
'If you can't run with the big dogs ...'
Prescott and his two older brothers, Tad and Jace, grew up in a trailer park in Princeton, La., about 30 miles from Shreveport.
Their parents divorced about the time Dak was starting school. Even though they remained close to their father, Nathaniel, the boys mostly relied on their mom.
Peggy worked long hours managing a truck stop - the I-220 Travel Plaza near Louisiana Downs - before rushing home to the Pine Creek Mobile Estates to cook dinner.
Peggy was a football mom. She rarely missed one of her son's practices or games. She often critiqued her sons' play, earning her the nickname of John Madden from her boys. She even timed Dak's runs on his return trips home from college.
All three boys became standout prep players for former coach Rodney Guin at Haughton.
Guin said Tad - now 29 and living in Orange, Texas - was probably the most athletic of the three boys even though he was the smallest. Tad played defensive end and once had seven sacks in a game.
Jace - now 28 and living in Vinton, La., about 15 minutes from Tad - was the giant of the three. Tad said Jace played left tackle and nose guard for Haughton at 6-6 and 420 pounds.
Jace became one of the few freshmen to ever start for Guin at Haughton. He went on to play three years for Northwestern State (La.).
But it was Dak - the baby of the family - who would accomplish the most. Because of the seven-year age gap between brothers, Prescott often played with boys much older than him while growing up.
"From the time he could walk he had a football in his hands," Tad said. "He'd be out in the backyard in the field behind our house with 12- and 13-year-old boys playing tackle football, just getting it handed to him. He'd go in the house crying and mom would tell him, 'If you can't run with the big dogs stay on the porch.' "
Prescott mostly played at linebacker and running back in youth football. Tad recalled that Dak was so dominant in games that the announcer started referring to him by his first name.
"He'd say, 'On that play, you know who that was! That was Dak!'" Tad said.
Dak started playing quarterback in middle school. Tad remembers sitting by one of his friends at a game who was in awe of his baby brother, noticing that Dak was already meticulously going through progressions after dropping back to find the open receiver.
"My buddy said, 'He's going to be great. Your brother is going to be the man,'" Tad recalled. "And he just carried it over."
Dak's first opportunity in high school came in a district game his sophomore year when the starting quarterback was hurt, leading Haughton to a come-from-behind win.
"He never lost the job after that," Tad said.
Guin's favorite Prescott story came with Haughton playing for the district title against its rival in the last game of his junior season. Haughton trailed by three with about 1:30 left with the ball 80 yards from the end zone.
"Dak comes off the sideline and says, 'Coach, we got this,'" Guin recalled. "He completed eight passes in a row and we scored a touchdown with 20 seconds left.
"He got better from there, but to me that was a turning point for him. It showed what he could do and he just took off after that. People still talk about that around here."
Dak then led Haughton to an undefeated regular season as a senior before the Bucs lost in the state quarterfinals. But he was just getting started.
Grass and ashes
Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen knows a little something about quarterbacks. He's had a hand in developing Donovan McNabb, No. 1 pick Alex Smith and Heisman Trophy-winner Tim Tebow.
But it wasn't Prescott's athletic ability that first grabbed Mullen's attention when he attended a Mississippi State camp before his senior year at Haughton. He was struck by Prescott's leadership.
"Nothing skill-wise really stood out to you, but at the camp they go into a weight room with all the top recruits around and our strength coach came out and said, 'This is the guy we want to be our quarterback. He's a leader,'" Mullen recalled. "He's around these guys who are all top national recruits, no one really knows each other, and here he is just separating himself. That is what you wanted. He has that 'it' factor."
Entering his redshirt freshman year at Mississippi State, Dak learned his mother had been diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer.
Peggy chose not to tell him right away so that she didn't become a distraction. Prescott said she had known about the cancer for a month or two before she told him.
"It was just the woman she was," Prescott said. "I think she was scared of how it was going to affect me. Obviously I wanted to go home and be with her, but her words were, 'No, you're not coming back here. You're right where you want to be and that's where I want you to be.' That obviously allowed me to go out there and clear my mind and just play ball."
Just like in high school - and now with the Cowboys - Dak had to wait his turn at Mississippi State. He didn't get his first chance to start until his third year in the program.
As a sophomore in 2013, Prescott started seven games for the Bulldogs. But his mother's health began to take a turn for the worse. Chemotherapy took his mother's hair and she eventually spent a lot of time in a wheelchair as the disease ravaged her mobility.
On Nov. 3, the day after Prescott threw three interceptions and fumbled in a loss to South Carolina, Mississippi State coaches and some of their wives called Prescott into the football complex. Prescott's father was on the phone. His mother had died.
Prescott flew home for the funeral but was back at practice by Wednesday.
"His mom would have been pretty pissed if he had been moping around and not out at practice," Mullen said.
Prescott said practicing football is where "mom wanted me to be."
"I remember watching Brett Favre play the night his dad passed, and I remember we had talked about that. She said, 'Whatever happens to me, if it is in that situation, you go play,'" Prescott said. "Football has always kind of given me that freedom away from everything else."
A few days later, Prescott was back on the field at Texas A&M, rushing for a career-best 154 yards. He injured his elbow in the fourth quarter, however, and would miss the next three weeks with what Mullen described as a "triple stinger."
Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott (15) points skyward in remembrance of his mother after scoring a touchdown during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Kentucky in Starkville, Miss., Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015.
Mullen didn't think Prescott would be ready to play against rival Mississippi in the Egg Bowl because "he couldn't move his arm for weeks."
"Doctors came in and said there is no chance of him playing," Mullen said, "and then all of a sudden the specialist came in the day before and said it must be a miracle, 'We're going to clear him to be able to play.'"
Prescott didn't start, but with the Bulldogs trailing 10-0 in the fourth quarter, Mullen put him in the game. Prescott led two scoring drives to tie it and then scored the game-winning touchdown in overtime.
"If you were a Mississippi State fan and you were in the stadium that night," Mullen said, "it's just something that you'll be telling that story to your grandkids about 50 years from now."
MSU Football ✔ @HailStateFB
Hey @dallascowboys,
Here's what @15_DakP meant to us and now we can't wait to see what he does for you!#HailState
11:12 AM - 3 May 2016
Prescott used the Egg Bowl rally and an MVP performance in the Liberty Bowl (he accounted for a bowl-record five touchdowns) to propel him into a 2014 season that put him in contention for the Heisman.
In leading Mississippi State to a 9-0 start, he guided the Bulldogs to three consecutive victories over Top 10 teams LSU, Texas A&M and Auburn to reach No. 1 in the polls.
The win at LSU was special in many ways for Prescott. He was from Louisiana, and it was Mississippi State's first win at LSU since 1991. He passed for 268 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another 105 yards, including a highlight reel 56-yard touchdown run through the heart of the Tigers' defense.
Tad was there for the game and took home a chunk of grass from Tiger Stadium to remember the moment.
"I still have it to this day in my bedroom in a cup next to my mom's ashes," Tad said. "That was a big win, big day, big day."
Owning up
Prescott considered making the jump to the NFL after his standout junior season but ultimately chose to return to Mississippi State.
He finished the year accounting for 39 touchdowns and 4,381 yards of offense. Most of all, he improved his draft stock.
Cowboys coach Wade Wilson met with Prescott three times in three states the first three months of the year, including working him out in Starkville.
One of the Cowboys' coaches who worked out the 6-2, 226-pound Dak that day quipped to his agent, "Dang, you brought me a linebacker."
Prescott's only hiccup leading to the draft came when he was arrested April 23 for speeding in Starkville, He was charged with driving under the influence. The trial was recently pushed back to July 20. His attorney has been trying to get the DUI charge dropped because his initial test returned an "invalid sample."
Regardless, Prescott immediately apologized and took full responsibility.
"It was a mistake and I learned from it," he said after the Cowboys drafted him, "and it won't happen again."
The Cowboys wanted to draft a quarterback to develop behind Romo - they also had strong interest in Memphis' Paxton Lynch and Michigan State's Connor Cook - but eventually selected Prescott with the 135th overall pick.
Prescott chose jersey No. 4 with the Cowboys because his mother's birthday is Sept. 4.
Some have compared Prescott to Tebow because Mullen coached both dual-threat quarterbacks.
"To me they're both competitors and winners. I can see those comparisons," Mullen said. "You look at guys who are going to will themselves to win no matter what it is they're doing, that's the comparison. On the football field they're very, very, very different in their styles of games."
I'm going to tell you what, if you had to get into a foxhole with somebody you'd feel pretty good if you had either one of those two guys next to you whatever it is you're doing in this life."
'I love my job, but it's 100 percent work'
Prescott has tiptoed through the stages of grief like a soldier navigating a minefield. Head down. Slowly step forward. Watch for trip wires.
Along the way, he has remained focused on his craft.
Tad said when his brother was in college, he'd spend entire trips between Shreveport and Starkville in the passenger's seat studying Mississippi State's playbook.
That apparently hasn't changed with the Cowboys.
A few days ago, Tad texted Dak to check in on him:
Tad: What are you doing?
Dak: I just left work.
Tad: You just left work, Lol
Dak: Yeah, I just left work. What would you call it?
Tad: I would call it living the dream.
Dak: Trust me, I love my job, but it's 100 percent work.
"That right there tells you everything about him," Tad said. "I see it as, 'Oh my god, you're living the dream as an NFL player,' and he sees it as 'No, I'm a guy trying to make a roster spot and trying to show everybody why I belong here.'"
No kidding.
