Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones spoke on the death of defensive lineman Marshawn Kneeland for the first time on Tuesday, as his team continues to grieve the tragic passing of one of its own.
“Devastated,” Jones said on his weekly radio spot with 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “Hard to believe the content that was on the other end of the phone in the middle of the night when we all got the news. We all are having to share the sorrow, all are having to share the different things that come through your mind. As a teammate, Marshawn touched everybody in many different ways.”
Jones said that the team will honor Kneeland with special helmet decals that are being voted on by the team’s leadership council along with pregame warmup T-shirts that will be worn in the team’s next two games against the Las Vegas Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles.
During his comments, Jones complimented how the team has come together for one another during this difficult time and how it can be a lesson for everybody.
“The very definition of team is that we rely on each other,” Jones said. “That’s the ethos of what a team is about. Everybody expects that it’s a rough game and that it takes some real mental toughness to play the game, but in fact there’s a lot of love for each other that is shared in unique ways. You get to know each other pretty good.
“It’s a multifaceted mental thing that is going through everyone’s mind. Sports emphasizes so many different things that we want to hang our hat on, but this is the reality check that at the end of the day, human things and having someone’s company on Earth, being able to have the time we’re here and they’re here, all of those things come to mind in times like this.”
Jones selected Kneeland in the second round of the 2024 draft and was able to spend a lot of time around the Grand Rapids, Michigan, native before his passing last week. His comments lined up with the positive dialogue that has been expressed about Kneeland in the last few days.
“He was very unique in his zest for life and his passion for the game,” Jones said. “The saddest thing for someone like me is that he was only 24 years old. You think about all the time we’re going to miss him, it’s only just getting started ... I can’t emphasize what a positive influence he was out there. That’s what makes this loss so poignant. What he was about was life and the very things that we admire about it.”
Along with thanking the NFL for its national recognition of Kneeland’s passing during the weekend’s games, Jones also commended head coach Brian Schottenheimer for how he has approached the situation with the team.
“[Schottenheimer] does have a realism about him,” he said. “Because he was simply born into it in terms of being around anything unique around a football team. I think we all have unfettered feelings about the people we love, the people we work with. This is just a time when you acknowledge that there are no answers. It makes you want to live life to the fullest.
“It makes you want to look for the very best for each other. In some ways, it makes sense in these times in terms of what it can mean to help those on Earth right now. His death is such a national awareness thing that it takes on some of that light when we think about how we go forward. From the standpoint of the team and going back to work, there’s no doubt in my mind that they will do so in memory of what he was all about.”