Quarterback Dak Prescott joined his fellow Dallas Cowboys in remembering their late teammate, defensive end Marshawn Kneeland, who died by suicide at age 24 on Thursday, November 6.
Prescott, 32, whose brother Jase died by suicide in April 2020, spoke poignantly about how the team could go back to playing football while still mourning a friend.
"Having dealt with loss, that is the best medicine for me," Prescott told ESPN in a story published Thursday, November 13. "So getting back out there, handing the ball off and sprinting an extra 10 yards and making sure I'm doing it hard, Marshawn went through my mind a few times at practice today. I just countered that with running harder after a play or trying to do something to better this team to show that."
The Cowboys are gearing up to play the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday, November 17. It will be their first game since Kneeland's untimely death.
"I know it was a great practice," Prescott continued. "A lot of guys were out there, good energy, beautiful weather. As I said, we're not forgetting, but we're moving forward carrying on the light."
Cowboys defensive lineman Solomon Thomas has also experienced a similar tragedy, after losing his sister, Ella, to suicide in 2018.His remarks struck a similar tone to Prescott's.
"The only way I know how to get out of it, to move forward from a tragic situation like this, is to live for that person, take the amazing qualities that you learned from them, take the smiles and memories that you get from him, and apply them to your life every day," he said.
Thomas, 30, also spoke out in favor of better funding for mental health resources. He and his family founded non-profit The Defensive Line in 2021, in Ella's honor in order in an effort to help end the epidemic of youth suicide.
"We're losing so many amazing people to it," he said. "People that should be here helping their loved ones. Spending birthdays with their loved ones, watching people get married. Like, it's such a preventable death, and we just need as a nation to come together. Be kind. Put more funding into mental health resources. Help people get to therapy and let people know it's OK to cry. Let people know it's OK to not always put a smile on and be good. Like, let people know you can be sad and happy and still have a good day."
Thomas emphasized that it's not always easy to tell when somebody is struggling. He recalled Kneeland as someone who was "smiling every day."
"He was happy, he was listening to music, he was dancing all the time," Thomas said. "But that's the thing with mental health and suicide. You just never know what someone's going through. Someone could be smiling, someone could be dancing, laughing, having a great time, expressing all this joy, but inside, they could really be fighting the battle that you never know about."
He added, "You don't know what the chemicals are telling them in their brain. You don't know the trauma from their childhood. You don't know everything they've been going through, and that's why it's so important to be kind."
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
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