Cowboys QB Dak Prescott Talks Struggles During Offseason With Depression, Brother's Suicide
FRISCO, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - In a recent interview, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott revealed struggles we went through with depression and his brother's suicide during the offseason.
Prescott talked with Graham Bensinger about how he was coping with the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year and then, ultimately, learning that his brother, Jace, had taken his own life.
"It's crazy. All throughout this quarantine and this offseason, I started experiencing emotions I've never felt before... anxiety for the main one. And then, honestly a couple of days before my brother passed, I would say I started experiencing depression. Didn't necessarily know what I was going through to say the least," Prescott said.
Prescott went on to say the night he learned about his brother's death, he had "probably the best night of sleep I ever had in 2020." He said he woke up to "some of the worst news I'll ever get."
Jace Prescott died on April 23, 2020 at the age of 31. He was the second-oldest out of the three Prescott brothers, with Tad being the oldest.
In the same interview with Bensinger, Tad Prescott talked about how he learned about Jace's death.
"I'm reading this message and I don't believe it. I literally get up, like 'Oh my God, my brother just accidentally shot himself, like oh, he shot himself in the foot...' And then I get the message, 'no, he shot himself in the head...'" Tad Prescott said.
"I sat there and tried to gather what had happened and wanted to ask 'why' for so many reasons," Dak Prescott added. "It was like this sense of all these emotions coming off of my back..."
The Cowboys quarterback also mentioned how he wanted people to remember Jace.
"Big smile. The most athletic human being I've ever met. And anybody and everybody that knows him would agree," Dak Prescott said. "A crazy athlete but such a big heart. I'll never get another hug in my life like the ones he gave. He was my best friend."
"I knew my brother... he had a lot of burdens on him. He had a lot of tough things... my sense of saying that is it showed me of how vulnerable we have to be as humans, how open we have to be because our adversity, our struggles, what we go through is always gonna be too much for ourselves.... never too much for a community, never too much for the people in the family that you love. So we have to share those things," the Cowboys quarterback added.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or emotional distress, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1.800.273.8255.
