Dak Prescott’s Everyday Bravery and Talking About Mental Health Issues
I really admire Dak Prescott. Sure, I grew up outside of Dallas and I’ve been a Cowboys fan for a long time. So, of course I’m going to root for the guy on the field. When Dak and Ezekiel Elliott joined the team in 2016, they supercharged the offense. I’m particularly excited for this season with the stocked receiver corp and new coach. But aside from all that, Dak is an admirable human being. The guy has been through a lot, and handles his adversity with strength and dignity. Just a few days ago he used his platform to attack the stigma that plagues mental health issues. And mental health issues are something that almost all of us deal with everyday, whether our own or those of our loved ones.
In anticipation of the football season, Dak spoke openly about his offseason struggles with depression surrounding the suicide of his brother Jace earlier this year. Jace had been the primary caretaker of their mom Peggy throughout her lengthy battle with colon cancer that eventually took her life in 2013. The Prescott boys—Dak, older brother Jace, and eldest brother Tad—were all extremely close, and were galvanized even further by their mother’s passing. But neither Dak nor Tad were aware of Jace’s struggle. I have two brothers too, and we are very close. The thought of losing my brother is unbearable. We all have siblings, family, friends. It’s likely that some of our loved ones are fighting battles we can’t see. And we can’t see those battles unless we show them to each other.
When Dak used his platform to describe his own struggle with depression, he helped to normalize the types of difficult conversations about mental health that we all need to be having. Because, none of us—not even the highest-profile athletes in the world—are immune to mental health issues. Many of us deal with depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. And if we don’t, we almost certainly have loved ones who do. All of our lives are touched by struggles with mental health. I hope that Dak’s high-profile bravery encourages those of us who are struggling with our own mental health to reach out to our loved ones, and to seek help from professionals. And I hope that those of us who are needed by our loved ones have the grace and tact and empathy to listen.
The Prescott brothers: Jace, Dak, and Tad
The quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys has been a cultural icon for such a long time—Troy Aikman, Roger Staubach, Dandy Don Meredith. Last week Dak leveraged that cultural capital to model the type of everyday courage we all need to develop to speak openly with our loved ones about ours and their burdens. Because, Dak said it best:
“Our adversity, our struggles—what we go through—is always gonna be too much for ourselves, and maybe too much for even one or two people. but never too much for a community or never too much for the people in the family that you love. So we have to share those things”
