Most of us celebrated the 4th of July with fireworks, BBQ, and alcoholic beverages. Personally, I spent half the day with my wife getting our first tattoos.
I had a great first experience. My first ink session lasted just a couple of hours and the pain was minimal. I’m hooked after just one tattoo and already have a litany of ideas for other areas of my body I’d like to mark.
Despite the burning sensation on the inside of my bicep for about two hours, it still didn’t compare to the sensation of seeing that photo of Dak Prescott walking with his beautiful girlfriend, MJ in Cabo San Lucas.
No, I’m not jealous of his relationship. The sensation was of utter fear and confusion and came from the fact that Prescott was photographed with a walking boot on his right ankle. The same right ankle where he suffered a compound fracture five games into the 2020 season.
The same ankle that forced him to miss the entire 2020 season, leaving the team in the hands of the likes of Andy Dalton, Ben DiNucci, and Garrett Gilbert. That same ankle caused a calf injury on his opposite leg that very well led to the uncharacteristic increase in interceptions thrown.
Any fan who sees their QB1 in a walking boot will be concerned but everything is magnified when you’re the quarterback of the most valuable franchise in the league.
This photo, taken by a random Twitter/X user who happened to be in the same location as Prescott, is enough to give an entire fanbase a heart attack.
The Scoop
Everybody can breathe a sigh of relief. The reason we didn’t hear anything about this previously is because it’s a very minor injury.
As first reported by Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News, Dak Prescott is dealing with a minor foot sprain that will have no effect on his availability for training camp or the regular season. The boot is just a precaution.
We can breathe a sigh of relief now. Our quarterback is going to be just fine. Prescott did have some words about it.
“The same ankle, same issues… the last time I went deep sea fishing, my ankle swole up. I’m great.”
So it appears that this is the usual maintenance of his previously injured ankle and there is nothing to worry about moving forward.
But it does beg the question. If this is just regular maintenance, why didn’t Prescott make note of his foot sprain?
Life Without Dak
Over the past couple of years, the Cowboys have gotten much better as a team in the absence of Prescott. Dak has only missed 17 games in his eight-year career due to injury. 11 of those games were for the compound ankle fracture.
One game was for a calf strain when the Cowboys were scheduled to play in Minnesota in late October of the 2021 season. Backup Cooper Rush got the first start of his career and delivered a clutch drive in the 4th quarter for the game-winning touchdown pass to Amari Cooper.
In 2022, Prescott missed five and a half games with a broken finger suffered in Week 1 of the season versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Rush stepped in and in conjunction with a stifling defensive effort, went 4-1 as a starter.
His only loss was the final game before Prescott’s return, a 26-17 loss in Philadelphia versus the eventual NFC Champion Eagles.
The 4-1 record for the team in Prescott’s absence was a move in the positive direction for a franchise that created a reputation of being fruitless without QB 1 in the lineup.
Don’t let the photo scare you. It’s regular maintenance for Prescott. Let’s hope that’s actually the case and we won’t need to see Cooper Rush or Trey Lance on the field at some point.