Voltar
Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys lost a tough game last Thursday night. Shortly after the Cowboys fell to 2-3 with their 24-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Prescott heard some surprising criticism from a contracted car-service driver at AT&T Stadium, who called the QB’s performance “embarrassing.”
Prescott clearly didn’t take kindly to the negative remark and spent part of his post-game press conference addressing the situation. Unverified social media claims subsequently circulated that the driver had been fired, and now SiriusXM’s Stephen A. Smith is piling on the Cowboys’ QB1, too.
It’s rare for a franchise quarterback to show that he’s been impacted by critical remarks from a fan. Yet, it’s also unusual for a fan to be so boldly confident as to say something like that in the vicinity of a respected player like Prescott.
Nevertheless, both sides likely wish they could go back and do something different to avoid the scenario they now find themselves in. But there’s no way to squeeze the toothpaste back into the tube now.
Recently, the popular sports analyst went on his own “Stephen A. Smith Show” on SiriusXM, where he weighed in on claims that Prescott had played a role in the driver’s firing.
“Apparently, some cat went on social media and announced that he was fired by the Cowboys because he’s the guy that yelled at Dak Prescott ’embarrassing’ at AT&T Stadium,” Smith said. “If Dak Prescott got the dude fired, yeah, that’s kind of weak because you’re making $60 million in a year; you only got two playoff victories in your career.”
Meanwhile, some might argue that the contracted car-service driver created the situation himself by confronting Prescott while working at the stadium. After all, it’s not like Prescott was the one who was out of line with his remarks. But that’s not how Smith sees it. Though he does argue that the employee should have used better judgment too.
“There’s two things that could be true,” Smith continued. “The brother that yelled embarrassing. Yo man, I want everybody to be gainfully employed. As a nation, we’re only as strong as our weakest link. I get it. Having said all that, let me be very, very clear about where I’m going with this. You gotta know your battles, and you gotta know how to pick em.
“You gotta know that you can’t just go out and talk smack to a quarterback that just lost a game while he’s walking into the locker room, and you work for the damn team. And you work at the stadium. Know your freakin’ place. You can’t do that!”
Prescott’s 78.7 PFN Impact Score places him 15th among NFL QBs this season. That’s far from “embarrassing.” Yet, he’ll be the first to admit he could play better in upcoming matchups.
Otherwise, Smith makes a good point, essentially saying: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. In this case, the contracted driver made the remark while working at the stadium, though it has not been independently confirmed that he was fired over the incident.