The Cowboys are doing their best to turn Dak Prescott’s cleats into a non-story.
But when the starting quarterback of America’s Team and $40 million man has to bag practice 72 hours before the opening game of the season because new shoes were aggravating his surgically-repaired ankle, it’s worth a follow-up or two.
Friday morning, after Prescott himself promised that he’d be “good to go” for Sunday night’s showdown with the Buccaneers, both his head coach and owner have confirmed that self-assessment.
“He’s going to be a full participant today, and I anticipate he’ll be the same tomorrow,” McCarthy told reporters in his Friday press conference. “I don’t have any concern about him playing Sunday.”
It was concerning, though, when Prescott left Thursday’s practice early and didn’t return, all because new Jordan 11s he had planned to wear Sunday were causing soreness in his right ankle.
“Switching shoes today probably wasn’t the best idea,” Prescott said after practice. “It’s the bionic ankle, so we’re fine.”
Been covering NFL teams since 1997, it’s not abnormal for players to change cleats for games. They have “practice” cleats and they move to “game” cleats later in week. However one position group generally doesn’t change cleats – offensive line.
— Todd Archer (@toddarcher) September 9, 2022
But along with a big sigh of relief, much of Cowboys Nation had a seemingly simple question.
If his shoes were hurting his ankle, why not just put on different shoes? Why did this result in him missing the rest of practice and showing up on the injury report?
On 105.3 The Fan Friday morning, team owner Jerry Jones stated that Prescott “certainly could have returned.”
McCarthy said it was “high caution” that kept Prescott out, allowing Cooper Rush to take the rest of the snaps with the first team.
“We react to everything; that’s just the nature of the game,” the coach said. “It’s really standard procedure to go through that anytime a player has an issue.”
McCarthy declined to say what was included in that procedure.
“I’m not going to get into all the specifics,” he explained. “But we checked him out. We made sure that everything’s good.”
Jones agreed.
“It was checked out thoroughly in every way that you can, and no issues,” he told a radio audience. “We’ve got some really good on-the-spot testing and on-the-spot equipment that we can do out there, not only right there in our practice facility, but also just steps away in our Baylor Medical Center. So we were able to take a good look at it and got completely satisfied and he did, too, that there was nothing to it.”
Earlier on the same airwaves, McCarthy went so far as to say that the team’s offensive game plan remains exactly the same for Week 1, even if his quarterback will have to find a different pair of cleats.
“We haven’t changed one thing,” the coach said. “We had our normal meetings last night. Dak’s a part of that. We’re right on schedule.”
And yet, there’s now a twinge of doubt in the minds of many fans. Is Prescott’s right ankle really fully healthy?
Prescott has worn Jordan 11s before- for a few games last season- but was breaking in a new pair for opening night. He says he’ll now go back to the Jordan 1s he wore during training camp.
The quarterback has an endorsement deal with the Jordan Brand and gifted Jordan 11s to his teammates last December. He surprised Cowboys coaches and sideline staff with Jordan 1s last month.
For the amount of money both the team and the shoe brand have tied up in Prescott, it’s a safe bet that someone somewhere is figuring out how to give the face of the most visible franchise in football a completely customized and spot-on perfect fit for his next pair.
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