Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott revealed in an interview his brother committed suicide earlier this year. The Cowboys’ QB said he battled anxiety and depression after losing Jace, 31, on April 24 in Orange, TX.
“I mean, obviously tears and tears and tears,” Dak Prescott told Graham Bensinger in an interview slated to air Sunday. “I mean, I sat there and tried to gather what had happened, and wanted to ask why for so many reasons … and as much as you want to ask why as much as this, I mean, I know my brother, and as we said, he had a lot of burdens on him.”
Dak Prescott said Jace was the main caregiver to his mother Peggy during her battle with colon cancer before she died in 2013.
The impact of losing his brother as well as going through the COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on the quarterback.
“All throughout this quarantine and this offseason, I started experiencing emotions I’ve never felt before,” Prescott said. “Anxiety for the main one. And then, honestly, a couple of days before my brother passed, I would say I started experiencing depression. And to the point of, I didn’t want to work out anymore. I didn’t know necessarily what I was going through, to say the least, and hadn’t been sleeping at all.”
Prescott wants to help others who need it. An absolutely admirable stance.
,,, “How open we have to be because our adversity, our struggles, what we go through is always going to 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 and the family that you love. So we have to share those things.”
The full interview will also air on NBC5 [KXAS-TV] on Sunday at 11:00 p.m. CT.
Lifelines of support
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 24-hour crisis hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Confidential online chat is available at suicidepreventionlifeline.org