Tag: Leadership Council

Cowboys DE Randy Gregory relishes new leadership role: ‘Still a lot to prove on the field’

The 2015 draft pick has played in just 26 games, but his tenacity in improving himself has placed him on the team’s leadership council. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The remarkable journey continues for Randy Gregory. Since entering the pros in 2015, the electrifying defensive end has played in just 26 games. But the Cowboys organization has stuck with him through a gauntlet of personal challenges. Now he’s been named to the team’s leadership council.

But that’s far from the end of Gregory’s story. He’s writing the next chapter this summer in Oxnard with what has been, by all accounts, a thoroughly dominating performance at training camp.

But Gregory is keeping it all in perspective.

“Look, I still have a lot to prove,” the 28-year-old told reporters on Saturday. “I think there’s a lot of talk going around right now; I really believe I’m having a good offseason. But there’s still a lot to prove on the field. So I don’t want to sit here and say, ‘Did you ever doubt that you’d get here?’ I still feel like I haven’t truly arrived. There’s a lot for me to do.”

A projected high-first-round draft pick out of Nebraska, he fell to Dallas in the second round after a failed drug test. On the field for the Cowboys, he was thrilling to watch. But he had difficulty staying there, due to various injuries and multiple suspensions by the league.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones remained committed to Gregory as he sought medical treatment and continued to put in the work on his mental health. The strides he’s made have now earned him a spot as one of the team’s recognized leaders, even if he’s spent more of his Cowboys career to this point off the field than on it.

“It was a surprise for me, too,” Gregory blushed. “I saw it, and I wasn’t really expecting that. But I think that it says a lot about my journey as far as my growth. Five years ago, this would never even be a conversation. I didn’t have any sort of leadership skills. Even right now, I’m still working on those things. One of my things is just being more vocal. I haven’t been very good at that in the past; I’m trying to do that around the guys. I think I’m doing a good job of it. Next is obviously putting a good product on the field, making sure I know what I need to do so I actually look like a leader and act like a leader.”

A leader is something the Cowboys defense could certainly use as they try to exorcise the demons of 2020.

“We understand where we were at last year, the guys that were on the team and obviously, guys that saw us play last year,” Gregory explained. “We weren’t a very good defense. At all. I think we were worst in the league, right? Almost the worst. For us, we’ve just got to go out there and build on each day. That’s what [defensive coordinator] Dan Quinn talks about all the time. That’s what we’re doing.”

Build on each day.

If that’s the mantra, the Cowboys couldn’t have picked a better leader than Randy Gregory.

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SEC football players share concerns about playing amid COVID-19 pandemic, per report

Most SEC programs have been able to avoid widespread outbreaks of the coronavirus within their facilities; others have been less fortunate.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Josh Vitale of the Montgomery Advisor with USA TODAY Sports. 

After the Southeastern Conference decided last week to move forward with a 10-game, conference-only football schedule during the coronavirus pandemic, we didn’t hear much from players.

That changed Saturday, though not by the conference’s doing.

The Washington Post obtained audio of a conference call conducted Wednesday among SEC administrators including Commissioner Greg Sankey, medical advisers and members of the SEC Football Student-Athlete Leadership Council, during which the players expressed concerns about the upcoming season as COVID-19 cases continue to spike throughout the country.

So far, most SEC programs have been able to avoid widespread outbreaks of the novel coronavirus within their facilities. Programs in other areas of the country haven’t been as lucky — Michigan State and Rutgers recently decided to isolate their entire rosters after multiple positive tests.

The question Ole Miss linebacker MoMo Sanogo posed, according to The Post, was what happens when thousands of students return to campus for the fall semester? Sanogo said he has four classes per week, and if those classmates go to bars and parties, he could be at risk of being infected even if he doesn’t, even with smaller class sizes and required face masks.

One of the officials on the call told the 21-year-old “as un-fun as it sounds, the best thing that you can do is just try to encourage others to act more responsibly and not put yourself in those kinds of situations. I’m very comfortable with what we’ve done on campus. I’m concerned about what happens from 5 p.m. until 5 a.m.”

“There are going to be outbreaks,” another official said, according to The Post. “We’re going to have positive cases on every single team in the SEC. That’s a given. And we can’t prevent it.”

The SEC responded to The Post’s story with a statement Saturday:

“The SEC hosts videoconferences with the SEC Football Student-Athlete Leadership Council to engage in candid conversation, share information and develop greater understanding of issues important to our student-athletes. The calls are intended to be confidential …

“The information we gather while engaging with student-athletes helps inform Conference decisions and provides an opportunity to share information with our campus leaders to further enhance our continuing support of the student-athlete experience. The student-athletes on the call expressed appreciation for the honest dialogue, indicated the discussion was beneficial and requested a similar videoconference in the future.

“As we all work to adapt to the realities of COVID-19, we will continue to support the health of SEC student-athletes.”

Another player on the call, who did not identify himself, asked officials whether they knew what lasting health effects players might experience if they contract the virus.

“The problem is a lot of this we don’t know,” Ole Miss sports medicine physician Marshall Crowther said. He added that some people don’t have long-term complications, but acknowledged that there are growing concerns about how the virus affects people’s hearts.

“You guys have answered a lot of questions the best way that you guys could, and we really appreciate it. But as much as you guys don’t know … it’s just kind of not good enough,” Texas A&M linebacker Keeath Magee II said, per The Post.

“We want to play. We want to see football. We want to return to normal as much as possible. But it’s just that with all this uncertainty, all this stuff that’s still circulating in the air, y’all know it kind of leaves some of us still scratching my head. … I feel like the college campus is the one thing that you can’t control.”

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