Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is walking back his comments about the officiating following Dallas’ loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC wild card round. Chalking it up to the emotions of a tough loss, Prescott said the safety of everyone on the football field is a serious matter. ESPN’s Marcus Spears though isn’t buying the apology, saying he had to do it because “it looks good publicly.”
“It looks bad.” said Spears. “It looks bad. Sometimes apologies Have to come because it looks good publicly. Dak in the heat of the moment, I’m sure he was reeling from losing the game and he made a statement about the referees based on a question he was asked that he would walk back. I firmly believe that he feels bad about it looking back at it but ultimately … what it really boils down to is the damage is basically done because of what you said.”
Prescott posted his apology to his Twitter account.
I deeply regret the comments I made regarding the officials after the game on Sunday.
I was caught up in the emotion of a disappointing loss and my words were uncalled for and unfair.
— Dak Prescott (@dak) January 19, 2022
I hold the NFL Officials in the highest regard and have always respected their professionalism and the difficulty of their jobs.
The safety of everyone who attends a game or participates on the field of a sporting event is a very serious matter.
— Dak Prescott (@dak) January 19, 2022
That was a mistake on my behalf, and I am sorry.
— Dak Prescott (@dak) January 19, 2022
Maybe Spears went a little overboard with this one. What damage was actually done? It’s not like Prescott riled the fans up and encouraged them to throw debris at the officials. They did that on their own.
The referees association posted on its official Twitter account Tuesday:
The NBRA condemns the comments by Dak Prescott condoning violence against game officials. As an NFL leader, he should know better. We encourage the NFL to take action to discourage this deplorable behavior in the future.
— NBA Referees (@OfficialNBARefs) January 18, 2022
It’s true, it is a bad look for Prescott to condone that behavior from the fans. But he owned it, and it was the heat of the moment. They just lost a playoff game they felt was stolen from them.
Now that’s the part where you can have an issue. The officials didn’t cost the Cowboys the game. They didn’t play well enough for four quarters to earn a win. They allowed the officials to have an “impact” on the game because they didn’t do their jobs well enough.
But if there is a group that should not be given the benefit of the doubt in this entire situation, it’s the fans.
Fans are allowed to behave in any kind of way and it just gets chalked up to fan behavior or whatever term media members use to sweep it under the rug. It’s a football game that you, as a fan, had no impact in one way or another. The team you root for lost. It happens.
Throwing debris at the refs because you think it cost your team the game is childish and ridiculous.
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones denounced the fans’ actions on Monday in an appearance on 105.3 The Fan.
“That’s just unfortunate,” Jones said, per The Athletic. “That’s not the way I see our fans. I think we are a class act. There is just no place for that. Understand people being frustrated, but I don’t understand throwing things onto the field where people could get injured. There’s just no place for that.”
Of course it wasn’t all fans. But there were enough. The good fans around them should police that type of behavior and alert stadium officials. Sports are better when everyone is having fun, win or lose.
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