The Dallas Cowboys won the first game since the death of NFL professional Marshawn Kneeland and maintained their playoff hopes.
Eleven days after the Cowboys professional apparently took his own life, the team from Texas beat the Las Vegas Raiders 33:16 in the NFL US football league. Cowboys players and coaches wore T-shirts with a portrait of Kneeland during warm-ups and remembered their colleague in a minute’s silence before kickoff. Cowboys receiver Ryan Flournoy, who scored a touchdown, raised Kneeland’s No. 94 jersey after the win.
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said: “You have to balance your emotions”. It was clear that there would be moments throughout the evening when he would think of Kneeland: “It’s about carrying a legacy, we have a brother that we want to run for and overcome adversity.”
Help with suicidal thoughts
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Contact to Playoff places
With four touchdowns and passes for a total of 268 yards, Prescott had confidently led his team to the important victory that maintains the chances of qualifying for the playoffs. With five wins from eleven games, the team is still outside the playoff ranks, but is in contact with the relevant placements.
It won’t be easy for Dallas in the coming weeks, the next opponents are the Philadelphia Eagles, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions.