The Dallas Cowboys can't stay out of the news. Shortly after Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott doubled down on his national anthem comments, team owner Jerry Jones has publicly applauded Prescott.
"I'm so proud of him, just proud of him the way he leads the team...for not letting it mess with their practices," Jones told TMZ Sports during an impromptu interview Wednesday evening.
Here's what Prescott originally said:
I never protest. I never protest during the anthem, and I don't think that's the time or the venue to do so. The game of football has always brought me such peace, and I think it does the same for a lot of people—a lot of people playing the game, a lot of people watching the game, a lot of people who have any impact of the game—so when you bring such controversy to the stadium, to the field, to the game it takes away. It takes away from that, it takes away from the joy and the love that football brings a lot of people.
The signal-caller quickly came under fire. One Dallas artist even depicted Prescott as being in "the sunken place" from Get Out. But Prescott didn't waver, saying he "knew there would be backlash" but that he didn't regret his original comments.
"I stand by what I said," he said earlier this week. "I just said some people may have misunderstood it or whatever. I feel strongly about what I said. And it is what it is."
The Cowboys will square off with the San Francisco 49ers in their first preseason game Thursday at 10 p.m. EST.
