After season-ending injury, Dallas’ Dak Prescott looked to Alex Smith for inspiration
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott received an outpouring of support from fellow NFL players last October following a season-ending injury against the New York Giants.
Prescott suffered a devastating ankle injury that required immediate surgery. Two months later, he had a second procedure to strengthen his ankle, according to multiple reports.
The Cowboys struggled without Prescott, but he is expected back this fall. Earlier this week, he agreed to a four-year, $160 million deal with the Cowboys.
Prescott said he never worried about his future after the injury. In fact, Prescott sought inspiration from the story of Alex Smith’s return to the NFL after he nearly lost his right leg following a gruesome injury.
Prescott mentioned Smith after being asked at a news conference if he thought his career was over because of the injury against the Giants.
“Even sitting there, holding my leg or whatever on the field, trying to put it back into place, or later on being in the hospital and waking up from surgery, that’s just what God’s thrown at me,” Prescott said during a news conference Wednesday. “If you’ve known my life, if you’ve known my story, whatever circumstance that is, I’m going to take it with a smile and be thankful that God has put me in this position to overcome it, to be an example to others. So never in a million years (did I think my career was over).
“And I have to thank, honestly, Alex Smith . Because at that moment when you’re sitting there and you have an injury like that, or you come out of surgery, to see somebody who’s already done it and did it actually in worse circumstances, that allowed my mind just to go to straight, ‘Hey, I can do this. I’m going to beat this. It’s just a matter of time. What are the doctors saying? But I’m going to beat this.’ So I have to thank Alex for somebody who’s overcome that and won Comeback Player of the Year, and congrats to him.”
Here is Prescott talking about Smith:
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 12:54 PM with the headline "After season-ending injury, Dallas’ Dak Prescott looked to Alex Smith for inspiration."
