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dallas cowboys Coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday that his heart and his players’ hearts are still heavy following the death of defensive end Marshon Neeland, and they continue to share, laugh and cry after their teammate’s loss last week.
“We don’t move on, but we move on,” Schottenheimer said in his first media availability since Neyland’s death during his bye week.
“There’s no playbook, there really isn’t. So the late nights are where it’s at, but the biggest thing for me is for our football team to be strong,” their first-year head coach said a day before practice began before the Cowboys’ next game. “We’ve got an incredible locker room, that’s the culture we’re trying to build. We’re more connected to each other than any of us could have ever imagined.”
Police Kneeland was found dead last Thursday morning, Frisco said, having shot himself after leading officers on a pursuit when he failed to stop for a traffic stop. Police said officers missed Kneeland’s vehicle and the 24-year-old man was found dead about three hours after fleeing the crash scene on foot.
The players were off on Wednesday, but the team was in place for the past two days for meetings and breakout sessions with grief experts who spoke to the players. A private memorial candlelight vigil was held at the team’s headquarters Tuesday night, when the Cowboys’ owner was among those sharing jerry jones and Schottenheimer, along with Niland’s girlfriend, his agent, and his high school coach.
Schottenheimer said Wednesday that a memorial fund has been started to support Niland’s pregnant girlfriend and their unborn child, “to make sure that she is taken care of throughout her life and that the baby is also taken care of.”
The Cowboys will wear decals in Neyland’s memory on their helmets for the remainder of the season, and will have special T-shirts for at least the next few games. They play at the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night, then have their next home game on Nov. 22 against Philadelphia, when there will be a moment of silence and a video tribute to Neyland before the game.
While coaches worked on game plans on Wednesday, which Schottenheimer called a positive distraction, players will return to the practice field on Thursday.
“We’ve got to get back to a regular routine. That’s what we’re going to do. We’ll move forward,” Schottenheimer said. “One advantage of playing on Monday night is that we have been given a little more time to grieve. This grieving process is not over. There will be things over the next few weeks that will impact us differently, but we understand that our best way to honor Marshon on the field is how we play. That’s something we can control, and I think guys are excited about that.”
Cowboys defensive lineman Solomon Thomas, in a story posted on the team’s website, described the team’s first time back together on Monday as “extremely impressive, extremely emotional.”
Thomas and the quarterback dak prescottThe two were siblings who died by suicide and their organizations support suicide awareness and prevention, he addressed the team during a virtual team meeting last Thursday, hours after Kneeland’s death. Thomas’s sister, Ella, was the same age as Neeland.
Schottenheimer’s availability came a week after the team’s final practice, which occurred two days after Neyland scored a touchdown while recovering a blocked punt in Monday night’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals. The coach remembered seeing Neeland’s excitement after that big game.
Asked if there was anything that was missed or could have been done to prevent Niland’s death, Schottenheimer said those were natural questions.
“You try not to think about them, but when you’re having very open and authentic conversations with these people, the pain is real, the questions are real,” he said. “The more you talk to experts, people who deal with this all the time, they say a lot of times you’ll never know. But I’d be lying if I told you I don’t wake up in the middle of the night, or have those thoughts when I’m talking to one of those guys on the phone. You do.”
In his first public comments about Neyland’s death, Jones said on his weekly radio show Tuesday that everyone is sharing the grief.
“Everyone has to share different ways or different things that come to their mind,” Jones said. “The definition of team is that we love each other, we trust each other. Everyone expects that, boy, it’s a tough game, it takes some real mental toughness to play the game, but really there’s a lot of love for each other that is shared in unique ways, and you know each other so well.”
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