Dak Prescott understands Cowboys fans’ frustration after Jerry Jones’ oil bounty quote

FRISCO — Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott grew up a fan of the team. He can relate to fans because he once was one. He’s spent the majority of his life in the window that is the Cowboys’ NFC Championship drought, after all.

It’s that unique element of being the starting quarterback for the Cowboys that sparked one question to Prescott about the team’s longtime owner, Jerry Jones.

Jones was the subject of a story in The Wall Street Journal that was published on Wednesday. The story was about Comstock Resources — one of Jones’ major investments — unlocking a gas breakthrough in East Texas that could generate a lot of money.

“There’s $100 billion present value with gas out there,” Jones, 83, said in the story. “That’s why I’m talking to you on the telephone rather than trying to fix our defense with the Dallas Cowboys.”

Cowboys

The quote drew significant reaction on social media on Wednesday. Not so much for the money involved in this breakthrough, but for the comment about the Cowboys defense. The Cowboys have the 31st-ranked scoring defense in the NFL. The trade deadline is set for Tuesday. Jones has said the Cowboys are open to improving their defense via a trade. He’s also said the defense isn’t simply one different player away from turning the corner, insinuating that the team has work to be done if it wants to contend while having one of the best offenses in the NFL this year.

Prescott, being a former fan himself, was asked if he could sympathize with fans who may feel slighted reading that type of quote amid the team’s lengthy drought from making a conference title game.

Prescott said he didn’t know the full quote or context, but he did understand a piece of it. He said he could sympathize with fans.

“Being a fan and you just hear that or read that, yeah, of course,” Prescott said. “Especially, right, as many fans are and do — thankful that they do — live and breathe by this team, and they feel like their jobs are putting all their effort into this. So yeah, that can definitely be frustrating. But in that sense, I would just say, [Jones] has never really lied about who he is or what he’s trying to do. Hopefully, he was talking about in that one particular moment. Maybe in those five minutes is what he was alluding to.”

Prescott then laughed as he explained his understanding of Jones’ perspective, too.

“Having a chance at a $100 billion opportunity I think you might take five minutes as well to answer a call,” Prescott said. “Hopefully that’s what he means, right? But I could see how it could be frustrating.”

Prescott said the focus from the players is about winning Monday’s home game against the Cardinals and getting back to 4-4-1.

“We control what we can control,” Prescott said. “That [quote] doesn’t pertain to us right now. Our job is to make sure that we’re getting ready for Monday night and that we’re gonna be the best team we can be when we go out and play the Cardinals.”

Twitter: @JoeJHoyt

YouTube TV drops ESPN, ABC ahead of football weekend as dispute with Disney continues