This week, Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland died in an apparent suicide at the age of 24.
This weekend, per multiple reports, the NFL has asked teams to hold a moment of silence for Marshawn before every game.
The Broncos had a moment of silence for Marshawn before Thursday night’s game against the Raiders. Before Sunday morning’s game in Berlin between the Falcons and Colts, a moment of silence was held. In both instances, the gesture was followed by a message regarding available resources for suicide prevention.
There is much more that can be done for NFL players when it comes to spotting mental-health issues and addressing them, not only when the situation becomes critical but when problems first arise. We’ll have something later today about the various efforts that were already underway before the recent tragedy.
It will require cooperation, collaboration, and determination. The desire is there. Marshawn Kneeland’s passing will hopefully be the catalyst for the kind of changes that will benefit all players, current and future.
The Bills did not make any trades this week, but it reportedly wasn’t because of a lack of interest in adding to their roster.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the team tried to make deals with the Dolphins for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle and with the Jets for defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, but ultimately were unable to come to agreements with the two AFC East teams.
Waddle was the subject of a lot of conversation heading into the deadline and word this week was that teams who called about the wideout found that their asking price was too high. Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports they were looking for a package centered around a first-round pick and that the price for dealing him within the division would have been higher.
Williams was ultimately traded to the Cowboys for a first-round pick, a second-round pick and defensive tackle Mazi Smith.
In the fourth quarter of Monday night’s game against the Cardinals, the Cowboys were down by 10 points and driving. After making a catch for a first down in Arizona territory, Pickens held the ball in the direction of Cardinals cornerback Denzel Burke.
Pickens was flagged for taunting.
On Saturday, the league announced that Pickens has been fined $17,389.
The penalty added 15 yards to the Cowboys’ effort to carve deeper into what had been a 17-point Cardinals lead. The Cowboys didn’t score again in the game.
For Pickens, it was a reminder that — despite having immense talent — there’s an immaturity that can rear its head an inopportune times. And that will become a factor for any team monitoring his performance in 2025 (which has been very impressive) with an eye toward possibly trying to sign him in free agency, if Pickens and the Cowboys can’t come to agreement on a new deal.
Greg Ellis deserves credit for his candor. He could have said nothing. He decided instead to share his regrets for not keeping in contact with Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland, who dies this week in an apparent suicide.
In 2024, Ellis — who spent 11 years with the Cowboys as a player — served as the team’s assistant defensive line coach. He lobbied for the team to draft Kneeland in round two. Kneeland reminded Ellis of himself. And Ellis wishes he’d done more to keep in touch with his former pupil.
“For me, I should have known,” Ellis told Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News. “But the moments that I pay attention to him when he would withdraw, he would get quiet, and then I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ But his number one answer: ‘I’m straight coach, I’m good.’ So, yes, to that again, a lot of things are hindsight. I did see it. But I didn’t think it would lead to this. But I did feel compelled to stay in contact with him, and that’s the one thing that I didn’t do well enough in my opinion.”
Ellis’s tenure with the Cowboys ended after the 2024 season. He’s struggling with the fact that he didn’t continue the relationship.
“I feel like, I wish he would have reached out to me,” Ellis said. “But it’s kind of out of sight, out of mind, and that’s where I feel like I needed to have been calling him, and the last time I talked to him by text. Then I just should have been texting him on a consistent basis. Hindsight, I wish I would have been reaching out to him a lot more and maybe that would have helped him to say, ‘Oh yeah, G let me talk to you. Let’s go and get something to eat X, Y and Z.’ It doesn’t have to be about football. I didn’t do it.”
Ellis bears no blame. The Cowboys moved on, and Ellis moved on. His willingness to share his feelings on the matter can have a positive impact on others.
The lesson is clear. Make the time to check in on your family, friends, colleagues. Watch and listen to them. Help them if you can. Urge them to get help elsewhere, if you believe they need it.
We’re all under varying degrees of stress. If anyone has no problems at all, it’s a temporary condition at best. Serious problems also can be temporary. The right message at the right time can prevent someone from resorting to a permanent and irreversible solution.
The NFL family suffered a major loss on Thursday with the apparent suicide of Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland. He was only 24.
The situation highlights the importance of always keeping tabs on the people whose lives we touch on a regular basis. Everyone has an orbit of family, colleagues, friends, acquaintances. People we see at the store, the pharmacy, church. Whatever. Wherever.
We’re in this life together. We need to look out for each other.
It’s not easy. We have our own problems. Everyone is almost always going through something. Call your people. Text them. Check on them. Even if it’s just to say hello.
Employers have an obligation, too. Their employees are at any given time under stress that can come from a wide variety of places. The more inherently stressful the job, the more important it is to make sure everyone is OK.
Being an NFL player is inherently stressful. The team is constantly evaluating whether the player is good enough, whether he can be replaced by someone younger, cheaper, more talented. One injury, happening in a flash, can derail an entire career.
As one source observed on Thursday, the Kneeland tragedy shows how critical it is for every team to have a full-time mental health clinician on staff.
“You’d be surprised how many don’t,” the source said.
Beyond having someone who has been hired to keep tabs on the mental health of all players, coaches, and other personnel, our shared obligation to look out for each other applies. Patriots coach Mike Vrabel addressed this subject in a Friday press conference.
“That’s something that I think we have always been intentional with, is trying to find and put as many points of contact around our players, our coaches, and our employees that we possibly can, that they feel comfortable sharing things and communicating,” Vrabel said.
“I think that that’s what you would do when you have a family and you spend a lot of time with each other. You kind of know what people — what they’re like on a normal basis, on a daily basis, what their mannerisms are. They’re next to each other in the locker room, and so I think that that just happens and occurs naturally. I’m always reminded of — and I think it might have been [Nelson] Agholor, but I don’t want to misquote it — but it was a Patriot player, somebody had a concussion, he noticed that he wasn’t right on the field, grabbed him and stopped and said, ‘Hey.’”
Here’s the video. Patriots receiver Davante Parker hit his head on the turf in Arizona during a game in December 2022. Parker was obviously not right. He wasn’t removed from the game. Before the next snap, Agholor was adamant that Parker needed to be checked.
“I showed that to the team in Tennessee, like, ‘Hey, this is a teammate. We’re going to miss things, but when you see something that’s not right or when a guy’s not right,’” Vrabel said. “And I know that’s completely separate, but I’m just using that — that’s always stood out to my mind of a guy saying, ‘Hey, this guy doesn’t seem right.’ So we always want to do that, and we always want to look out for each other and have each other’s backs.”
Amen to all of that. It’s something we should all take to heart.
Hey, this guy doesn’t seem right.
The only way to know that is to check on people. To see how they’re doing. And to be ready to help them when help is needed.
As Clarence said to George Bailey in a holiday classic that soon will emerge from its annual hibernation, “Every man’s life touches so many other lives.”
We can make a gigantic difference for those whose lives we touch, even if it doesn’t feel very significant at the time.
All we have to do is pay attention.
