💵 Dak Prescott & The NFL’s Greatest Contract Victory

Dak Prescott’s new deal represents the most glorious kind of gamble, one where an athlete backs themselves and it pays off. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider: Dak Prescott, who signed a four-year, $160 million deal with the Cowboys, is the architect of a fresh narrative and the recipient of all the pressures that come with it ... we take a look at the best scorer in the upcoming NBA Draft and what he will need to improve on at the next level ... and we are treated to a must-see slow-motion video of what an MLB knuckleball looks like. Dak Prescott is getting paid. Handsomely, resoundingly, deservedly. In the negotiation stakes, the four-year, $160 million deal he is reportedly set to receive from the Dallas Cowboys was a monumental win. It represented the most glorious kind of gamble, one where an athlete backs themselves and it pays off. Game, set and match. Yet now comes a new game, the type of which Prescott hasn’t seen in his National Football League career to this point. For the old story was this: a fourth-round draft pick made good, a fearless youngster outstripping what even his own team thought he could blossom into. An organization, remember, that had numerous other QBs ahead of him on their draft board back in 2016. It is wrong to say that within the confines of such a tale, Prescott couldn’t lose. Quarterbacks can always lose, because the NFL’s craving for success means patience with them is painfully thin and margins of error are irrepressibly squeezed. Yet in Prescott's case, making a yearly average of less than $700,000 is going to feel like spectacular value, and it did. [STORY IMAGE 1] Even last year, a franchise tag of $31.4 million seemed cheap(ish) in the current fiscal marketplace, as Prescott threw for 1,856 yards and had 12 total touchdowns before suffering an ankle injury in Week 5 that ended his season. Now the perception is different. The parameters of judgment are different. The expectation is far, far different. Now Prescott, who will collect $42 million in each of the next three campaigns, is the architect of a fresh narrative and the recipient of all the pressures that come beside it. His story is no longer the underdog tale. It is a triumphant plot, of how a 27-year-old quarterback stood up to the most powerful franchise in sports and made it cave to his demands. Yet the triumph comes with a price of its own. “I am a lifelong Cowboy fan and I raised the kid a Cowboy fan,” [Prescott’s father, Nat, told the Dallas Morning News](. “At five years old he told me he will be a quarterback for the Cowboys. I don’t think God gives you those types of gifts to make them incomplete.” Yeah, there is still plenty of heartwarming stuff to consider with Prescott. But let’s not pretend the enormous contract, agreed just before another franchise tag year would have kicked in, doesn’t come with a new sense of feeling attached that will be novel to him. It can be argued that quarterbacking the Cowboys brings enough pressure in itself, yet this is far from the same. [STORY IMAGE 2] Becoming the second highest-paid player in football means he is being salaried for a level of performance approaching that of Patrick Mahomes, who has won one Super Bowl, reached another and lives permanently in the MVP discussion space. Prescott and his advisors used leverage and guile and flat-out bravado to get to this point and it landed him a paycheck that’s higher than Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, Deshaun Watson and, next year, $17 million more than Tom Brady. So, the talk changes. It is no longer the story of a young talent still learning and growing, but of an established superstar and whether all that money was worth it. Judging players by their price tag isn’t entirely fair and there is a lot more nuance that goes into it than simple cash figures. But that’s the way things are, within the sport, among the audience and surrounding human nature. Soon enough, $40 million a year averages will be the standard for no-more-than-decent quarterbacks. But for now, such a sum comes with the expectation of getting to a Super Bowl, or darn near it. [STORY IMAGE 3] “It is as good a deal as Prescott ever could have hoped for, an incredible deal for a player coming off a serious injury that limited him to five games and an extraordinary victory for agent Todd France, who got his quarterback client to play the waiting game to perfection,” [wrote Tim Cowlishaw in the Dallas Morning News](. “It’s a win for the Cowboys only in that it gets the seemingly endless Dak contract talks off the front-burner for a few years.” The fact that the Prescott commitment has put the Cowboys in a tougher spot than they needed to be – they could have had him at $30 million annually two years ago but wanted to wait and see – actually only serves to tighten the screw on the player somewhat. Though the structuring of his deal allows some salary cap relief it is still a squeeze. When you’re allocating $160 million to one guy there is a limit to what other moves you can make during those coming years. Dallas needs Prescott to be worth every penny of what they’re paying him, or somehow worth even more, if a route out of this growing stretch of barren years is to be a realistic possibility. [STORY IMAGE 4] “For the Cowboys, coming a game shy of the Super Bowl would be a success, because they haven’t done that in a quarter century,” [FS1’s Nick Wright said on First Things First](. “What this guarantees is they do not enter the QB wilderness, which they were in between (Troy) Aikman and (Tony) Romo, for the better part of 15 years.” Prescott’s exploits will now be analyzed through a whole other set of specifics. Even those gaudy numbers that came in the opening weeks of 2020 – 450, 472 and 502 yards passing in consecutive games – might not be enough. The Cowboys, who have neither won it all nor gotten particularly close in a generation and counting, still judge their quarterbacks by their ability to win. Owner Jerry Jones, after a couple of years of bungled contract games, has finally paid for the right to hold that expectation. Prescott played his hand perfectly in negotiating and up to here, he’s been everything the Cowboys could have asked for. Now, they’ll need him to be even more than that. [STORY IMAGE 5] Here’s what others have said ... Dan Wetzel, Yahoo Sports: “The good news is a deal got done, because Dallas was done without it. Good for Prescott, who went from fourth-round draft steal to (depending on how you calculate it) the highest-paid quarterback in the league. And good for Jones, who acknowledged his mistakes, overcame his famed stubbornness and moved forward with what’s best for the franchise. The bad news? Now the hard part begins. For both sides.” Danny Heifetz, The Ringer: “(Dak) Prescott bet on himself and won. But just as importantly, the Cowboys bet their starting quarterback would fold, and the team lost. Other teams should see this as a lesson that reaffirms what they already knew: Don’t let your quarterbacks get anywhere near the door.” Shannon Sharpe, Undisputed: “The Cowboys should be favored because if you look at them, they have the best QB in the division. But their defense causes me some concern. As of now because they re-signed Dak, I'm taking the Cowboys.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - In Southern California, one high school sports conference used to firehose the pro ranks with future stars, from Don Drysdale to Keyshawn Johnson. Today, though, the likes of Crenshaw and Dorsey High are fighting for survival. [Sports Illustrated’s Michael McKnight]( takes a look at if those schools can be saved? - Jalen Green is the best scorer in this upcoming NBA Draft – and a G League experiment. The 19-year-old Ignite Team star can put up points in bunches, but [Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer]( explains why Green will need to expand his game at the next level. - The Elam Ending was created by Nick Elam – a professor and die-hard basketball fan – as a solution to the tyranny of clock management at the end of basketball games. [Seerat Sohi of Yahoo Sports]( looks at future of the Elam Ending after the NBA All-Star Game. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( Chances are that you’ve never heard of Mickey Jannis. The 33-year-old pitcher hasn’t spent much time in the big leagues, but when he took the mound on Saturday night, cameras caught an incredible slow-motion video of what his knuckleball looks like. Check out this post, which shows Jannis’ knuckleball up close. The pitch is an absolute thing of beauty and almost doesn’t even look real. According to MLB.com, only 23 knuckleballs were thrown in the big leagues last season, and those came from position players. Jannis, who played in Triple-A last season, is looking to increase that number this year. [VIEWER'S GUIDE] Oakland at Cleveland State (ESPN, 7 p.m. ET) Jalen Moore and the Oakland Golden Grizzlies take on D’Moi Hodge and the Cleveland State Vikings in the Horizon League Tournament Championship. BYU vs. Gonzaga (ESPN, 9 p.m. ET) Jalen Suggs and the No. 1-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs go up against Alex Barcello and the BYU Cougars in the WCC Tournament Championship. Oral Roberts vs. North Dakota State (ESPN2, 9 p.m. ET) Max Abmas and the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles battle Rocky Kreuser and the North Dakota State Bison in the Summit League Tournament Championship. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( ACC Conference Tournament Winner Florida State: +240 Virginia: +300 North Carolina: +450 Louisville: +600 It is unusual to look at the favorites to win the ACC Tournament and not see Duke or North Carolina at the top of the list. Instead, it is the Florida State Seminoles who are listed as the favorites to cut down the nets in this year’s tournament, listed at +240. Virginia has the next best odds at +300, followed by North Carolina at +450 and Louisville at +600. The Duke Blue Devils need to make some noise in this tournament if they are going to have a shot at keeping their NCAA Tournament hopes alive. Mike Krzyzewski’s team is currently listed at +2000 odds, per FOX Bet. If you’re looking for a pick with better odds, take a glance at Georgia Tech at +1000. The Yellow Jackets have been a pleasant surprise throughout this season, currently sitting at 15-8 overall with wins over Kentucky, North Carolina, Florida State, Duke and Virginia Tech. [WHAT THEY SAID] “You're always playing the game to reach the ultimate goal.” — Tony Romo [FOLLOW FOX SPORTS] [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Download FOX Sports App: [Fire TV]( [Roku]( [Google Play]( [App Store]( [Fire TV]( [Roku]( [App Store]( [Google Play]( Also available on these devices: [fireTV | AppleTV | ROKU | Google Chromecast | XBOX ONE | SAMSUNG Smart TV] [fireTV | AppleTV | ROKU | Google Chromecast | XBOX ONE | SAMSUNG Smart TV] Trademark & Copyright Notice: ™ and © 2021 Fox Media LLC and FOX Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Please do not reply to this message. If you do not wish to receive emails like this in the future, please [unsubscribe](. FOX Sports respects your privacy. Click [here]( to view our Privacy Policy. 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