‘Dear Dak’: ‘Is Cowboys Prescott 'an Aikman' or 'a Romo'? Asks RGIII
OXNARD, Calif. - The first thing we need to acknowledge about the concept of "Super Bowl or bust'' is that there is almost never a "bust.''
If the 2022 Dallas Cowboys fall short of a championship, owner Jerry Jones won't sell the team, Cowboys Nation won't dry up and blow away, and QB Dak Prescott won't retire in shame.
But because this is a "Quarterback Game,'' Prescott will be impacted, by every success and failure ... so when ESPN's Robert Griffin III make a Super Bowl "must-win'' list, it's about QBs.
And it's about Dak.
Tucked into the comments from RGIII, himself, of course, a former NFL QB who didn't quite make it, is the suggestion that Prescott must soon determine ...
"Are you a 'Tony'? Or are you a 'Troy''? ... meaning, we assume, is Dak Prescott going to have a long career full of impressive numbers, like Dallas predecessor Tony Romo? Or is he going to be a champion, like Dallas three-time Super Bowl winner Troy Aikman?
As we start training camp with the team's Monday arrival here in Oxnard, mixed in to this conversation, interesting as it is, is some unfairness. To wit ...
*There should be no particular "shame'' in "being a Tony.'' His failures to get over the hump were team failures.
*There is virtually no way Prescott is going to "be a Troy.'' What are the odds that Dak leads Dallas to, say, three Super Bowl wins in the next four years, as Aikman once did? The odds are almost infinitely against.
*Additionally, there is virtually no way any of Prescott's peers will accomplish that. Maybe Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes, age 26, win one Super Bowl win so far? Is Aaron Rodgers, 38, who has one Green Bay title, going to win two more?
*And to the "championship or bust" expectations: ESPN's Griffin III believes there are five QBs who, as he puts it, "need to go on a Super Bowl run'' this year. His five: the Buffalo Bills' Josh Allen, the Denver Broncos' Russell Wilson, Ryan Tannehill of the Tennessee Titans, Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals, and Dak.
There is tangible sense to the Tannehill pick; the Titans could conceivably make a change there if they don't experience great success this year. But otherwise? We're not really talking about "bust'' potential; we're talking about "pressure.'' Maybe Murray is about to feel it at a different level now that he's got his new $46 million APY contract. Beyond that, we're not sure how 2022 represents anything new to the other guys on the "must-or-bust'' list.
And we know what Prescott - constantly in the spotlight as much as any athlete in any sport - thinks of "pressure.''
"I don't know why people label the word pressure as such a bad thing," Prescott said late last season. "I think it creates high expectations and high standards, and it usually creates high results.''
Really, the "must'' comes more from within than from public expectations. There might never be another "Troy.'' But this much is true: A Super Bowl for the Cowboys will create another category for QBs to "be,'' and there will be something positive about "being a Dak.''
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