'No Regrets': La'el Collins Reveals Thoughts on Legal Battle, Cowboys Position Change
FRISCO - La'el Collins insists that his recent personal turbulence, which has led to what is, at least for now, essentially a benching, does not cause him to wish he'd taken different paths.
"No regrets at all – none at all," he said in Friday's meeting with the media at The Star, specifically addressing his fight against the NFL that resulted in a just-completed five-game suspension. "I did what I felt was right, and sometimes you can't control the outcome.
"You go into games and you want to win every one of them, but sometimes it just comes down to the last second ...''
The sports analogy is a clever, but maybe ill-fitting one. Collins' behavior is what got him into trouble, even if he's telling the truth in denying the NFL's finding that he tried to bribe the league's drug-test collector.
He said the mention of a bribe started out as a joke and "kind of went the wrong way." And the "wrong way'' point, no matter the truth, is accurate. It's led to the loss of his starting right tackle job, with Terence Steele filling in and now staying in as the 5-1 Dak Prescott-led Cowboys prep for a Week 8 Sunday night visit to Minnesota.
"I'm proud of the way Terence is playing,'' Collins said. "He's playing his ass off, and he shows up to work like a pro every day. Since he came in, we've been working together and I still work with him. I want him to be the best, because at the end of the day it's all about the team."
Collins' new contribution to the team? He is Steele's backup at tackle and he is involved in a competition with starter Connor Williams at left guard. Steele and Williams are scheduled starters this week. But ...
"For me, playing on the left side is a natural thing; playing on the right is something I had to learn," Collins said. "I really feel like I can play anywhere."
In terms of his talent, that is accurate. But if Collins makes himself unavailable to the team, as has been the case for much of the last two seasons? (An issue, by the way, that many higher-ups here inside The Star find bothersome.) He can't play anywhere. But he insists that lessons have been learned.
"One thing about football, it's taught me about life and how to handle situations," Collins said. "When you have bad plays, you've got to put it behind you and keep going."
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