Eagles-Cowboys Rivalry Tinged with Key Players' Friendships Forged in College
PHILADELPHIA – Darius Slay was slacking during a college workout at Mississippi State. Cheating was the word he used when he was telling a story about his relationship with Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who was, at the time, a college teammate.
“I didn’t want to lift weights so I just kind of cheated or whatever,” said the Eagles cornerback.
Slay was busted by coaches for that day for his lax attitude.
His punishment?
“They made me carry Dak up the hill and my boy Dak kind of like, alright man, I know I’m heavy but this time he was like 240 though,” Slay recalled. “He was real big. So, I had to carry him up hill on my back, right? But he like jumped off my back for a little bit and just like ran up the hill with me. Spared me because he was heavy.
“That’s my dog, man. I’m glad to see him back out there. Glad he’s healthy. I’m going to keep praying for him having a healthy season this year.”
There is a lot of history between the Eagles and Cowboys, with some bitterly contested games along the way to Monday night's 125th meeting between the two franchises.
The names and faces have changed, of course, but now it feels like there is something perhaps slightly different. There seems to be, well, more of a friendliness surrounding some of the key players who will take the field this evening.
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Slay and Prescott, for example.
Slay has even gotten to know Cowboys WR Amari Cooper well from their years playing against each other.
“I know him off the field a little bit,” Slay said. “Just hollering at him. We’ve been hanging around each other. He’s been to a couple Pro Bowls. I’ve been to them with him. We talked a lot.
“He’s always trying to play chess. I ain’t good at it but he’s very good at it cause I heard he’s been smacking a lot of folks in it. You know in the league, we’re still a brotherhood at the end of the day.”
Indeed.
Prescott hosted quarterback Jalen Hurts on a recruiting visit to Mississippi State, not that it helped the Bulldogs land Hurts, who already had his college mind made up.
“I was already going to Alabama,” he said last week.
Hurts is also tight with Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb from their year together at Oklahoma, the duo connecting on 14 touchdown passes in 2019.
“We definitely stay in touch,” said Hurts of Lamb. “My year with him at Oklahoma, a very special year, and we built a great bond. So, a good relationship there. (It) will be exciting to compete against him.”
Lamb told the Dallas Morning News that Hurts would come over to his place in college and the two would study film.
“Same mindset, same goal,” Lamb told the newspaper. “Two guys just ready to eat and very hungry. That’s kind of what brought us so close.”
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And there’s the Penn State connection between Eagles RB Miles Sanders and Cowboys rookie LB/DE Micah Parsons as well as former Alabama teammates, Eagles WR DeVonta Smith and Dallas CB Trevon Diggs.
“We were kind of close competing against each other every day,” said Smith. “When you go against a guy like that that every day, you have no choice but to get close because you’re out there competing making each other better every day.”
Asked if that can help him or Diggs, Smith said: “You know how a guy kind of plays but he’s grown, two years later he’s grown a lot. There’s a lot of things he does different now.”
Smith said those things are little details. If you give anything small away when you line up across from him, Diggs will pick up on it.
Sanders is looking forward to playing against his former teammate, who will be trying to tackle him on Monday night.
“He’s a first-round guy, first-round talent, he’s one of those guys that catches on quickly,” said Sanders. “His motor in practice is tremendous. He practices hard, same thing you see in a game, great athlete, great player, I can’t wait…hope he has my jersey ready for me after he game.”
Get ready for a lot of jersey swaps when this game finally ends late Monday evening.
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Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
