Mike McCarthy and Jerry Jones initially expressed concern about Dak Prescott’s shoulder injury after Prescott removed himself from practice July 28.
Prescott starred in Tuesday’s debut of Hard Knocks: The Dallas Cowboys, the made-for-TV reality series on HBO. The hour-long show opens with Prescott talking about his return from a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle that ended his season Oct. 11 and required two surgeries to repair.
It ends with him nursing a shoulder injury.
Prescott shared his eagerness to come back after missing the final 11 games of last season.
“When I had the first surgery, it was an open wound, and they just wanted to go in there and do what they needed to do initially,” Prescott said. “I thought I was going to be able to start rehab, and yet I had to go back under the knife. Yeah, you know we kept it down. Nobody knew that. Then, (his scar) became a wishbone.
“Coming to camp was a feeling I can’t explain, just knowing that I’m healthy, knowing that I’m completely healthy. There was a season of adversity. Now, I’m in a season of triumph.”
Prescott was so eager to get going that when the Cowboys consulted his metric of practice activity from his GPS after the first day in camp, they started to dial him back. It was too much, too soon, which might explain how he ended up with a sore shoulder.
The two-time Pro Bowler complained about his limited workload.
“I’m not coming out of this bitch,” Prescott said. “I sat last year enough. . . .I sat out enough. I’ll let y’all know if I’m f---ing sore or if something’s bothering me. F---, I’ve been out long enough.”
Soon enough, Prescott complained of a sore throwing shoulder, and an MRI revealed a latissimus strain. Rest was the recommended treatment.
Cowboys head athletic trainer Jim Maurer said in a staff meeting after the diagnosis, “We’ll have to limit his throwing for several days here and don’t anticipate that being a long-term thing either. It is OK to do anything lower body.”
Maurer then told Jones over the phone that he had visited with trainers from the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees about Prescott’s shoulder injury. Maurer was advised to “overprotect it.”
“Those guys are seeing this kind of stuff all the time,” Maurer said. “Both of their sentiments were caution to start and make sure and give the injury plenty of time to heal before you start stretching it. They both indicated that we should be cautious early.”
Prescott has not practiced in team drills since, though the Cowboys quarterback did some light throwing Tuesday.