Jerry Jones breaks silence on Marshawn Kneeland’s death as Cowboys owner releases emotional statement

A sombre Jerry Jones described the recent death of Dallas defensive end Marshawn Kneeland as a ‘reality check’ for everyone in the Cowboys owner’s first comments since last week’s tragedy.

Speaking to Dallas’ 105.3 The Fan, Jones said he was ‘devastated’ when he learned of the 24-year-old’s passing last Thursday. Later police revealed Kneeland died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after fleeing a routine traffic stop. Frisco (Texas) police were told informed he’d ‘expressed suicidal ideations’ prior to shooting himself. 

‘We all are having to share the sorrow, all are having to share the different ways or different things that come through your mind. It’s not light that as a teammate, Marshawn touched everybody in many different ways,’ Jones said Tuesday.

‘The very definition of team is we love each other, we rely on each other. That’s the ethos of what a team is about. Everybody expects that this is a rough game, it takes some real mental toughness to play the game, but in fact there’s a lot of love for each other there that is shared in unique ways, and you get to know each other pretty good.

‘Sports emphasizes so many things that we all want, to some degree, to hang our hat on. But this is a reality check that at the end of the day, the human things of having someone’s company on earth, being able to be involved with them for the time that we’re here, they’re here, all of those things come to mind in times like this.’

Jones described the 24-year-old Kneeland’s suicide as a ‘reality check’ for everyone

Kneeland was a second-year defensive end who was also contributing on special teams

Just days earlier, Kneeland had recovered a blocked punt for a touchdown in Dallas’ Monday Night Football defeat to the Arizona Cardinals.

The team will wear a helmet decal to honor their fallen teammate for the remainder of the season, Jones confirmed on the radio.

Jones went on to say he was impressed with the way first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer responded to the tragedy with his players.

‘Schotty does have a realism about him because he simply was born into it in terms of being around anything unique about a football team,’ Jones said of Schottenheimer, a second-generation NFL head coach.

‘I think we all have unfettered feelings about the people we love, people we work with,’ Jones continued. ‘This is just a time when you acknowledge that there’s no answers. It makes you want to live life to the fullest, it makes you want to look for the very best in what we have for each other, and in some way make some sense out of these times.’