Copyright Heavy.
For the Cowboys, this part of things was never going to be easy. The team has been on a bye in Week 10, as news sank in that teammate and friend Marshawn Kneeland, the 24-year-old second-year defensive lineman, had died of apparent suicide. But now, the Cowboys will need to get back to work, and the team must thread the needle between allowing time and processes for grieving, and getting back to the business of the NFL schedule. With that, Schottenheimer met with reporters for the first time on Wednesday since Kneeland’s death, and fought back tears as he talked about the team rallying around in memory of their teammate. “Marshawn loved the words ‘One love,’ so we talked a lot about love as we grieve,” Schottenheimer said. “And I just got a chance to really share a top couple things I will miss most about Marshawn. Those top couple things were, he had the most playful spirit of any young man I’ve been around. His smile could take you to your knees. And in terms of him as an athlete, no one had a better motor than him. So, my heart is heavy. Our team’s heart is heavy. We don’t move on, but we do move forward.” Cowboys Held a Service for Marshawn Kneeland The Cowboys held a service for Kneeland on Tuesday, but finding ways to help players cope with the tragedy has been an ongoing process. There was a virtual meeting with players because of the bye week, and on Monday, as players and coaches returned to the team facility, there were in-person meetings and counselors available. On Tuesday, there was also a “brotherhood breakfast,” Schottenheimer said, in which players could open up with each other. The breakfast, Schottenheimer said, lasted about 45 minutes. Brian Schottenheimer: ‘We Are Stronger Together’ The Cowboys have been trying to help the players through a scattered grieving process, but Schottenheimer said the support would be more poignant and important now that players were back together. “It’s a process,” he said. “There’s been a lot of conversations with people who are more expert than I am at dealing with grief. We’ve started the process in terms of Monday, the way we set up the schedule. This happened, and we’re on the bye. “So you’re making phone calls to people and you’re trying to make sense of things but you’re not together. And you’re always going to be stronger together, we are stronger together. So, Monday we set it up to where we had a chance to be together and share and talk.” Cowboys Establish Fund for Marshawn Kneeland Girlfriend The Cowboys also announced that a fund has been established to support Kneeland’s partner, Catalina Mancera, who is pregnant. That website can be found at https://www.marshawnkneelandfund.org. Schottenheimer said the support players and staff has given each other has been both sad and gratifying. “It was hard to hear the pain that some of these guys are dealing with, but it was also very uplifting to hear the strength from other guys,” Schottenheimer said. “That’s the beauty of a team. One side of the ball is [not] playing good, the other side of the ball has to pick them up. When one guy is hurting, someone else has to pick them up. If the head coach is hurting, someone’s got to pick me up. And I’m hurting. I’m hurting. And these guys have picked me up, and I’ve picked them up.”
