Cowboys’ Dak Prescott injury: Why Giants’ Logan Ryan, who made tackle, wants him to mimic Kobe Bryant | ‘Sick to my stomach about it’
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Logan Ryan had a message for Dak Prescott after Prescott’s brutal injury Sunday.
“What would Kobe do?” Ryan told Prescott before the Cowboys’ quarterback was carted off the field in Dallas, where the Cowboys won 37-34 on a last-second field goal.
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Ryan, a Giants defensive back, made the third-quarter tackle on which Prescott suffered a season-ending right ankle injury — a compound fracture that will require immediate surgery.
Ryan is now rooting for Prescott — who was playing on a one-year franchise tag contract this season — to make a successful return, just like Kobe Bryant did after tearing his Achilles tendon in 2013.
“I’m sick to my stomach about it,” Ryan, a Rutgers graduate, said of Prescott’s injury. “It’s not fair. It’s not right. I knew right away what it was. I had a similar one. His was pretty gruesome. I hope he comes back, and I hope he gets $500 million.”
Ryan, who started his football career at Eastern Regional High in Voorhees, plans to get Prescott’s phone number, so he can text him well wishes.
“The worst thing that happened today was the Dak injury,” Ryan said. “Bigger than football. I feel terrible. It was a routine football play. My job in this game plan was to make it tough on Dak. He’s a hell of a player. He was tearing it up, and he was making it hard on me. That’s why this sucks, man. You’ve got a guy who is scratching and clawing, one year on his deal, trying to get a lucrative contract — and he had to come out and prove it this year.”
Now, the future is uncertain for Prescott, who will be rehabbing this serious ankle injury as he prepares for potential free agency next offseason. And what do the Cowboys do at quarterback, since they’re not contractually committed to Prescott past 2020?
Ryan clearly wasn’t trying to injure Prescott on the play, wasn’t trying to cast all this uncertainty on Prescott’s promising career.
“That was nothing but a routine tackle,” Ryan said. “He was trying to stiff-arm me. I was trying to tackle him and punch the ball out. I saw [the injury] immediately. I broke my leg two years ago, and I came back a better player. I just wanted to wish him well. Obviously, there was no mal-intent there. He was playing a hell of a game, and it was a hell of a battle between us. I hate to see it. I know he’s going to come back stronger.”
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