Getty Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott
Somewhere, Mike Florio is seething.
As TMZ Sports uncovered, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott recently hosted a crowded birthday party for a friend at his Prosper, Tx., home, defying statewide quarantine orders put in place to combat the global coronavirus pandemic.
Upwards of 30 people attended the party, including Prescott’s superstar teammate, running back Ezekiel Elliott, who was caught skulking around the buffet line.
Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott are partying like it’s NOT 2020 in the middle of a pandemic — hanging together for a celebration that appears to violate the Texas “safer-at-home” order. t.co/rzw1jiyvZm
Per TMZ, Prescott held a sitdown dinner later that evening for “closer” to 10 people, the maximum allowed in social-distancing measures enacted by Texas governor Greg Abbott.
The gossip outlet shared a brief video from the party, which took place Friday, and also a photo showing Prescott’s dinner arrangement, with chairs evidently closer than six feet apart, another violation of lockdown laws.
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Dak Can’t Stop Throwing Caution to the Wind
The two-time Pro Bowl passer, deadlocked with Dallas in long-term contract negotiations, must not read his own press clippings. At least lately.
If he did, he’d have seen Florio’s scathing criticism, as Prescott was put on blast for engaging in a multi-person workout session with former Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant — the second such session held by Dez and Dak in as many weeks.
Bryant posted to Twitter a photo following the first gathering at an undisclosed Texas location, where Cowboys WR Lance Lenoir and WR Fred Brown, Prescott’s teammate at Mississippi State, also attended. The group embraced and obviously all touched the same football, major no-nos that fly in the face of Abbott’s stay-at-home measures.
@dak lance Fred .. we got great work in today
Florio, the founder and face of ProFootballTalk.com, took the pair to task over the workout, believing it set an irresponsibly dangerous — and borderline illegal — precedent.
“Beyond the fact that Prescott and Bryant are blatantly disregarding state and local mandates is the message sent by the decision to brazenly publicize videos of their workouts,” he wrote. “At a time when many continue to refuse to take the situation seriously, the involvement of the quarterback of America’s Team in such activities tells football fans and anyone else paying attention that Prescott and Bryant either think that it’s no big deal — and it gives college and high-school football players (along with other NFL players) fodder for justifying their own decisions to ignore requirements to stay at home and avoid workout facilities.”
He also chided both the league and the Cowboys for failing to interject. Discipline, argued Florio, is admissible in what are truly unprecedented times.
“Where are the Cowboys as this is happening? Where is the NFL? Perhaps the teams and the league should take a step back from their obsession to ensure that the virtual draft works without any major glitches to ensure that everyone connected to the league is following the same laws that so many others are adhering to, even if we’d rather not,” he wrote.
“No one, apparently, can keep guys like Prescott and Bryant from doing things they shouldn’t be doing. But why are they making their violation of these laws public? Again, it’s ignorance, stupidity, and/or flat-out disregard for the vulnerable members of society who are getting sick and who are dying because people continue to not take steps to freeze the distribution of the virus in its tracks.”
Bryant responded in kind.
“Either way I have a whole workout facility at HOME and a field on the side of my house… I’m going to get it in regardless,” he tweeted in regard to Florio’s article.
I promise that situation not over… that put a bad wrap on my name and brand… messed with me mentally…enough this back to call of duty
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Follow Zack Kelberman on Twitter: @KelbermanNFL