FRISCO, Texas -- With Friday marking one year since the tragic death of Marshawn Kneeland to a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Dallas Cowboys players took time to remember their teammate and reflect on the team's effort to help deal with mental health issues.
The Huddle 94 program, named after Kneeland's jersey number, is designed to complement mental-health resources that the team has in place by having player-led roundtable discussions that are designed to add to the culture of the players' brotherhood, the connection of the players and have conversations about the challenges they face on and off the field.
"They've done a great job of putting something together and allowing us to create conversations and get together in smaller groups that talk about life and talking about things that are stressors to us that may have," quarterback Dak Prescott said Thursday. "If it was something that we had, may have helped Marshawn. It may have been something that would've been a resource for him to prevent what inevitably happened."
On Nov. 6, 2025, Kneeland was involved in a car chase with police and crashed, fleeing on foot. Police searched for him for nearly three hours and during the search they received information that he had expressed "suicidal ideations." During their search, his girlfriend called law enforcement to say Kneeland was armed, had a history of mental illness and that he would "end it all," according to various news reports, citing dispatch audio.
In what turned out to be his final game, Kneeland returned a block punt for a touchdown in a 27-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. The Cowboys were entering their bye week, but after learning of Kneeland's death, there was a team-wide Zoom call.
Prescott called it a "tough day." His older brother, Jace, took his own life in 2020.
"I remember [defensive lineman] Solomon Thomas was vital just in his words and what he spoke up to the team in that moment," Prescott said of the Zoom call after Kneeland's death.
Thomas started The Defensive Line foundation to prevent youth suicide and promote mental health awareness after his sister, Ella, took her own life in 2018.
"Being somebody that's been through it, you'll have all kind of feelings and emotions that may come up [Friday] and some you're not expecting," Prescott said. "And even in those moments, it's about talking about it and talking through it with other people, with your teammates and people that can somewhat understand and relate."
The Cowboys and Dr. Heather Twedell, the team's mental health clinician, had counselors talk to the players after Kneeland's death. They had a vigil at The Star. For the remaining games, Osa Odighizuwa carried a flag bearing the No. 94 onto the field and displayed Kneeland's jersey by the bench.
The organization, as well as players and coaches, made donations to support Kneeland's then unborn child. The Gene and Jerry Jones Family Foundation purchased equipment in Kneeland's memory to support the football team at Godwin Heights High School in Wyoming, Michigan.
"Mental health, just in general, I feel like it's kind of blindly being ignored," wide receiver CeeDee Lamb said. "I feel like they see us as figures moreso than people, and icons of some sort to some people. ... That was the first teammate in my life that I've actually lost. [You can't] really say that it's something you can really get over because you know that there's a family here and there's a mom crying and there's brothers and wives and everybody involved that's still grieving.
"So, for us, we got to keep him in our prayers. We do everything we can just to kind of honor him and do everything as far as something that I know he would do as far as come out, practice hard, compete."
Prescott remembers Kneeland each day.
"Every time I step on that field, I say a prayer and I end it with, 'God, allow me to do this for people, for Marshawn and people that can't do it anymore,'" Prescott said. "Life's delicate and we should never take these moments that we have -- no matter if it's football or whatever we do in life -- for granted and be thankful and make sure we're always telling the people around us that we love them."