Mural Defacing Comes After Dak's National Anthem Protest Comments
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott's comments about the NFL national anthem protest is evoking a lot of reactions.
A mural depicting Prescott, à la Jordan Peele's film "Get Out", was defaced over the weekend.
The spray painted mural recently went up in Dallas as a statement on Dak's comments that he will always stand for the national anthem. Speaking to reporters Friday Dak said, "No, I never protest. I never protest during the anthem and I don't think that's the time or the venue to do so."
The artist, Trey Wilder, painted the teary-eyed mural of Prescott after the quarterback's comments last week, when he was asked about NFL players kneeling in protest of social injustice during the national anthem.
Prescott said he respects the rights of players to kneel, but that it's not something he'll do. The quarterback said he knows some people have criticized his anthem stance, but at training camp told CBS 11 Sports anchor Bill Jones that he's sticking to his position.
"Anytime you start to discuss and you talk and you tell your opinion, or have an opinion, on a controversial situation [sic] as we do as protesting the anthem you're gonna get backlash and you can't be right either way it goes," Prescott said. "There's gonna be people that disagree and there's gonna be people that agree. So I knew going forward… going into that media interview that I was going to say some things that people didn't agree with."
CBS 11 News has reached out to the artist behind the mural but as of late Monday morning had not heard back.
Cowboys Jerry Jones made it clear last month that he expects his players to stand for the anthem.
Last September, following league-wide player protests in response to President Donald Trump's comments, Cowboys players, along with the Jones family, locked arms and took a knee in "a statement of unity" before the national anthem in the Cowboys-Cardinals game.