Cowboys' Dak Prescott 'Weakness' - Mental Health Honesty - Ripped By Dangerous Fraud Skip Bayless

Doncic and Dak are telling truths that not only help their teams, but also help society - and yes, make better the lives of those who struggle - which leads to the reason Skip Bayless' platform makes him dangerous. ...

FRISCO - Dallas Cowboys star Dak Prescott now has company in Mavs star Luka Doncic. What brings them together? The reprehensibly ignorant comments made by Fox Sports host Skip Bayless, in recent regarding the quarterback's bout with depression and this week with the conman contrarian's "hot take'' that Doncic is flawed because he's admits he's "learning a lot.''

My YouTube channel is the appropriate place for my personal reaction (based on my 30 years of personally dealing with Bayless). Click here for that.

When does conceding to vulnerability somehow devolve into being "unmanly''? When does Prescott (who ironically just won an NFL "Ed Block Courage'' Award) revealed dealing with depression, while also discussing for the first time his brother's suicide, become a "weakness''? When does Doncic conceding that being behind in an NBA Playoffs series might mean growth is required, become a "weakness''?

When important issues like this become segment fodder for The Human Hemorrhoid, who has made a career out of being a barnacle who attaches himself to successful athletes and then attempts to tear them down.

(READ MORE: Cowboys QB Dak Prescott Opens Up About Brother's Suicide.)

What Dak said in 2020: “All throughout this quarantine and this offseason, I started experiencing emotions I’ve never felt before,” Prescott said. “Anxiety for the main one. And then, honestly, a couple of days before my brother passed, I would say I started experiencing depression.''

Bayless' indefensible position, such as it is, is that the quarterback of the Cowboys should be "tougher'' than that.

“I don’t have sympathy with him going public that ‘I got depressed','' Bayless said. “Look, he’s the quarterback of America’s Team. You know and I know, this sport that you play, it is dog-eat-dog. It is no compassion. No quarter given on the football field. If you reveal publicly any little weakness, it can affect your team’s ability to believe in you in the toughest spots and it definitely could encourage others on the other side to come after you.”

Fox eventually issued a statement saying it "doesn't agree'' with Bayless.

No kidding?

Prescott was asked about the Bayless comments at the time and said he'd be a "fake leader" if he failed to share his truths.

"I think being a leader is about being genuine and being real,'' Prescott said. "If I wouldn't have talked about those things to the people I did, I wouldn't realize that I, my friends and a lot more people go through them, and they are as common as they are.

"I've got to make sure my mind's in the right place ... to lead people to where they want to me. I think it's important to be vulnerable, to be genuine, to be transparent. I think that goes a long way when you're a leader and when your voice is being heard by so many, and you can inspire."

Prescott then said something that deserves a far larger platform than the one Bayless is provided.

"I got the help I needed, and I was very open about it,'' Prescott said. "Emotions can overcome you if you don’t do something about it. Mental health is a huge issue and it's a real thing in our world right now ... I think it's huge to talk, I think it's huge to get help and it saves lives."

And this is where Bayless - who suddenly, horribly, has Micah Parsons as a TV teammate - is committing an ethical crime, something far worse than pretending he was a basketball star (he wasn't) or pretending he's a "Cowboys fan'' (he isn't) or trying to be "controversial'' by claiming Doncic "isn't a superstar.''

"I think it's huge to talk, I think it's huge to get help and it saves lives." ... And what happens when we don't? When we feign "manliness'' by not admitting we need to grow, by not admitting we feel pain?

Doncic and Dak are telling truths that not only help their teams, but also help society - and yes, make better the lives of those who struggle. The reason Skip Bayless' platform makes him dangerous? He's doing the exact opposite to society, and to the lives of those who struggle.

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Mike Fisher
MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NFL since 1983 and the Dallas Cowboys since 1990, is the author of two best-selling books on the Cowboys.