Dak Prescott is a champion for using his voice to advocate for mental health. That’s what is important.

The Dallas Cowboys have one of the more incredible people in the NFL playing quarterback for them.

Whatever you may think of Dak Prescott as a football player is up to you, but frankly that isn’t important right now. It is undeniable that Dak Prescott has served as a phenomenal leader of the Cowboys and member of the DFW community, doing everything that he can to stretch as far and wide as possible in the name of good.

Dak has been vocal over the years that this quality comes from his family. He champions the word “FAITH” as it was given to him by his late mother; she gave one to both Dak and his two brothers. Unfortunately for the Prescott family, Dak’s brother Jace Prescott committed suicide this offseason. Dak has spoken about this briefly in Cowboys situations, but on Wednesday there was an interview posted with Graham Bensinger where he and his brother Tad went into it in further detail.

In the interview Dak reveals that he battled depression over the offseason. He talks about opening up about mental health and how that he finds that to be essential. As transcribed by USA Today’s Jori Epstein:

“It showed me how vulnerable we have to be as humans, how open we have to be. Because our adversity, our struggles, what we go through is always going to be too much for ourselves and maybe too much for even one or two people. But never too much for a community or never too much for the people and the family that you love. So we have to share those things.”

It is not easy to discuss things like this. Dak Prescott obviously has a platform and, not to speak for him, clearly believes that talking openly about such trials can be helpful. This is a noble thing to do and again one that takes a lot of courage. It is in many ways one prominent example of just how strong and courageous Dak ultimately is.

This is seemingly not an opinion shared by everyone. On Thursday’s episode of Undisputed, this subject was brought up and Skip Bayless chastised Dak for publicly speaking about his own depression. He stated that, as the quarterback for America’s Team, Dak is the CEO of the group in an obvious position of leadership. He said that given those details he does not have sympathy for Dak Prescott for saying that he got depressed. He also noted that this could be something that an opponent would use against Prescott in a football game. You can watch the segment below.

I’m not an expert on mental health, but what Skip Bayless said here is not only wrong, it is incredibly dangerous. In revealing that he battled depression, Dak Prescott highlighted an issue that is often kept private for fear of public ridicule. Skip Bayless specifically saying that he does not have sympathy for Dak, REGARDLESS OF WHAT DAK PRESCOTT’S JOB HAPPENS TO BE, is literally the most insensitive thing that he could possibly say.

Football, Dallas Cowboys, wings or drums, whatever our opinions are on anything in life, we all deal with things and struggle to get through them. We should all be encouraged to lean on one another and talk about what we are dealing with and experiencing. It is possible that Dak’s words could give someone experiencing depression the needed courage to step up, and Bayless’ words only enhance the stigma that they could be afraid of.

Dak Prescott happened to meet with the media on Thursday because, well, the Cowboys have a game on Sunday. Obviously this subject was floating around and he was asked about it. He responded as eloquently as he always has.

Obviously I can only speak for myself here, but I for one, as a Dallas Cowboys fan, am extremely proud of who Dak Prescott is off of the field. Everything that he stands for is what is right and just, and that is literally the dream definition of a quarterback for your favorite team.

Hopefully this serves as a learning experience for anyone who may feel that Dak acted anything other than rightly by speaking up.