CLEVELAND — It was a special day for Dak Prescott — start-to-finish. Season openers are always memorable, but cementing yourself as the league's top-paid player ever before going onto winning 33-17 on the road is an unforgettable run of sunshine.
While Prescott maintained that his contract extension negotiations approaching a soft deadline on Sunday with the Dallas Cowboys wasn't a distraction to his preparation for the team's first kickoff, it did feel as though a big cloud hanging over the future of the team quickly evaporated with the morning's news of a four-year, $240 million extension agreement.
Prescott hopes to feel it once the day is wrapped up and the contract is signed.
"I hope after today we're done talking about it and my pockets," Prescott said with a laugh. "And could just move forward and focus on this team and the success that we plan to have and what we're working toward."
There was sincerity and honesty in Prescott's rhetoric on Thursday when he explained that he was leaving the bulk of the negotiations up to his agent, Todd France, and the Cowboys in the days leading up to the game.
After a brief talk with Jerry Jones at practice on Saturday in which Jones said to "surprise the world and get this thing behind us," Prescott said he had just one conversation with France before he FaceTimed him on Sunday morning to relay the good news of an agreement.
The call came while he was getting body work done with his hired specialist in his hotel room alongside teammate and close friend Ezekiel Elliott — who was the first person to give the newest richest player in the league a hug and embrace. Prescott then called his marketing team, girlfriend and father to relay the good news before pivoting his attention back to the game ahead.
"If you would've asked me this yesterday, I would've said I was going into the game without [an agreement]," he said. "And that didn't mean that contract talks were going to end, but I was just going to focus on what I can control."
"It was good to finish these questions."
One of the first calls that Prescott got in return was from Jerry Jones himself to share his embrace and goals for the years ahead.
"He called me after, obviously congratulated me," Prescott said. "I thanked him and he said, 'I want you to be the quarterback here.'"
"He said obviously the player, but he also said the person and that meant a lot. I just want to hold up my end of the deal and deliver for him."
Holding up his end, in his mind, is reaching the ultimate pinnacle of the sport and winning a Super Bowl. It's been a task that has felt out of reach during his eight seasons, yet the confidence remains in Prescott that a ring is in his cards.
On Thursday before a deal was done, Prescott said he wanted to be the "QB who wins it" in Dallas. Now that he's in Dallas for the foreseeable future, he's placing it on himself to cash in — theoretically this time, of course.
"That's my only motivation to hold up my part of this deal and just deliver that," he said. "That's what is at the forefront of my mind, not the money. It's about holding up my end of the deal and it's winning, and I want to do it here."
