This time last year, Dak Prescott felt a different type of excitement about the game of football -- a "completely different" perspective, he said.
Last April, he was just starting to work back into football activities after undergoing two surgeries to repair his 2020 ankle injury that sidelined him for the final 11 games that season.
This April, as the Cowboys start their voluntary workout program, Prescott's feeling "pumped up" about his first fully healthy offseason in two years -- and really, his first normal offseason work since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic restricted access at team facilities.
"A year ago you're excited because you're back on your leg, you're moving it for the first time, from one week to the next you get to do two jumps to three jumps to jog to sprint. So, you're excited and you feel that progress," Prescott said at Friday's Children's Cancer Fund Gala in Dallas which supports research to fight pediatric cancer.
"But a year from now, I get on the field and I don't even think about my leg. It goes from getting that leg better to that's not even a thought in my head. There's days maybe the cold front comes in that I might feel it a little bit more, but it's not even a thought in my head or something I'm worrying or rehabbing on."
Prescott had a healthy 2021 season with regard to his right ankle, but he did face a couple different injuries: a strained right shoulder that kept him out of preseason and a strained right calf suffered in Week 6 against the Patriots that sidelined him for one start against the Vikings on Halloween.
The Cowboys quarterback started 17 of 18 games and set a single-season franchise record with 37 touchdown passes. But in January he passed on a Pro Bowl invite to rest his body, and also underwent a minor procedure on his left shoulder.
Fully recovered and back to throwing, Prescott's looking forward to the future with the Cowboys.
"Pumped up is the way I feel, the leg feels, arm feels, body feels. I'm excited," he said.
Prescott joined former Cowboys quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman as honorary co-chairs at Friday's gala, the Children's Cancer Fund's largest annual fundraiser. Founded in 1982, the Children's Cancer Fund has donated $11 million for pediatric cancer research in Dallas.
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