Marcus Spears fires back after Draymond Green called Dak Prescott a "bum," defending the Cowboys QB despite playoff struggles. Edit by Liam McGuire, Comeback Media.
By Sam Neumann on

Marcus Spears has spent enough time on First Take criticizing Dak Prescott’s playoff failures to know exactly where the line is.

Draymond Green crossed it.

The ESPN analyst and former Cowboys defensive lineman responded Wednesday after Green called Prescott a “bum” on his football podcast following Dallas’ 27-17 home loss to Arizona on Monday Night Football. The defeat dropped the Cowboys to 3-5-1 on the season and gave Green, who co-hosts Why Is Draymond Green Talking About Football? with NFL insider Jordan Schultz, everything he needed for a viral clip.

“He is getting some numbers and they stink,” Green said. “Dak’s a bum … They will never win with Dak.”

“When I say bum, I’m not saying Dak Prescott isn’t a good NFL quarterback,” Green explained. “Of course, he’s a good NFL quarterback. But when the money is on the line, when it’s for all the marbles, who are you? He’s a bum.”

The issue with Green’s comment isn’t whether Prescott deserves criticism for his 2-5 playoff record — Spears has seen him and his colleagues deliver that criticism on ESPN’s airwaves plenty of times. The issue was calling a professional quarterback who’s started nine NFL seasons and posted a 79-51-1 regular-season record a “bum” based purely on his postseason performance.

“Draymond made the point about being a 4-time champion and winning championships, and when it’s on the line, Dak doesn’t show up,” Spears said on First Take. “You can attest that to Dak Prescott. You can put that in his wheelhouse. You’ve done it many times. It’s just the respect of calling a dude a ‘bum,’ that has played football at the level, in which he has played. If you’re just attributing it to the playoffs, being a ‘bum’ is kind of crazy to say.”

“And it’s a bit rich coming from Draymond Green, who’s played with arguably a top-5 player to ever be in the NBA, to come out and say that like he’s been the catalyst,” Spears continued. “He’s been very important. He’s been a big part of what they’ve done championship-wise, [I’m] not taking that away from him. But Dak Prescott would be the Steph Curry to the team in the way it’s supposed to go. It’s just that football is completely different when it comes to trying to win a championship, and it’s not always attributed to the quarterback’s performance.”

Green won four championships playing alongside Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and at one point Kevin Durant — three of the greatest offensive players in NBA history. Basketball’s five-on-five format allows elite talent to dominate games in ways that don’t translate to football. A great NBA player touches the ball every possession and impacts both ends of the floor. Prescott doesn’t get that luxury in football’s 11-on-11, three-phase structure where 50-something roster spots matter and one player can’t carry an entire team, no matter how good he is.

Green was the defensive anchor and emotional leader of those Warriors teams, but he wasn’t the reason they won titles. Curry was. Thompson was. Durant definitely was. Green made winning plays and provided toughness, but calling out a quarterback for not winning championships when you spent your prime years as the third or fourth-most important player on your own team doesn’t exactly hold up under scrutiny.

Which brings us back to Green’s criticism. Green has explained his lifelong love of football and desire to analyze the sport from an elite athlete’s perspective, which is fine. Athletes crossing over into multi-sport commentary happens. Shannon Sharpe built a career on it. Charles Barkley does it regularly on Inside the NBA. The difference is understanding the sport you’re critiquing versus just lobbing grenades for engagement.

Prescott’s playoff record is what it is. Those numbers follow him everywhere, and they’ll keep following him until he changes them. And the Mississippi State product will wear this criticism until he wins in January. That’s the reality of playing quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, where every playoff failure becomes a referendum on your entire career and every loss gets amplified beyond reason.

That’s not to say his playoff losses have been amplified any more than they should’ve been or that Spears is throwing himself to shield Prescott from any legitimate criticism. But you can question performance without calling someone a “bum,” especially when your championship résumé is built on standing in the corner while Curry pulled up from 30 feet.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann