The Dallas Cowboys continue to mourn the death of 24-year-old defender Marshawn Kneeland. Amid the tragedy, the Frisco Police Department revealed that Kneeland’s cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“On November 5, 2025, at approximately 10:39 p.m., the Frisco Police Department responded to assist the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) with locating a vehicle that had evaded troopers during a pursuit that entered the city of Frisco,” the police department’s statement detailed on November 6, 2025. “After losing visual of the vehicle, troopers located it minutes later, crashed on southbound Dallas Parkway near Warren Parkway.
“Initial reports indicated that a male subject, later identified as 24-year-old Marshawn Kneeland of Plano, TX fled the scene on foot. Officers established a perimeter and initiated a search of the area with the assistance of the FPD K-9 and Drone units,” the press release added.
“During the course of the search, officers received information that Kneeland had expressed suicidal ideations. Kneeland was later located at 1:31 a.m., deceased with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The cause/manner of death will be determined by the Collin County Medical Examiner’s Office.”
As more details are released about Kneeland’s death, it has become apparent that the former Cowboys pass rusher was dealing with mental health challenges. Shortly before his death, Kneeland sent text messages to his girlfriend Catalina Mancera, per The Athletic.
“The Athletic reviewed a Frisco police dispatch recording from around 11:30 p.m., in which an officer said police were talking to Kneeland’s girlfriend, who did not know where he was,” The Athletic detailed in a November 6, story titled, “Cowboys’ Marshawn Kneeland dies after apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound following police chase.”
“’She’s saying he is armed and has a history of mental illness. And her quote was, ‘He will end it all,’’ the officer said on the recording.
“Soon after, the officer said Kneeland’s girlfriend was trying to call his agent, while other officers were trying to ping his phone with help from Verizon, his mobile carrier.”
A scary scene emerged prior to Kneeland’s passing on November 6. Kneeland’s car struck a pickup truck amid a police chase prior to his death, per The Athletic’s Mike Wilson and Alex Andrejev.
“Before dying from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound early Thursday in Frisco, Texas, Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland crashed the car he was driving into a pickup truck after a police chase, the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed to The Athletic on Friday,” Wilson and Andrejev wrote in a November 7, article titled, “Cowboys’ Marshawn Kneeland’s car crashed into pickup truck after police chase.”
“After the crash, Kneeland abandoned his car on foot. He was found dead at 1:31 a.m. Thursday.”
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has been outspoken in pushing for suicide prevention. Prescott lost his brother Jace Prescott to suicide in April 2020.
“I hurt (with a) heavy, heavy heart today,” Prescott explained to CBS News Texas during a November 6, interview. “I hurt for Marshawn, I hurt for his family. I hurt for his girlfriend. I hurt for every single one of my teammates. This is a pain that you don’t wish upon anybody. You wish none of us had to go through this.
“You wish Marshawn didn’t have to go through what he went through and just thankful for each moment we have in this life. And don’t take it for granted. And hug and love on those that you do (have),” Prescott added.
“It’s okay to feel however you’re feeling. And I’ll tell you first and foremost, I don’t always have the answers, and today’s not a day that I felt like I had answers.”
Mike Johnson parlayed a 661-game NHL career that included stops with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning, Phoenix Coyotes, Montreal Canadiens, and St. Louis Blues into a broadcasting career with TSN.
Johnson has been the color commentator for numerous NHL and IIHF broadcasts, but recently, he has been the primary commentator for the Maple Leafs’ regional TSN broadcasts. Unsurprisingly, given his ties to so many Atlantic Division rivals, Johnson doesn’t have too many good things to say about the Boston Bruins.
That continued on a recent NHL Network hit, where he dropped the take that two-time Stanley Cup Champion and 1000-point getter Brad Marchand doesn’t have a place in the Hockey Hall of Fame. While criticizing the Bruins on the Maple Leafs broadcasts makes sense as the regional guy, taking such a bizarre stance about Marchand’s Hall of Fame status is a bridge too far.
Winning two Stanley Cups, recording 1000 points, winning 2 World Junior Gold Medals, scoring the championship-winning goal in the 2016 World Cup, and playing an essential role on Canada’s 4 Nations Face-Off team when many said he shouldn’t have made it, isn’t enough of a resume for Johnson. Neither was scoring two goals in the Game 7 clincher in 2011 or recording 20 points in 23 games for the Florida Panthers’ run last postseason.
Instead, Johnson believes that players like Keith Tkachuk and Curtis Joseph should be in the Hall over Marchand. Tkachuk, whose trophy case includes one Maurice Richard Trophy and a silver medal with Team USA, and Joseph, who was a Vezina Trophy finalist on a couple of occasions, and had a front-row seat to Martin Brodeur winning him an Olympic Gold Medal in 2002. Coincidentally, both were also former teammates of the non-biased Mike Johnson.
Johnson finished his explanation by saying that today he wouldn’t put Marchand in the Hall of Fame, but talk to him in three years and it’ll be a yes. My question would be what else could Marchand possibly achieve to make him worthy in Johnson’s eyes? An Olympic Gold Medal is one of the only things missing from the trophy case, which he might get a chance to win in a few months.
If Johnson was attempting to generate some clickbait from this take, it worked, but sometimes a biased take has to come under scrutiny. The good news is that his fans in Toronto will love the take after years of watching the man who doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame dominate their team in the postseason.