Giants' Colt McCoy on seeing Dak Prescott's leg injury: 'It felt so similar' to Alex Smith's
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott points skyward as he is carted off the field after sustaining a leg injury in the third quarter of an NFL game against the Giants in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday. Credit: AP/Tom Fox
It didn’t take Alex Smith’s return to the field on Sunday to make Colt McCoy remember Alex Smith’s departure from the field two years ago.
That injury was already on McCoy’s mind during the Giants’ game against the Cowboys, when Dak Prescott suffered a compound fracture and dislocation of his ankle in the third quarter.
"It felt so similar," McCoy said of seeing Prescott go down compared to when Smith suffered compound and spiral fractures to his right tibia and fibula in November 2018. "I immediately got sick. He was right there on our sideline and I immediately knew what happened and what that was because I had been through it with Alex."
It took Smith two years to recover, but that timeframe was extended because of life-threatening infections.
"Dak’s recovery will be so much smoother as long as it doesn’t get infected," McCoy said. "That was the deal with Alex’s. I think playing on an artificial turf helps [Prescott]. The reason Alex’s was [infected] was because we were playing on grass and dirt and he had stains on his socks. He was sweaty. I would think that playing indoors on turf, there is a little bit less risk of infection that way."
Smith said in an interview with "The Dan Patrick Show" on Monday that he was home after his game, still processing his comeback, when he saw Prescott go down.
"I feel like I’ve become a little bit of an expert with the lower leg, so I knew it looked like his ankle immediately," Smith said. "I’ve been thinking about him a lot. I’ve checked up on him through our mutual friends and seeing how he’s doing. I thought a lot about shooting him a text. But part of me also didn’t want to scare the hell out of him by shooting him a text and having him thinking he might be heading down this road."
Early signs indicate that Prescott is not. He underwent surgery on Sunday after he was transported from AT&T Stadium to a local hospital and has already returned home to begin his rehabilitation.
But infection certainly cancreep into the picture at any time.
"I pray that that doesn’t happen," McCoy said, "All of the things that Alex had to go through, I would never wish that on anybody."
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
