Content warning: This story discusses suicide.
Amidst the heart-wrenching grief of the Dallas Cowboys' community, the team's defensive end, Marshawn Kneeland's loss, has brought his fellow players together in a show of solidarity and support. In the aftermath of Kneeland's apparent suicide on November 6th, his teammates gathered during their bye week to lend a helping hand to Solomon Thomas's nonprofit, The Defensive Line, packing food for those in need.
"Being apart from each other has been difficult," Thomas shared in an interview published on the Cowboys' website on November 10th. "So I think coming together into the building meant a lot."
Indeed, with emotions running high, this initiative presented an opportunity for the athletes to channel their pain into purpose. "I even told them, 'Hey, I understand if you don't want to come,'" Thomas, 30, continued. "But all of them wanted to be here because we're all hurting, we feel the absence, and we want to be there to love on each other."
Hours earlier, the team had reunited for the first time since Kneeland's death for a meeting led by head coach Brian Schottenheimer, team independent psychologist Heather Twedell, and director of team security Cable Johnson. Thomas commended his coach for "giving us a space" to discuss the devastating loss.
"We needed a day to be human and to cry and to let everyone know how we felt," he shared. "It was an extremely draining and hard day for everyone involved—hard for everyone who loved Marshawn. So it just meant a lot for [Schottenheimer] to conduct the day like that."
The tragedy was particularly painful for Thomas, whose sister Ella Thomas died by suicide in 2018. As a result, the football star felt especially called to help his teammates through these trying circumstances. "It's very triggering for me having lost a sister to suicide," he explained. "But I definitely have a responsibility to be here for my teammates to let them know that there's help available, that there's love out there, and that there's a way to move through this together in a way that honors Marshawn and our own feelings at the same time."
Kneeland's tragic end came after he crashed his car during a pursuit with Texas police on the night of November 5th, before fleeing the scene on foot. His body was found early the next day. Hours after the fatal incident, Kneeland's family issued a statement saying they were "still processing the depth of our grief."
"As Marshawn was making his mark on the football field with the Dallas Cowboys, he held an even more special place off the field—as a devoted son, brother, uncle, cousin, nephew, grandson, and friend," read the Facebook statement. "His light shone brightly in every life he touched, and his spirit will continue to live on through the countless hearts he inspired."
