Dak Prescott did make a mistake on the opening coin toss before Sunday’s Dallas Cowboys-Los Angeles Rams game, but referee Walt Anderson made one too.
Audio shared by FOX well after Prescott’s mistake shows the Dallas quarterback did say “defer” after winning the coin toss. However, he first said “kick”, which is what Anderson held him to.
Certainly sounds like Dak Prescott says we want to defer to the second half pic.twitter.com/hFAkwMlwkD
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) December 15, 2019
Here’s the radio call, where announcer Brad Sham was all over the situation:
Quite the confusion regarding the coin flip, but here’s what was said and Brad Sham’s reaction:
DAK – “We want defense … defense … We wanna kick it. Kick it that way”
WALT – “You wanna kick”
DAK – “We defer to the second half”#DallasCowboys (@1053TheFan) pic.twitter.com/Gc5VYvuDT0
— T̷R̷O̷Y̷ ̷H̷U̷G̷H̷E̷S̷ (@TommySledge) December 15, 2019
Prescott could be heard saying “defense. We want to kick it. Kick it that way. We defer the second half.”
“You’re gonna kick,” Anderson then said in response, and made the declaration.
Prescott was obviously quite unclear and gave three different statements. First he said defense, then he said kick, then he said defer. Based on his confusing comments, Anderson should have asked Prescott to clear things up and ask for his actual decision, since he mentioned different things. Instead, he cut things off and said the Cowboys would kick.
Luckily the NFL made changes at halftime and let the Cowboys receive in the second half. They cited Prescott saying “defer” as their reason for the change.
