Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer revealed on Wednesday that Catalina Mancera, the girlfriend of the late Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland, is pregnant with the couple’s child.
Kneeland, 24, shot himself in a porta-potty following a chase with Dallas-area police last Thursday in which he fled from his car and eluded officers until an examination of an outdoor toilet on the side of a building revealed heat signatures and blood stains emanating from inside the structure.
“She’s pregnant, so we want to make sure she’s taken care of and the baby’s taken care of for the rest of their lives,” Schottenheimer told reporters. “Our guys, it’s very important to them and to us.”
The Cowboys have set up the Marshawn Kneeland Memorial Fund to support the late player’s child and girlfriend.
Officers were alerted to the threat that Kneeland posed to himself after Mancera told them that he had texted her saying he planned to “end it all.” The former player also reportedly texted his family, saying his goodbyes.
“I’m grieving hard right now. It will be a long time before I’ll feel ready to talk at any length,” Mancera told the Daily Mail on Monday in her first public comments since her boyfriend’s death. “We’re still in the early stages of everything. We are working on the funeral arrangements. I don’t know where it’s going to be yet.”
In his final game, a Monday night tilt against the Cardinals, Kneeland blocked a punt and scored a touchdown.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer remarked on how the team met and discussed Kneeland and the impact he had on the team, and what they will remember most about him.
“We had an opportunity [Tuesday] night to celebrate Marshawn’s life, tell some stories, share, laugh, cry. Marshawn loved the words ‘one love,’ so we talked a lot about love as we grieve,” Schottenheimer said. “I just had a chance to really share a couple of things that I’ll miss the most about Marshawn.
“Those top couple things were, he had the most playful spirit of any young man I’ve been around. His smile could take you to your knees. And in terms of him as an athlete, no one had a better motor than him. My heart is heavy, our team’s heart is heavy. We don’t move on, but we do move forward.”
Kneeland was in his second year in the NFL and second with the Cowboys.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.