When Marshawn Kneeland’s family received a group text late at night on November 5, their heart stopped. Often described as a happy-go-lucky locker room presence and the life of the party during family events, it was unlike anything they’d expected at that moment. Yet the gravity of the situation was not lost on anyone. Struggling with a history of mental illness, the family and Kneeland’s girlfriend, Catalina Mancera, were too sure that this text carried more weight than it looked like. Immediately, they reached out to authorities to save the budding NFL star. But the world had already stopped by then.

At 8:35 am, seven hours after the 24-year-old defensive end tragically took his life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Dallas Cowboys revealed the tragic news. Just days later, team owner Jerry Jones announced that the team would honor Kneeland’s memory by wearing a #94 decal on the back of their helmets for the remainder of the season. It seemed like the perfect goodbye, a deserving tribute with the jersey number that the deceased player had grown to love so much. And perhaps that is exactly why Indianapolis Colts safety and Kneeland’s former teammate, Juanyeh Thomas, is unable to piece together why the Cowboys undid everything just five months later.

“That 94 should have been off limits until my brother’s contract fully expired,” Thomas wrote on X this week. Just don’t feel right fr…”

Notably, this came after the team decided to assign No. 94 to undrafted free agent defensive lineman Kelvin Gilliam. It is unlikely that Gilliam will be permanently wearing this number since it is only a rookie minicamp (not all UDFAs eventually make it to the active roster). By that time, the No. 94 can return to being at rest. But timing matters, and seeing it reissued so soon after Kneeland’s passing struck a nerve that statistics and roster logic couldn’t soften.

What made the No. 94 more than just a jersey was how embedded it was inside that locker room. After being drafted 56th overall in 2024, the DE also revealed how deep its impact flowed, given that some of the franchise’s most iconic players donned the number, including Hall of Famers DeMarcus Ware and Charles Haley. 

“I just want to add on to the legacy of the number,” Kneeland had said. “I wanna get the number retired. Its been some greats that have had it.”

Those words sit heavy today. Kneeland never got a chance to live those dreams. Now, the Cowboys also have a unique tradition when it comes to jersey numbers. Unlike some other franchises, they don’t formally retire numbers. Instead, they let them return to circulation over time. However, there are some numbers that Dallas doesn’t hand out anymore.

Take for example, Emmitt Smith’s No. 22. But since Kneeland left this world on such a painful note, the expectation was for the team to extend to his loved ones the grace of keeping his memory alive by including 94 on this list as well. Mostly because, though Kneeland’s time with the team was brief, he left behind a magnanimously remarkable mark.

The reactions from his teammates said it all. They were emotional, personal, and simply reflected the bond that they carried. DeMarvion Overshown talked about how the locker room couldn’t find its balance days after the incident. That players were “in and out of sadness” trying to process it all. The keeping of Kneeland’s jersey on the bench was not just a tribute; it was so the players too feel that their brother is still part of every snap. 

Then there was Osa Odighizuwa, who, after the Cowboys’ first win after the tragedy, was seen carrying Kneeland’s jersey back to the locker room, emotional, holding it carefully, and refusing to let it touch the ground. Dak Prescott, who himself has been an advocate of mental health after losing his own brother, was visibly shaken as he tried to put the loss into words. 

“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 you don’t wish upon anybody. You wish none of us had to go through with this. You wish Marshawn didn’t have to go through what he went through. Just thankful for each moment we have in this life, and don’t take it for granted. Hug and love on those that you do.” 

“It’s still something that I’m trying to wrap my head around,” Odighizuwa added. “I was at my locker before practice and I looked up and I felt like I saw him, and ‘Ah, nah, that’s someone else.’ It hits you, you know what I mean? Just moments like that.”

The Cowboys established a memorial fund for his girlfriend and their unborn child. They showed that their responsibilities didn’t end with simply a tribute on a game day. They stood by Kneeland’s family, which is why the team’s recent move seems even more confusing.

Kneeland had only just begun his journey in the league. He was a second-round pick in 2024 and had played just seven games in the 2025 season before his life was cut short in Frisco, Texas. According to reports, he was involved in a high-speed police pursuit before being found dead. Authorities reported a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his death was being investigated at that time as a suicide. 

What makes it more heartbreaking is during the young player’s time at Western Michigan University, police were twice called to perform welfare checks on him by coaches. According to a campus police report, one of those incidents came in June 2023 when Western Michigan coach Lance Taylor and then-defensive coordinator Lou Esposito called police with concerns that “[Kneeland] recently separated from his girlfriend” and that they “wanted to make sure he was mentally fit to possess a firearm”.

Even on the night that Kneeland decided to take the tragic decision, his girlfriend had contacted the police with concerns.

“We’re talking to the girlfriend,” a 911 audio revealed. “She’s trying to call his agent, but we’re trying to get her to call him first, but she’s saying he is armed and has a history of mental illness.”

Unfortunately, it was too late by the time the player was found.