Dak Prescott is the gift that keeps on giving for Bulldog fans, even 10 months after he played his last football game at Mississippi State.
Prescott, who set 38 school records in two-plus seasons as MSU’s starting quarterback, is now in the NFL. And he has been a much-needed diversion for State fans during a disappointing 2016 football season, which concludes on Saturday in Oxford with the Egg Bowl.
While Bulldog fans have watched MSU suffer its first losing season this decade, watching Prescott’s astonishing debut season with the Dallas Cowboys has helped soften the blow.
State fans consoled themselves after too many Saturday losses by tuning in on Sundays to watch Prescott emerge, not only as a leading NFL Rookie of the Year candidate, but as a league MVP as well.
And his No. 4 Cowboys jersey is flying off the shelves here in Mississippi.
While his playing has been a significant boost to fans’ morale, it has been a financial shot in the arm for John Hendricks, whose business rises and falls on the success or failure of MSU athletics.
“There’s no question this year has been a little disappointing,” said Hendricks, who opened The Lodge in 1978, five years after he graduated from MSU. The Lodge is a retail store that focuses on all things Bulldog-related.
When MSU teams succeed, Hendricks sees it on his bottom line, especially when it comes to football.
So, when MSU was thriving on the field behind Prescott in 2014 and 2015, business was fairly booming at The Lodge.
This year, well, not so much.
“Oh, yeah,” Hendricks said. “Winning is good for our business.”
Even before MSU took a dive, Hendricks had made a decision that would ultimately pay off.
“In all of our years, we had never sold any NFL stuff,” Hendricks said. “But back in August, when it was clear that Dak was going to be the Cowboys’ quarterback, I decided to order some Dak Cowboys jerseys. I thought we could sell them, but I never imagined what it would turn out to be. We can’t order them fast enough or get them fast enough, and once they get here, they’re all gone in a few days. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Sales keep booming
Last football season saw a boom in Dak Prescott jersey sales, thanks mainly to a bit of good fortune.
Two years ago the NCAA changed its merchandising rules in response to a lawsuit by former players that challenged the association for making money off the players’ likenesses. Under those rules, universities were limited to selling jerseys with just three numbers – the number 1, the number of the current year and the number associated with the founding of the university.
Last year, that meant replica MSU jerseys could bear the numbers 1, 15 for the year 2015, and 78 because MSU was founded in 1878.
By a happy circumstance, Prescott’s number was 15. The No. 15 MSU jerseys flew off the shelves and are likely to be a collector’s item.
“We’ll never be able to sell another Mississippi State No. 15 jersey,” Hendricks said. “In fact, on New Year’s Day this year, we had to take any of those No. 15 jerseys out of stock.”
Hendricks figured the Dak merchandising bonanza was over.
So did everyone, in fact.
Prescott’s success proving good for business
But nobody saw this coming.
Despite his record-setting career at Mississippi State, Prescott was not considered a prize prospect by NFL teams.
By the time his name was called on the third day of the 2016 NFL Draft, 133 other players, including eight quarterbacks, had been selected ahead of Prescott. The Cowboys finally drafted Prescott in the fourth round. It was assumed Prescott would fight it out for the backup job in Dallas behind 14-year football veteran Tony Romo.
Prescott played well in the Cowboys’ preseason games, appearing to have solidified his role as the Cowboys’ backup. Then in the Cowboys’ third preseason game on Aug. 28, Romo suffered a broken bone in his back. Just 11 days before the start of the regular season, Prescott was thrust into the role of the opening-day quarterback.
He hasn’t looked back.
Behind Prescott, fellow rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott and the NFL’s best offensive line, the Cowboys have rolled to an NFL-best 11-1 record. Prescott and Elliott are interchangeably 1 and 2 on the short list for Rookie of the Year and NFL MVP.
That carries over to merchandising, too.
According to NFLShop.com, Prescott merchandise is second only to Elliott in sales.
But, in Mississippi, Prescott is second to none based off current sales.
Demand for Dak merchandise is high among MSU fans
Back in Starkville, the appetite for Prescott’s No. 4 Dallas Cowboys jerseys has proven insatiable.
“We made our first order in August,” Hendricks said. “I think the order was for something like 70 to 80 jerseys. We sold them all in four days.”
The jerseys retail from $100 to $110 if you can find them.
“Our latest order was for 144 jerseys in each color (blue and white),” Hendricks said. “The white one just came in, and we’re almost sold out. The blue jerseys should be coming in any day now. They won’t be here long, either.”
There were 20 white jerseys remaining in the store as of Wednesday afternoon.
It’s much the same at another Starkville sporting goods store.
“There really doesn’t seem to be any limit to what we could sell if we could get them,” said Arthur Tyler, one of the managers at Sports Center. “We got our first order in about four weeks ago and sold them immediately. The last shipment we got was for 70 jerseys, and we have maybe 10 left. Really, I have no idea how many we could sell if we could get our hands on them. We’re selling a lot of Dak T-Shirts, too, and we have another 400 T-shirts ordered.
“Even when we do get an order in, it’s pretty much limited to jerseys and men’s size T-shirts,” Tyler said. “There aren’t any children or toddlers’ merchandise, and we could sell a ton of that, especially this close to Christmas.”
Demand creates logistical challenges
The difficulty of keeping stores stocked with Prescott merchandise goes beyond the player’s sudden, unanticipated rise from relative obscurity.
“A lot of it has to do with how the Cowboys handle their merchandising,” Hendricks noted.
In 2002, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones exercised an option in the NFL merchandising contract with the league’s 32 teams, allowing the Cowboys to handle their own merchandising and maximize the team’s profits.
It’s clear to both Hendricks and Tyler that the Cowboys simply aren’t capable of meeting the enormous demand of Prescott merchandise.
“I think they’re just overwhelmed,” Hendricks said. “They didn’t anticipate this. They can’t keep up with the orders.”
Even placing an order can be difficult, Tyler said.
“I have one contact person with the Cowboys that I can order from,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s hard to even get in touch with that person. And once you do, who knows how long it’s going to take to get the shipment in.
“That’s really a shame. You know (the Cowboys) want to sell as much as they can, and we could sell everything they send us. It’s Christmas, and that’s the time you really would love to have as much of the Dak stuff as you can get your hands on.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.