It is well known that the NFL requires teams in the preseason to conduct organized team activities, better known as OTAs, the final part of training programs before the start of training camps prior to the start of the season.
The league states that each team can have up to 10 days of OTAs, but some franchises decide to do fewer activities of this type, in which physical contact is not allowed. This is not the case for the Dallas Cowboys, who, led by Brian Schottenheimer, decided to involve their players in a peculiar activity in which new ‘leaderships’ were revealed.
Tyler Smith says the activity was a lot of fun
According to Jon Machota of The Athletic, the Cowboys had a fun ‘paintball’ session, that competition in which members of two teams get into a controlled field with air guns with paintballs to try to ‘annihilate’ the opponents, as if it were a war, a recreational activity that responds to the establishment of strategies, tactics and determination.
Cowboys left guard Tyler Smith was the first to reveal that Schottenheimer took the team to play paintball on the first day of OTAs and he was quoted by Machota as saying: “I thought it was crazy. It had never happened before. I thought it was great to start on a fun note… The guys were going crazy. It was fun.”
A paintball ‘star’ is born, but will it shine on the field?
Both Machota, Smith and Sports Illustrated, which in turn cites the Dallas Morning News, agree that it was Markquese Bell who stole the show in this activity, as the safety revealed a ‘hidden talent’ that could well serve the secondary if he applies it on the field to make coach Matt Eberflus proud
“My God! My God! Markquese Bell could probably go to SEAL Team 6,” Tyler Smith joked about his teammate, who arrived in 2022 to the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent from Florida A&M and recently signed a three-year, $9 million contract extension, which they hope he will make good on with talents like the one shown in paintball
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