If you've been caught up in the whirlwind that has been the Cowboys' run to the playoffs this year, you might have forgotten that someone other than Ezekiel Elliott wore the No. 21 jersey last season: Running back Joseph Randle.
Randle appeared to be a rising star with the Cowboys before a series of legal issues led to his release by the team in the middle of the 2015 season. He is currently in jail awaiting trial on numerous charges, including aggravated battery and criminal destruction of property.
In a recent profile in Sports Illustrated, family and friends of Randle raised the question of whether football-related injuries contributed to his rapid downward spiral.
There were warning signs earlier in the 2015 season, like paranoia, gambling and drinking issues. But those close to him like his then-girlfriend and the mother of his child Avina Rodriguez point to his last game with the Cowboys, when the team played the Giants on the road. On his second carry of that game, Randle appeared to hit his head on the turf. He was pulled from the game with what the Cowboys described as a "rib/muscle strain."
Rodriguez told Sports Illustrated that when Randle returned to Dallas he began displaying some odd behavior -- pacing, paranoia and difficulty remembering conversations and even Cowboys play calls.
"I asked him multiple times: Did you pass the concussion test? Do you have a concussion?" Rodriguez told Sports Illustrated. "And he would kind of gaze out--you know when people daydream? It felt like he was daydreaming a lot. I'm like, Joseph, what's going on?"
Another close associate told Sports Illustrated, "I'd look him in the eye, and he just wasn't the same guy. I was looking into his soul like, Joe, where's the guy I know?"
Rodriguez told Sports Illustrated that after the Cowboys tried to get Randle to seek psychiatric help she confronted them to ask if he had passed concussion tests. The team told her that he had not displayed symptoms at the time of the injury but had not run any additional tests on Randle.
But Cowboys team-fixer David Wells told Sports Illustrated, "I think Joseph Randle is suffering from some kind of concussion-type mental s---, man."
Randle never played with the Cowboys again. After being left off the active roster for the Cowboys' next game, the running back went with former Dallas defensive end Charles Haley to see a psychiatrist. The next morning, he was cut by the Cowboys, possibly because the organization knew of a looming domestic violence suspension for the running back.
It was after that that Randle returned to his hometown of Wichita, Kansas, where he was later arrested for criminal threat, criminal property damage, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, aggravated burglary and four counts of aggravated battery for an incident at a party.
Rodriguez felt like the Cowboys cut Randle when he needed the team's support system the most.
"That organization and that team preached so much about how they were a family," Rodriguez told Sports Illustrated. "We had to go to all these dinners and meetings. . . . How can [they] preach so much on [family] but be about it so little?
"If Jerry [Jones] was really concerned about [Joseph's] mental health, he would have helped him along instead of just releasing him and saying, I can wash my hands of it."
Randle appeared to be a rising star with the Cowboys before a series of legal issues led to his release by the team in the middle of the 2015 season. He is currently in jail awaiting trial on numerous charges, including aggravated battery and criminal destruction of property.
In a recent profile in Sports Illustrated, family and friends of Randle raised the question of whether football-related injuries contributed to his rapid downward spiral.
There were warning signs earlier in the 2015 season, like paranoia, gambling and drinking issues. But those close to him like his then-girlfriend and the mother of his child Avina Rodriguez point to his last game with the Cowboys, when the team played the Giants on the road. On his second carry of that game, Randle appeared to hit his head on the turf. He was pulled from the game with what the Cowboys described as a "rib/muscle strain."
Rodriguez told Sports Illustrated that when Randle returned to Dallas he began displaying some odd behavior -- pacing, paranoia and difficulty remembering conversations and even Cowboys play calls.
"I asked him multiple times: Did you pass the concussion test? Do you have a concussion?" Rodriguez told Sports Illustrated. "And he would kind of gaze out--you know when people daydream? It felt like he was daydreaming a lot. I'm like, Joseph, what's going on?"
Another close associate told Sports Illustrated, "I'd look him in the eye, and he just wasn't the same guy. I was looking into his soul like, Joe, where's the guy I know?"
Rodriguez told Sports Illustrated that after the Cowboys tried to get Randle to seek psychiatric help she confronted them to ask if he had passed concussion tests. The team told her that he had not displayed symptoms at the time of the injury but had not run any additional tests on Randle.
But Cowboys team-fixer David Wells told Sports Illustrated, "I think Joseph Randle is suffering from some kind of concussion-type mental s---, man."
Randle never played with the Cowboys again. After being left off the active roster for the Cowboys' next game, the running back went with former Dallas defensive end Charles Haley to see a psychiatrist. The next morning, he was cut by the Cowboys, possibly because the organization knew of a looming domestic violence suspension for the running back.
It was after that that Randle returned to his hometown of Wichita, Kansas, where he was later arrested for criminal threat, criminal property damage, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, aggravated burglary and four counts of aggravated battery for an incident at a party.
Rodriguez felt like the Cowboys cut Randle when he needed the team's support system the most.
"That organization and that team preached so much about how they were a family," Rodriguez told Sports Illustrated. "We had to go to all these dinners and meetings. . . . How can [they] preach so much on [family] but be about it so little?
"If Jerry [Jones] was really concerned about [Joseph's] mental health, he would have helped him along instead of just releasing him and saying, I can wash my hands of it."
