New Cowboys defensive back P.J. Locke used the phrase “afterlife” multiple times during his introductory conference call with reporters on Wednesday. Locke’s intention, presumably, wasn’t to be morbid. Instead, he sounded like someone who visited the brink of a playing career, only to keep going. There is a life after football, after all.
That’s what made Locke’s signature with the Cowboys, to stay in line with Locke’s thinking, so heavenly.
“Everything seemed to click,” said Locke, who agreed to a one-year deal worth $4 million.
It’s been 14 months since Locke had a surgery that he thought could’ve ended his career. He had dealt with back pain while playing before, but in 2024 it progressed to a new painful apex.
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“I was losing strength in my legs,” Locke recalled. “Ultimately, it kind of affected my confidence.”
Locke was advised to have spinal fusion surgery. A doctor told him the surgery could end his career; not having it could put him at risk of a severed nerve if one bad hit came his way, likely ending his career anyways.
Locke, 29, returned from the surgery and played in 18 games last season. He said he felt better than he has in a while, highlighted by an interception of Josh Allen in the playoffs. He grew confident, running and feeling the way he did. In turn, other teams grew confident in him as a potential free agent option.
“It was a miracle,” Locke said.
The surgery also prompted Locke, a former undrafted free agent out of Texas now entering his seventh season, to consider — to use his phrase, once again — the afterlife. He said coaching his son made him want to make sure he could run and move around, prompting him to get the surgery.
Locke also said he started looking toward where his family would spend their days when his football career was finished. He’s from Beaumont. His wife, Janeil, is from Fort Worth. He said he had multiple opportunities, but coming back to Texas and playing for the Cowboys — a team he and his family rooted for growing up — was an easy decision.
There was another big reason, too. Locke was in his second season in Denver when the Broncos hired Christian Parker as their cornerbacks coach. Locke saw firsthand the type of development and impact that Parker could have on young defensive backs, including the likes of Pat Surtain, who credits Parker with helping him develop into the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year.
Locke said that Parker, like himself, hates gray area.
“The gray area creates miscommunication,” Locke said.
That’s why there was no gray area during a conversation Locke and Parker shared just before Parker left to coach in Philadelphia in 2024. Locke knew that Parker had ambitions to become a defensive coordinator one day.
“Man, if I ever become a free agent, the time you become a DC, we’re going to make this thing happen,” Locke recalled saying. “Man, it’s so crazy how he becomes the DC with the Cowboys.
“I prayed about it and I feel like God opened me up to taking an opportunity to become a Cowboy. I’m just blessed to be here at the end of the day.”
Locke’s football afterlife can wait.
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