Cowboys' Cole Beasley changes mind; headed back to team

Wide receiver Cole Beasley is back in Oxnard for Dallas Cowboys training camp after telling coach Jason Garrett on Thursday his heart wasn't in it and leaving camp.

By Nick Eatman

Aug 5, 2012 at 4:58 pm ET • 2 min read

After informing the Cowboys on Thursday he was leaving the squad for personal reasons and then sent home to Dallas, wide receiver Cole Beasley is back in Oxnard, Calif., for a second chance.

Beasley told head coach Jason Garrett on Thursday his “heart wasn’t in it,” according to the Cowboys coach. But apparently, Garrett and Beasley had a good enough discussion to bring the rookie receiver back to California.

“I just had a couple of issues that I had to take care of, and go home and spend some time with my family and go over some stuff,” Beasley said. “I think I got all that resolved, and now I’m just ready to focus on football.”

“I think it’s been going all right,” Beasley said. “I still need to learn the offense a little bit more and get to where I feel comfortable in there, to where I can just play and not think so much, but other than that I think it’s been going all right. … The best players are going to play. I’ve just got to show I can play football regardless of what has happened. We’re just going to try to forget about the past and everything, and move forward and focus only on football, and then everything else will take care of itself.”

Garrett said that Beasley will be evaluated from this point forward.

“One of the things we liked about Cole Beasley is his passion for the game and his hunger for the game,” Garrett said. “He came back, and he didn’t have that same fire, and sometimes when you’re a rookie free agent in the NFL, the world seems really big to you, and these days seem monumental and hard and challenging, and maybe they take a little of the spirit out of you. What he needed was to step back a little bit, take a breath, regain some perspective. His dad was a former high school coach. They had a good visit. When I spoke with him yesterday, it was like the guy that we signed back after the draft.”

Beasley, who had a legitimate chance to make the 53-man roster, gives the Cowboys a little more depth at an injury-depleted position. Beasley was placed on Exempt/Left Squad on Thursday but is now back on the active roster.

He replaces linebacker Aston Whiteside, a rookie from Abilene Christian, who was waived to make room.

The Cowboys are also expected to sign rookie WR David Little (Midwestern State) and RB Javarris Williams (Tennessee State), but will have to release two more players.