Thursday night’s NFL opening game in many ways may be the biggest one of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott’s career.
When Prescott, who became the highest-paid player in NFL history with a four-year, $240 million contract extension last September, takes takes to the gridiron at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia to face the Super Bowl champion Eagles, he’ll be playing his first game since November 3 of last year, when he suffered a severe hamstring injury tearing the tendon that connects the muscle to the bone.
Prescott underwent surgery 10 days later and missed the remainder of the 2024 season, as well as the 2025 preseason.
New Perspective on Football for Prescott
While Prescott is undoubtedly focused on regaining his pre-injury form after a 10-month absence from football, he says that he is approaching this new phase of his career with a new perspective, as the father of two young girls with girlfriend – and since October of 2024, fiancée — Sarah Jane Ramos.
“When you wake up in the morning and see that baby you understand responsibilities and everything I’ve always wanted for myself,” Prescott told reporters last year. “But to want that for somebody else even more, it’s special.”
But while Ramos appears to have helped Prescott find that renewed outlook an motivation in the face of the second major injury of his career, when he suffered his first, a different girlfriend was at his side too help see him through.
Who was she, and what happened to her?
Natalie Buffet Was There For Gruesome Ankle Injury
Just five games into the 2020 season, Prescott was tackled on an open-field running play by New York Giants safety Logan Ryan. When Prescott hit the ground, his right foot was pointing in the wrong direction.
He required two surgeries to repair the ankle, but was able to return for the start of the 2021 season. Staying with him through the medical procedures and recover was his then-girlfriend, social media influencer and online content strategist Natalie Buffett, who was then 22 years old. Prescott in 2020 was 27. Buffett is not related to either billionaire Warren Buffett or the late singer Jimmy Buffett.
“Prescott was carted off the field following a season-ending ankle injury that required surgery,” People Magazine reported at the time. “Buffett was by Prescott’s side throughout his recovery, and the two even dressed up for Halloween as a nurse and her patient.”
A Two-Year Romance That Fizzled Out
According to the People report, Buffett and and Prescott “officially” announced their romance with a since-deleted Instagram post on the quarterback’s 27th birthday, July 19, 2020. A 2019 graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas with a degree in civil engineering, in 2021 Buffet began her current job as director of content creation and strategy at OxeFit, maker of home gym equipment often favored by celebrities.
Buffett and Prescott even adopted two dogs together, People reported, and they were photographed on the red carpet at the 2022 NFL Honors Awards.
But the awards show was the last time Prescott and Buffett were seen in public together. So what happened?
According to media reports, the pair played their break-up “close to the vest,” and neither has publicly stated a reason for the end of their romance, but general speculation has centered around the same reasons that break up many celebrity couples — their demanding careers simply did not allow them to spend as much time together as they needed to maintain a relationship.
One internet YouTube celebrity content creator, Rickey Smiley, claimed — without citing a source — that “she said she was sick of him.”
Buffett has gone on to date reality TV personality Craig Conover, and Detroit Tigers pitcher Jack Flaherty.
Prescott briefly and “casually” dated LSU swimmer and Instagram model Jadyn Jannasch.
The quarterback then began his relationship with Ramos that now appears headed for marriage and has already produced two children.
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