Girlfriend of Cowboys’ Marshawn Kneeland Breaks Silence After Tragedy
(Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - FEBRUARY 28: Marshawn Kneeland #DL41 of the Western Michigan Broncos speaks to the media during the 2024 NFL Draft Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 28, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
It’s not even been a week since the tragic apparent suicide of Cowboys end Marshawn Kneeland, and still, the news is raw for most around the organization. It’s even more painful, of course, for those who were closest to Kneeland, especially his longtime girlfriend, Catalina Marcena, who has been his partner since Kneeland was a collegiate player at Western Michigan.
It was Marcena who alerted police back on November 5 that Kneeland was armed and could be a danger to himself, warning of his history of mental illness. In the days since, Marcena has remained out of the spotlight, but she did finally speak this week, at first telling the Daily Mail, “It’s too much.”
She went on: “I’m grieving hard right now. It will be a long time before I’ll feel ready to talk at any length. We’re still in the early stages of everything. We are working on the funeral arrangements. I don’t know where it’s going to be yet.”
Catalina Marcena Left a Message on Facebook
Marcena, who founded a clothing line called, SZN Stitches, posted to Facebook this week, writing, “my sweet baby, words could never express how broken I feel, you’re my everything. I’ll love you forever my beautiful angel.”
Kneeland was just 24 when he died. Marcena is 22.
FacebookCowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland and girlfriend Catalina Marcena, from her Facebook post.
Marshawn Kneeland’s Mother Died Just before Cowboys Drafted Him
Kneeland’s death came 20 months after the death of his mother, Wendy.
Back on February 18, 2024, just days before the start of the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, where Kneeland would solidify his professional future after his career at Western Michigan, Wendy, died suddenly of an undisclosed illness. Kneeland headed into the Combine with a heavy heart, of course, but did not go public about his mother’s death.
He said at the time, “A lot of people don’t know because I really don’t talk about it too much … It was tough, it still is, but I know at the end of the day the thing that gets me through it is she spent all her life trying to get me to go here and supported me as much as she could to get me to the NFL.”
Cowboys ‘Devastated’ by Loss
Around the NFL this week, there were moments of silence held for Kneeland as the Cowboys were idle in their bye week. The Cowboys are returning to practice, and trying to return to business as usual, as much as possible, in preparation for Monday’s game against the Raiders.
Team owner Jerry Jones first addressed Kneeland’s death publicly in a radio interview in Dallas this week, saying he was, “devastated.”
“I think we all have unfettered feelings about the people we love, people we work with, and this is just a time when you acknowledge that there’s no answers,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “It makes you want to live life to the fullest. It makes you want to look for the very best in what we have for each other. And in some way make sense out of these times in terms of what they can mean from helping those that are here on Earth right now.
“All of those things are very natural, come to mind, but his death is such a national awareness thing that it takes on some of that light when we think about how we go forward.”
BREAKING: Breece Hall Agrees to Secret Deal with Kansas City Chiefs, Jets Set to Lose Star Running Back
The Kansas City Chiefs will not be adding any more help for quarterback Patrick Mahomes this year, but next spring the offense could begin to look considerably different around the two-time MVP.
Kansas City was in discussions with the New York Jets about a trade for running back Breece Hall, which fell through due to squabble over compensation — New York wanted a third-round pick, while the Chiefs weren’t willing to go higher than a fourth-rounder. In retrospect, both teams are probably losers in the lack of an outcome, as the Jets will now watch him leave for nothing, while the Chiefs won’t be able to utilize his skill set to help them make a stretch run.
Longterm, however, Kansas City can still come out on top. All things considered, 30-year-old Kareem Hunt hasn’t played poorly for the Chiefs, but he’s a backup at this point in his career and in the final season of his contract. Meanwhile, former seventh-round pick Isiah Pacheco is headed for free agency himself in March.
The team could bring back Hunt on another cheap deal, they’re currently paying him $1.5 million for 2025, but the time has come for the Chiefs to pair a serious running back with Mahomes. Hall fits the bill, and ESPN ranked him the No. 6 overall player in the 2026 free agent class, not to mention the top running back.
“Hall was coveted at the trade deadline. That the Jets wanted a third-round pick in return for a running back reminds that Hall has top-end talent,” Jeremy Fowler wrote Wednesday. “And my sense is he will do just fine in free agency — think Josh Jacobs‘ four-year, $48 million deal signed in March 2024 as a possibility. A few personnel evaluators thought that was a fair contract comp.”
Breece Hall Makes Sense for Chiefs, as NFL Begins to Value RB Position More Than in Recent Years
Hall, 24, was a second-round pick in 2022. Spotrac currently projects his market value at $42 million total over a new four-year contract, but the value of the position has gone up some in recent years considering the impact players like Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry have made on Super Bowl-winning and/or Super Bowl-contending teams.
Kansas City is obviously both of those things, and the absence of a longterm solution at the position puts the franchise in a prime spot to pursue Hall. That is why several analysts suggested the Chiefs deal for Hall ahead of the deadline, and why Kansas City almost did.
“Hall is a pending free agent and the Jets probably have bigger fish to fry this offseason, while the Chiefs are not getting as much as they’d probably like out of their offensive backfield,” Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report wrote October 29. “Hall yields the Jets a late-round pick and becomes a cog in a backfield that also contains Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt, who takes a sizable back seat.”
Breece Hall on Track for Career Year Heading Into Free Agency
Hall was a breakout player during his rookie year before an ACL tear derailed it less than halfway through the campaign.
However, he has been healthy and reliable since and is on track to put up his first 1,000-yard season after coming close in each of the past two years.
Hall has tallied 644 rushing yards and two touchdowns this season (4.8 yards per carry) to go along with 22 receptions for 220 yards and a score.
