OXNARD, Calif. (AP) — The Dallas Cowboys typically arrive at training camp with some sort of off-field drama swirling around the team, often in the form of a high-profile contract dispute, but there are no such issues this year going into their traditional Southern California sojourn.
It isn’t by design, according to Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones, but the 83-year-old football maverick will take the appearance of calm over the alternative.
“I don’t believe it makes one iota worth of difference on whether or not we block the guy or go off tackle, but I do like the perception that we’ve had a quite uneventful offseason, and let’s see how we can work in that,” Jones said Tuesday at his annual precamp news conference.
Compared with a year ago when the stalemate with standout defensive end Micah Parsons over a contract extension quickly devolved into a contentious hold-in and eventually culminated in his shocking trade to the Green Bay Packers, the Cowboys appear to have no financial concerns threatening to overshadow or undermine their on-field work over the next three-plus weeks.
Instead, the main focus will be on shaping an overhauled defensive roster under a new coaching staff into a unit capable of helping head coach Brian Schottenheimer's dynamic offense.
The urgency to address that side of the ball, Jones said, is where the narrative of a calm offseason ends.
“We’ve had a lot going on, and we’ve had to really scramble a lot,” he said. “The kind of stuff you don’t see, but that should be that way. It’s supposed to be hard.”
The Cowboys hired Christian Parker from the division rival Philadelphia Eagles in January as their defensive coordinator, tasking the 34-year-old secondary specialist with fixing a defense that gave up the most points in franchise history (511) and ranked last in the NFL in scoring (30.1 points per game) and passing yards allowed (251.5).
Dallas also used its first three draft picks on defense, including taking Ohio State safety Caleb Downs with the 11th selection, and worked to address other personnel deficiencies in free agency.
“We’ve made that bed when we brought in new scheme, new coaches, new players," Jones said. “We’re going with new right there, so I’ve bought into that.”
Getting that group up to speed to assist an offense led by the star trio of quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens will be critical for the Cowboys’ hopes of returning to the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. Dallas went 7-9-1 in Schottenheimer’s first year, including a 6-1-1 record when scoring 30 or more points.
“All those moves that we made, it was not a quiet offseason for us, and it was a great offseason for us,” Schottenheimer said.
Prescott seems to be embracing the idea that the Cowboys can put themselves in position to compete at the highest level. He arrived at training camp wearing a Super Bowl championship shirt from the last time Dallas won it all following the 1995 regular season, which was also the last time they reached the NFC title game.
“I like the idea, thinking that positive about what we're going to work for,” Jones said. “We've got a long way to go, really having started in the spring. But that's good to me to be positive, especially coming from him.”
Jones didn’t rule out making further moves to improve the roster on defense, saying he recently was in contact with another NFL owner over a potential trade.
He declined to discuss the Cowboys’ possible interest in Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, citing league rules about tampering. A deal to send Crosby to the Baltimore Ravens in March was scuttled because of a failed physical.
It was a rare moment of caution from Jones, who has never shied away from expressing himself in front of the media.
When asked if the Cowboys' low-key offseason was intentional, Jones acknowledged his penchant for drawing out the spotlight.
“I've never thought there was anything quiet or subdued about the Dallas Cowboys. I never thought of it that way, but I have been guilty of stirring it up. And you guys help me, and we have been a great team — I promise you that — for the last 30-something years," a smiling Jones said.
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Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones speaks during a news conference as the NFL football team opens training camp, Tuesday, July 28, 2026, in Oxnard, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
A judge on Tuesday sentenced a teenager who killed two students and two teachers in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole, calling his crimes “deliberate, contemplated evil.”
Colt Gray, 16, had pleaded guilty Friday to 55 counts, including murder, in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school about 45 miles (73 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.
Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm handed down the sentence after hearing from family members of those killed and victims, as well as investigators, Gray’s grandmother and a forensic psychologist who had evaluated Gray.
Murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison in Georgia, so the only decision Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm had to make was whether Gray should ever be eligible for parole. He decided the teen should never be allowed out.
“You do not seem to be tormented by what you did. You seem to relish following in the footsteps of the murderers you idolize. You aren’t wracked with guilt. You’re proud of yourself," Primm said.
“We’ve seen no evidence he has any ability to develop a conscience or any ability ever to fully value human life,” District Attorney Brad Smith had said during his closing argument, insisting that Gray “cannot be in society.”
Defense attorney W. Charlton Allen told the judge his client was “not irretrievably broken.” Allowing him the possibility of parole would give him “an opportunity of hope," Allen said, adding that a lack of hope “takes away the ability for him to change.”
“This is not a happy day. This is a relief day, I would say,” Smith told reporters after the sentencing, adding that he hoped his team had “done honor” to the victims and their loved ones.
Teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, died in the shooting. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.
Victims of the shooting and family members of those killed conveyed their anger and grief to Primm on Friday, almost all of them asking him not to allow the possibility of parole.
Shayna Aspinwall, the wife of math teacher and football coach Richard Aspinwall, described “a life sentence of grief and trauma for those left behind.”
Investigators testified during the three-day sentencing hearing that Gray idolized mass shooters, talking about them online with other members of the “true crime community,” a group of young people online who are fascinated with such attacks. Gray had chatted online about gaining notoriety through a school shooting.
Prosecutors played recordings of phone conversations Gray had with his mother, Marcee Gray, from a youth detention center in the months after the shooting. During those calls, he directed his mother to look up what people were saying about him online. He was excited when she described “fan art” drawings depicting him or comments people made about him and the attention he was getting online.
Gray had the “mental wherewithal” to mimic details of other mass killings on the day of the shooting, Smith said. He placed those “Easter eggs,” anticipating that they would be mentioned in court one day and would perpetuate his fame, the prosecutor said.
“The shooting was not the culmination of the plan. The shooting was just one of the steps of the plan. The plan was ultimate and lifelong fame inside of the TCC,” Smith said, referencing the “true crime community.”
“Colt got less stability than he needed, which made him even more vulnerable,” Allen, the defense attorney, argued. He said his client got wrapped up in an online community where he found the acceptance he craved but wasn’t getting at home.
Gray’s maternal grandmother, Debbie Polhamus, testified that the teen had a troubled childhood and that his parents failed him. Her grandson had grown “highly agitated and aggressive” in the weeks before the shooting, she said, adding that she had urged his parents to get him some help but they didn’t follow through.
“I tried to help Colt because nobody else was helping him,” she said.
Polhamus said she visits her grandson once a week at a youth detention center and that he has improved enormously with treatment and medication. She said her grandson has been doing a lot of reading and wants to study to get a GED diploma.
“I’d like to see him have a chance at some point to prove himself,” Polhamus said.
Gray was put in foster care while in detention because his father was in prison and there were concerns about his mother's contact with him. Candice Broce, director of the state Division of Family & Children Services and commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Services, managed his case.
Broce testified that Gray appeared to show improvement. After Marcee Gray was barred from speaking with her son by a July 2025 no-contact order and he started taking medication, staff at the youth detention center told Broce it “changed him essentially into a different child,” she said.
The judge acknowledged that Gray had been failed by his parents, his extended family and, to a certain extent, society.
“But that failure does not absolve you from who you chose to idolize, worship and become,” Primm told Gray.
Judge Nicholas Primm speaks during Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray's sentencing hearing at Barrow County Superior Court in Winder, Ga., Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Colt Gray, the 16-year-old convicted in the Apalachee High School shooting, stands to be handcuffed following his sentencing at Barrow County Superior Court in Winder, Ga., on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Colt Gray reacts during his sentencing hearing at Barrow County Superior Court in Winder, Ga., Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Ashley Gilland, an investigator with the Barrow County District Attorney's office, looks over the assault rifle used in the Apalachee High School shooting by suspect Colt Gray during Gray's sentencing at Barrow County Superior Court, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Judge Nicholas Primm reacts during the sentencing for Colt Gray, right, the 16-year-old Apalachee High School shooting suspect, at Barrow County Superior Court, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Colt Gray, the 16-year-old Apalachee High School shooting suspect, reacts during his sentencing at Barrow County Superior Court, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Colt Gray, the 16-year-old Apalachee High School shooting suspect, is led in by deputies for his sentencing at Barrow County Superior Court, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Colt Gray, the 16-year-old Apalachee High School shooting suspect, talks with his defense attorney Charlton Allen during his sentencing at Barrow County Superior Court, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
