Prescott throws 4 TD passes as Cowboys beat Commanders, who again lose Daniels to dislocated elbow

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Dak Prescott celebrated breaking Tony Romo's career franchise record for touchdown passes in a victorious locker room for the Dallas Cowboys.

Somber would be an understatement for the postgame mood around the other starting quarterback.

Prescott threw four touchdown passes to break Romo's record of 248, and the Cowboys beat Washington 37-20 on Sunday after the Commanders' Jayden Daniels went down with another gruesome-looking dislocated left elbow.

Prescott's 249th TD pass was his second TD of the game to CeeDee Lamb, who had 153 yards receiving. Tight end Jake Ferguson had the other two scoring catches.

Lamb, whose 37 touchdown catches from Prescott are more than any other player, gave his quarterback the record-breaking ball, and there was more celebrating with teammates behind the scenes soon after that.

“That made me emotional,” said Prescott, who said he was also emotional hours before the game just thinking about his late mother as he pondered the possibility of getting the record with a four-TD day. “There’s tons of guys that aren’t in that locker room that I think about when I break this record. To see my teammates act that way, to see guys that only have been together for five, six months, have the joy, have the cheers that they do, it was emotional.”

The Cowboys (1-1) led 17-10 with the Commanders on the Dallas 1-yard line with 3 seconds remaining in the first half. Left guard Chris Paul stepped on Daniels’ foot as he backed away from center, and Daniels’ non-throwing elbow appeared to bend the wrong way as he braced himself and threw a wild pass that was incomplete as time expired.

Daniels stayed down momentarily, then started to walk to the sideline before going to the turf again. Upon seeing a video replay of the injury, Fox NFL analyst Tom Brady uttered a profanity.

Daniels’ head was covered in a towel as he left the field on a cart several minutes after all the Dallas players and most of the Washington players had gone to their locker rooms.

After the game, Commanders coach Dan Quinn confirmed the dislocation but said imaging showed no fracture and that Daniels would fly home with the team.

Daniels, who was replaced by Marcus Mariota, missed all but one game in the second half of last season after dislocating his left elbow in a blowout loss to Seattle last November.

“I thought he was really playing his (rear end) off,” Quinn said. “And we will rally so hard around Marcus until Jayden’s back. And that’s what we talked about as a team.”

Mariota connected with Stefon Diggs for his second TD catch of the game to get Washington (0-2) within 30-20 with 9 minutes remaining.

Prescott led an 11-play drive the other way that ended with Lamb's 24-yard touchdown. The 33-year-old in his 11th season went 26 of 32 for 279 yards without an interception and extended his home winning streak against NFC East rivals to 20 games.

“You can’t talk about Dak, the player, without starting with the man,” coach Brian Schottenheimer said. The man is unique. That’s why I was emotional watching the guys celebrate him in the locker room. The way he plays this game, the way leads us is special.”

Before his injury, Daniels kept the Commanders close with his mobility. He had an 18-yard scramble on a drive that ended in a field goal and then a 20-yarder before his 4-yard touchdown pass to Diggs.

The Commanders were out of timeouts when they had a first down at the Dallas 1 trailing 17-10 with 12 seconds left in the first half. Daniels threw two incompletions, leaving 3 seconds for the play on which he was injured.

Daniels had 69 yards on seven carries while going 11 of 17 for 96 yards passing.

A week a dud of a performance in the opener and the debut of 34-year-old defensive coordinator Christian Parker, the Dallas defense at least put up some resistance.

Mariota led the Commanders to a field goal to start the second half, but his second drive ended on the first play when Dallas rookie linebacker Jaishawn Barham forced a fumble by Dyami Brown on a screen pass. Dee Winters recovered inside the Washington 20, and Prescott's second TD pass to Ferguson for a 27-13 lead came two plays later.

Cowboys: S P.J. Locke was helped off the field after injuring a foot away from contact on Dallas' first defensive series and didn't return. ... CB Cobie Durant injured a hamstring in the first half and didn't return.

Commanders: Defending Super Bowl champion Seattle visits next Sunday.

Cowboys: Plays Baltimore in Rio de Janeiro next Sunday.

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) celebrates after throwing a pass for a touchdown against the Washington Commanders in the second half during an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Dallas Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson (87) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Washington Commanders in the second half during an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Jessica Tobias)

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Ceedee Lamb (88) celebrates with offensive tackle Tyler Guyton (60) and guard Tyler Booker (52) after scoring a touchdown against the Washington Commanders in the second half during an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Jessica Tobias)

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) reacts after an apparent injury in the first half against the Dallas Cowboys during an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) runs against the Washington Commanders in the second half during an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

LONDON (AP) — For three straight years while he worked at BBC radio stations, Russell Brand was awarded a notable distinction by The Sun, Britain’s largest tabloid: “Shagger of the Year.”

It was, of course, in perfect alignment with the bad-lad image Brand cultivated that rode a thin line between outrageous and offensive, as he became one of Britain’s most famous comedians.

Brand’s convictions Thursday for rape and sexual assault have turned a spotlight back on the BBC and other media employers, renewing questions about whether bosses enabled his behavior or chose to look away. They also highlighted the ways in which his excesses were overlooked by the culture at large.

“When Brand was at his most famous, his wrongdoings were indulged or ignored by his employers and, to be fair, the public too,” Ann Olivarius, an attorney specializing in sexual misconduct, said in an email message.

The BBC apologized last year for a culture of silence that, it said, prevented staff from complaining about Brand’s behavior at its radio stations between 2006 and 2008 because they felt he was too powerful.

It reiterated that apology after his conviction.

“It was of great concern to us that some people felt unable to raise concerns about Brand’s behavior,” the BBC said Thursday in a statement. “We apologized to those impacted, for both the culture and failings at the time.”

Britain’s public broadcaster had launched the internal probe after The Times and Channel 4, in a joint investigation, aired accusations in 2023 from women who said they had been sexually abused and degraded by Brand.

The resulting articles and documentary brought women forward who provided the evidence that led to his conviction. But it was no secret Brand had misbehaved during his time as a shock jock at the BBC or TV host at Channel 4. He wrote in a memoir, for example, about how he had sex in radio-station handicapped bathrooms with contestant winners from the BBC station 6 Music.

“Nobody ever mistook Russell Brand for a Boy Scout,” said Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce. “His brand was R-rated from Day One."

The 51-year-old was convicted Thursday of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving multiple women. He was acquitted of two rape counts and one count of attempted indecent assault. He faces sentencing Monday.

Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy of London’s Metropolitan Police called the conviction “a testament to the extraordinary courage, resilience and determination of the women who came forward and reported what happened to them.”

“Brand used his influence, status and fame to exploit and sexually offend against women,” Furphy said. “As his profile grew, so too did his sense of entitlement.”

Of the eight complaints the BBC investigated, only one — that Brand had urinated in a cup in front of staff — had been made formally during his time at the stations. The review found it was “not dealt with effectively.”

In his second memoir, “My Booky Wook 2,” Brand spoke of how “incredibly tolerant” Lesley Douglas, the Radio 2 controller at the time, was about his behavior and that he took advantage of the “lots of room” she gave him.

He acknowledged going “too far,” though, when he claimed, on air, that he would be under the desk performing an intimate act with a female newsreader while she was reading the headlines.

The newsreader “was a bit upset,” he said.

Liz Kershaw, a longtime BBC radio DJ, wrote in The Telegraph on Thursday that she had complained since 2006 to BBC management about how Brand’s behavior was tolerated.

“Brand was a creation of some of the most powerful players in the media,” Kershaw wrote. “They were in his thrall. And he was egged on. He was their performing monkey. He made ‘great telly.’ His colleagues were collateral damage.”

In 2008, Brand finally went too far during an on-air prank and had to resign. Brand phoned actor Andrew Sachs, best known for the 1970s program, “Fawlty Towers,” and left a message claiming to have had sex (he used an expletive) with his granddaughter.

Brand resigned from Radio 2 and Britain’s broadcast regulator hit the BBC with a record fine of 150,000 pounds, the equivalent of $219,000 at the time.

While a Channel 4 documentary helped bring down Brand, the broadcaster was also connected to one of the criminal charges at trial from his days as a TV host there. Channel 4 apologized in 2024 to a former employee after an internal review found it had not investigated a serious complaint a staffer made against him in 2009.

Brand was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting a former employee while working on a project for the channel in 2009. The staffer testified that two members of Brand’s entourage had asked her to give Brand a massage and then watched and laughed as the comic put his head into her crotch.

One of Brand’s associates, Jack Bayles, did not testify but said in a statement that he did not recall the incident but was sorry for missing something at the time or failing to recognize the distress it caused.

“I was in the early stages of my career, and it was a frantic, pressured and toxic working environment,” Bayles said. “Brand was chaotic, dismissive and manipulated the people around him.”

He said he stopped working with Brand in 2010 and had not been in touch with him since.

Some analysts noted that it was precisely Brand’s outrageous image that may have protected him from suspicion of criminal activity.

Adamson, the marketing consultant, noted “the sex, the drugs, the open shirt, the leer" that defined Brand. “That is exactly why the behavior never registered as a warning sign; it was him marketing his brand,” he said.

Blame goes also to the media at the time, Adamson noted. “The media did not just cover the persona — they co-authored it. When a national newspaper hands you a trophy three years running for sleeping around, you are not hiding anything. You’re building your brand."

Attorney and anti-misogyny activist Cheyenne Hunt noted that Brand’s raunchy behavior almost served as a pre-emptive defense.

Someone like Brand "is trying to create a persona such that if someone comes forward, there is this ... defense available to them, that is, ‘Well, what did you THINK was going to happen?’" Hunt said.

The role that comedy played was also key, said Hunt, who leads the group Reckoning Action, which she founded after her role in exposing sexual misconduct allegations against U.S. politicians Eric Swalwell and Graham Platner.

“I tell people to beware of the clown and beware of the jester,” Hunt said. “Because it makes their behavior appear as though they’re joking or like it’s some kind of absurdist comedy, and folks don’t take them literally. But what they’re doing is building a permission structure to do exactly what they’re telling you they’re going to do.”

"And that is very much Russell Brand’s MO, and I think he learned from many other folks who have the same playbook.”

Noveck reported from New York.

This is a court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Russell Brand in the dock at Southwark Crown Court, in London, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (Elizabeth Cook/PA via AP)

Russell Brand leaves Southwark Crown Court, London, Tuesday Oct. 6, 2026, where he faces charges of rape and sexual assault. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)

FILE - Russell Brand is seen on stage during a tribute for Amy Winehouse at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday Aug. 28, 2011, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

FILE - Sean "Diddy" Combs, right, and British actor Russell Brand sit together before the junior welterweight title boxing match between British boxer Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao, of the Philippines, Saturday, May 2, 2009, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/ Jae C. Hong, File)