“She’s the person I vent to,” says Dak Prescott about his late mother

Before every game and after every touchdown, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott pays tribute to the most important person in his life — his mom, Peggy Prescott, who died after battling colon cancer in 2013.

In an in-depth interview with ESPN’s E:60 — which launches their first episode of the weekly show on Mother’s Day at 9 a.m. EST — Prescott says that he still writes her a letter before every game to honor her.

“She’s the person I vent to,” he says. “So I take out my phone and I kind of just begin to write.”

It’s a moment when he’s able to reflect on his time growing up in a trailer park in Princeton, Louisiana, having his mom pick him up from practice, her being sick and a chance for him to bring everything back in a full circle

During his sophomore year of college in 2013, Prescott left school in the middle of the football season to care for Peggy.

“I mean, I had to help her up and help her walk to the bathroom at those times,” he says about his decision to leave school. “And that’s when it got tough.”

He added: “Before I even picked up the phone I already knew,” he says about being told that she had died. “She’s not here anymore and it was tough. It’s tough.”