Actions on the field, not words spoken in a locker room, will determine whether Shiyazh Pete makes the Dallas Cowboys ' final 2026 roster — or, if not, whether he gets a chance with another NFL team.
Yet, words the former New Mexico State Aggie uttered on Saturday have reverberated far beyond the bowels of State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona .
That night, the Cowboys defeated the Arizona Cardinals 34-13. Pete, an unsigned free-agent offensive lineman who'd finished his college career at Kentucky last fall, played all of six snaps against the Cardinals.
Yet, a healthy portion of the fans attending the game had come for the sole purpose of seeing Pete become the first member of the Navajo Nation to play for an NFL team — preseason or otherwise.
this game, this star, this team will make us brothers ️ pic.twitter.com/rEcvDTzSkd
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) August 23, 2026
"I saw something tonight I'd never seen before, in 25 years in the NFL," second-year Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said, addressing his team after the game. "An entire section (of the stands), cheering for one man."
Schottenheimer then called on Pete to say a few words to his cheering teammates.
Those few words, it has been suggested since, crystallize what athletic competition is about.
"That was an incredible win," Pete said. "I'm very fortunate to be amongst you and play in the same field with the same star holding on our chest.
"I'm proud of us, proud of how far we've come. This game, fate, has brought us here as strangers, but this game, this star, this team will make us brothers."
The Athletic, the sports arm of the New York Times, reacted to Pete's words this way:
"Shiyazh Pete is an undrafted rookie offensive linemen for the Dallas Cowboys who may or may not make the team. Yet on Saturday night … Pete provided one of the indelible moments of the preseason, delivering a postgame locker-room speech that lasted just 59 words and succinctly distilled one of sport's oldest psychological ideals about shared identity and shared sacrifice."
Closer to home, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham posted the following on Facebook:
"What a moment for New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. … For young Native kids across New Mexico, seeing someone who shares their heritage step onto an NFL field shows them what is possible."
Pete, listed on the Dallas preseason roster at 6-foot-9 and 309 pounds, has always had the size to excel in football's trenches. Yet, his journey to the Dallas roster has not been easy.
Pete, 23, a full-blooded Native American of Navajo and Salish heritage, was born and reared in Montana. He and his family later lived in Colorado before moving to Arizona. According to multiple online accounts, he didn't focus on football as early in life as did most kids his size.
As a high school senior in 2020, Pete played for Shiprock High School in New Mexico — but the season was limited to five games because of COVID-19 restrictions.
He came to New Mexico State as an unheralded walk-on, sat out the 2021 season as a redshirt, then became a starter four games into the 2022 season.
In 2023, as star quarterback Diego Pavia led the Aggies to a 10-5 record and a New Mexico Bowl berth, Pete started all 15 games at left tackle and earned first-team All-Conference USA honors. The following year, he missed NMSU's first six games due to an ankle injury but started the final six.
After the 2024 season, Pete entered the NCAA's Transfer Portal and opted to sign with Kentucky. He started all 12 games for the Wildcats at left tackle last season.
Tony Sanchez was an assistant coach at New Mexico State in 2022-23 before taking over as head coach in 2024. During Monday's NMSU news conference in advance of the Aggies' season opener at Florida State, Sanchez was asked his reaction to Pete's post-game speech and his thoughts in general about the former Aggie.
"He's a great young man, got his degree from here," Sanchez said. "… He's always kind of been an old soul; you can kind of see that the way he speaks and such.
"Really proud of him. He was a great Aggie, and it's good to see him out there representing himself, his background, and the Aggies still."
With the NFL's final roster cuts looming on Sunday, practice squads to be announced the following day, Pete's fate is unknown at this point. The current Dallas roster lists him as the third-team offensive right guard; players as tall as Pete seldom wind up playing guard.
To make the roster, Pete might need to beat out another rookie with a New Mexico connection. DJ Wingfield, who played for UNM in 2022-23, is listed as the third-team left guard.
If Pete never plays a down of regular-season NFL football, will his words of Saturday live on? Perhaps not, given the many words to be uttered by so many in the upcoming months.
Then again … if coaches at all levels of the game truly were listening, they won't let those words die.
