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2009-2010 Preseason: Back To The NFL -
Let The Real Games Begin
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- September 13, 2009 At 11:50 PM CST
- By
Eric M. Scharf
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- Put Away The Anointing Oils –
Again
The Cowboys have played their allotment of four pre-season games
with a resultant record of 2-2. Pre-Season is what it is: practice
for star NFL veterans, another opportunity for free agents and
practice squad members to latch on with another team, and a
sometimes brutal crash course for NFL rookies.
The Cowboys, of course, are different from all other NFL
organizations. The expectations from everyone inside and outside the
club are always high – regardless of whether or not the subject is
on-the-field performance (like properly executing your assignments)
or off-the-field behavior (like properly ending your distracting
personal relationships).
Terrific House Warming Party
There was one particularly good thing to arise from the pre-season
and that was the first professional football game to be played at
the brand new Cowboys Stadium. The Cowboys played the Tennessee
Titans in front of a less-than-capacity crowd, but it did not
matter. It was the pre-season. It was also an opportunity to gaze
upon the 9th wonder of the world.
I have only had the pleasure to attend one Cowboys game in my
existence. It was the 1989 game against the Minnesota Vikings at
Texas Stadium. The Cowboys, if memory serves, were demolished 49-3.
The highlight of the game was seeing Steve Pelluer and Kevin Sweeney
take turns throwing one deep pass each to awaiting wide receivers at
the other end of the field.
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- The experience, however, of visiting
Texas Stadium transcended the game itself, just like it currently
does with the gigantic Cowboys Stadium.
You never truly appreciate the size of a facility until you have
seen it in person. I had never been to any NFL venue until that day
and for its time, relatively speaking, it was amazing. You had the
game, the zany astro turf (which has always been out of place when
compared to real grass fields or the current artificial craze,
Nexturf), you had the immense players, and you had
the hole in the roof through which “God could watch his favorite
team.”
The lowlight of the experience, as a brief aside, was not the embarrassing
loss to the Vikings. It was the number of belligerent, drunk, and
cigarette-smoking fans that surrounded me and my friend (who was
kind enough to get me a ticket to the game). I, like my father
before me, have always preferred an uninterrupted experience for any
event I attend (pro sports game, live music concert, theatrical
play, or blockbuster film).
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- Thus, I have at least watched all of my
favorite sports events on TV, though I imagine that many NFL venues
are now at least non-smoking (as I am capable of being as passionate
a fan as any other of any sport).
Nonetheless, Cowboys Stadium – at least during that special “Build
Them Bigger” TV program and during the game against the Titans – is
a truly mammoth structure. There are two massive arches - very much
like squat duplicates of the St. Louis arch - that carry the brunt
of the incredible retractable rooftop weight.
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- The facility is easily more than twice the size of
Texas Stadium, it can comfortably seat nearly double the number of
fans that did Texas Stadium, and it is just more eye-popping
evidence that everything, indeed, is bigger in Texas.
Punt Gate
Sight lines did you say? Cowboys Stadium – according to myth, ESPN,
and Jerry Jones – has great sight lines no matter where you are
seated or where you are looking. The monolithic JumboTron –
stretching from 20-yard line to 20-yard line, hovering some 90
feet above the field surface, and weighing tens of hundreds of tons – in fact, makes sight lines completely
unnecessary. Holders of tickets to nose-bleed seats everywhere
rejoice!
There are, however, two kinds of people who will not appreciate the
existence of such a glorious display of everything Cowboys: purist
nose-bleed section fans who wish to watch sporting events the old
fashioned way (at the venue and with binoculars) and NFL punters who
have no appreciation for the directional punting that all teams
utilize in today’s NFL.
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- While the vast majority of punting
performed in today's NFL is, in fact, directional - towards the
corners and sidelines of a football field rather than down the
middle - the NFL obviously approved the height of this grand display
without the most logical of due diligence. The height, in
fact, was established for all JumboTrons some years ago, but it is
apparent no one had such a large display in mind when the height
rule was put in place.
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- In any event, rather than spending
several million dollars to raise the Cowboys Stadium JumboTron
another 10-20 feet, the league has chosen to adjust the rules of the
game. If a punt hits the JumboTron, the play will be
re-played, while any infractions - holding or personal fouls - that
occur during the play will be enforced.
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- Will the JumboTron and / or the rule
change be an advantage to the Cowboys? Objectively - NO. The
Cowboys will have to punt and perform the very same way as the rest
of the league. The Cowboys will also be prevented from punting
down the middle unless they want to encourage their former rugby
player to recall some of his former glory with a low line drive.
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- Maybe opponents will
simply choose to send their
punters to practice at Cowboys Stadium earlier in the week so that
they are more prepared to direct and measure their punts, being more
mindful of such a ceiling within a ceiling.
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- One thing is for certain: the
NFL has officially returned. Let the real games begin.
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