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2008-2009 Regular Season: USE IT
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- October 23, 2008 At
3:04 PM EST
- By
Eric M. Scharf
It would be a real shame if everyone in the Dallas Cowboys
organization does not understand or appreciate the true power they
wield (which should be present on every game day field). Opposing fans live to hate the Cowboys, Live to see them
underachieve and lose under a shower of boos, and LIVE to see them
be miserable and suffer. Haters from every fandom corner of the
league deliver enough yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily vitriol to
produce severe mental fatigue for which there is no buffer. “Are you
sure they are not REALLY targeting the international entity known as
‘Cowboys Nation’?” you inquire. The haters do, indeed, view both
parties with equal fire.
"WE didn't Start The FIRE!"
say local, regional, national, and global members of Cowboys
Nation. "But your regular, repeated, and willful acceptance of
unearned spoils will continue to draw everyone's ire!" say
opposing NFL squads and their "What About US?!" followers, who
collectively and eternally bristle at the reality of how
inconceivably-righteous broadcast ratings routinely encourage
"America's Team" and their fluffy (?) fanbase to be on a perpetual
vacation, well above their post-1996 playoff productivity station.
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"But WHY should WE be PUNISHED for
the big, bodacious, belt buckle brand that NFL Films brilliantly
bestowed upon our favorite football team?!" fans defiantly fire
back. "Because you shamelessly bathe in the attention and adoration
normally reserved for long-since-retired CHAMPIONS with undeniable
titles to stack," retorts the opposition without contrition (who
annually moan and groan about the credentials the modern-day Cowboys
legitimately lack).
"You're just JEALOUS! Everyone LOVES
US!" say the Cowboys' faithful with surely one of their final
digs. "Yeah, but you should be saying 'EVERYONE SMELLS US', because
you roll around in ancient accomplishments like a bunch of shameless
pigs!" say the opposition rounding out their position. And on And On AND ON, with the back and forth never to be gone.
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- When former Super-Bowl-winning, one-of-a-kind-system-designing, Hall
of Fame head coach Tom Landry was in the final 4-5 seasons of his
largely-incredible tenure leading “America’s Team” (and knee deep in
a dwindling departure from 20+ years of a consistently winning
theme), hearkening back to that horrible 44-0 loss to the Chicago
Bears in 1985, people – from fans to prognosticators – were searching
for a pulse, as Dallas seemed barely alive. The “Cowboys Mystique”
had fallen so fraudulently far from its mind-bending peek (when
opponents so mentally weak could barely reach the field before
submitting to, um, an embarrassing leak). The haters were loving
life and reveling in the Cowboys’ strife. After all – whether as
Bears fans or otherwise – they had been made to endure so many years
of Cowboys dominance and prominence. They were inconceivably overjoyed at
the mere idea of
the "Evil Empire of the NFL" getting their long-overdue comeuppance.
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- GM Tex Schramm, head coach Tom Landry, and head scout Gil Brandt
collectively tormented NFL opponents and their fans for so, sooo
long that – for a significant stretch that made so many haters
wretch – the Dallas Cowboys could almost do no wrong. They won the
most games of any NFL team in the 1970s, and they appeared in FIVE
Super Bowls in just THAT decade. While they won Super Bowls VI and
X1, they lost Super Bowls V, X, and XIII by a combined 11 points in
total. Cowboys Nation had plenty over which to cruelly crow, while
haters could only howl, err, angrily yodel.
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- Year after year of having the Cowboys shining star waved in their
faces by NFL Films, every manner of product placement and service
sponsor, primetime TV commercials, and nationally televised games
every stinking Sunday or Monday (not to mention particularly
delicious contests on Thanksgiving Day) had proven more than enough
to spin the haters every which way. Once it appeared the “Great and
Powerful Oz, err, Landry” had finally lost his touch in 1988, they
believed – no, INSISTED – it was time to celebrate. They were
confident Dallas would be drubbed for years and Years and YEARS, and
it was going to be great!
Then, a new, energetic, overly-enthusiastic, irritatingly
(and, um, DANGEROUSLY) involved team owner, Jerry Jones (narrowly after Tex Schramm’s marketing
genius heart), and head coach Jimmy Johnson came along, respectively
dismissed as a foolhardy fanboy and another college coach who would
succumb to the same ol’ washout song. You better believe your sweet
bippy that none of the haters cared that the Cowboys were 1-15 in
Johnson’s first season, because anytime that 1989 Cowboys team
managed to gain just one more yard or score one more point than
projected, the haters steadily went from uneasy to downright queasy.
Just a few years later – after consecutive victories in Super Bowls
XXVII and XXVIII – it appeared the Cowboys (with Jimmy Johnson
prematurely out of sight) “might, Might, MIGHT” display enough heart
to recover from a miserable start against the San Francisco 49ers in
the 1994 NFC Championship game (possibly forcing their way into a
THIRD CONSECUTIVE NFL title frame). All the haters were ready to
jump off a cliff at the thought of almost having to endure ANOTHER
year of Cowboys THIS and Cowboys THAT by fans collectively,
traditionally, and understandably resembling one, Big, SPOILED BRAT.
Alas, it did not happen, and the haters were waiting with baited
breath to see if America’s Team would finally start crappin’. Just
when the haters hoped that ONE SEASON skipped would trigger the
Cowboys’ fortunes to have once again dipped, America’s Team came
right back – led by second year head coach Barry Switzer (whom Jimmy
Johnson supporters wanted to gravy train smack) – and won Super Bowl
XXX (doing those hapless haters so incredibly dirty).
Every season since then has been met with "Is THIS it? Is
this THE
moment or THE year the Dallas Cowboys begin their climb back to the
top of the NFL?! Please say it ain't so!! Bloody HELL!!!" And – like
any other person or group of people on Earth – how do you get the
haters to go silent from artificially-induced nausea so violent?
HOW DO YOU put those ironically-fearful hate-mongers back in their
little places to fall flat on their mealy-mouthed faces? What can
everyone in the Cowboys’ organization do to demonstrate it IS that
time for all the haters to pay for their voodoo-doll-level crime?
HOW DO YOU take a decades-old,
magnificently-marketed label so – GASP – currently UNEARNED and
demonstrate that a consistent, even dominant ability to productively
perform has FINALLY been re-learned, and make the hopeful haters
feel so devastatingly burned?
HOW DO YOU successfully escape, err,
ignore, err, nicely navigate the preposterous petting zoo atmosphere into which
Jerry Jones increasingly insists the Dallas Cowboys organization
should steer (while consistently producing an admirable
yield on the field)? Fairytale magic? A
carefully-placed, shiny, red, sleep-inducing apple so classic?
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- YOU SHOW UP to coach with a
determination beyond reproach. You scheme with such focus and
passion that no detail goes unnoticed and no situational outcome is
underestimated (all but ensuring an unprepared opponent risk being
annihilated).
YOU SHOW UP to play regardless of your (current) level of pay. You
perform with such awareness and intensity that the snot in your nose
aches (and – for your opponent – you have no intention of pumping
the brakes).
YOU SHOW UP – from Cowboys coaches to every single player –
to demonstrate to
the haters and show the NFL-watching world that they have no prayer.
"THE COWBOYS, no matter the obstacle,
ARE BACK to torment you for as
long as possible!" Remember, the haters never pause to pity you.
Why
pity them? It is only true.
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- The haters only pause to enjoy the moment of your humiliation. So,
what the heck are you going to do about it? Play Pop Warner or play
PROFESSIONAL? You folks – within the organization – have the power
to shut the haters up . . . to kick out the jams and silence the
lambs!
Former New York Jets head coach and former Philadelphia Eagles
player Herm Edwards – back in 2002 – unintentionally told the
Cowboys exactly what to do. "This is what’s great about sports. You
play to win the game. You PLAY to WIN the game. You don’t play to
JUST play it. That’s the great thing about sports. You play to WIN.
You PLAY to WIN THE GAME (unless you have ZERO competitive shame)."
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Will the Cowboys USE IT or lose it? Will Dallas rise up on the
haters once more, or will Big D show it is not yet ready to open
that return-to-glory door?
We shall see. We always do.
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