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Monday, May 19, 1997

From top of the soap box: Get Real!

By GLENN MARTIN / Guest Columnist

With regards to all the bad-mouthing that went on last season let us take a realistic look at the '96 season..shall we!!

Without Charles Haley...without Jay Novachek...without Michael Irvin for 5 games...without Leon Lett for the playoffs...without a veteran 2nd reciever (sorry Kevin, Kelvin and Deion) and with Emmitt at only 50%, the cowboys were one game...from the NFC championship game.

Have we as fans lost our minds? Do we really think that it's that easy? Sure most of our problems last year were self-inflicted, but on the other hand, we still were impressive.

Sure it took Boniol to bail us out 3 or 4 times, but we were still standing. We won the NFC East! Did Philly? Did Norv and the Redskins? Don't think so. With all their morals and high standards we still beat them all.

We even beat Green Bay, the Super Bowl champs. We beat the forty-whiners, Jimmy and his ego, and the NFL and all football fans would have fainted if we had gone to the Super Bowl again.

Get real...to steal a commercial tag line. We are still the best team in the NFL, we still have the best players...and I don't agree with all the critics..I'm telling you, Barry Switzer held that damn team together with his bare hands and bubble gum.

If he wasn't the motivator he is, we would have crumbled weeks earlier. You think the players are playing for Jerry? Are you nuts? He is the best owner I have ever heard of. He does what it takes, because he wants to win...Always wants to win. Can you say that about Art Modell? About the Buccaneers ownership? Or half the other owners? To most of the owners the team is a tax write-off, a cash cow for them. They don't have to win to make money.

Come on people...wake up and smell the astro-turf. We have a great group of people working hard for our approval, and working hard to win. Why? You think it's just for money? Then you're even more naive then most.

The guys want to win...have you ever gone home from work casue you have a little tickle in your throat? Or stayed home because your tummy hurts? Try bad ankles and being a tight-end. Try bone fragments and being a running back with 300 pound bullies pounding on you for 3 hours. Don't tell me it's because of the size of their paychecks. Bull! It's because they love the game...they love the fans...they love to compete.

So get off the backs of the Cowboy players and give them some respect. Give them the thanks and appreciation they deserve for winning all the games they did. For representing our hopes and desires with pride and dignity. They stuck together through all of last season. Through all the talk that comes every year: "The Cowboys are done...free agency has killed them for sure this year. It's just a matter of time." Don't tell Troy or Emmitt that. They would probably kick you in the teeth. If not, I would.

Does every fan out there do their job perfectly everyday? Do you never make mistakes? Yeah, right. Jerry is entitled to...Barry is entitled to. Cut them some slack. Do you really think the players would defend Barry or even play hard for him if they didn't respect him? Don't you think the media could uncover one story about the players thinking he's a joke? Come on, they try to invent stuff to rip the Cowboys about. If the players didn't like him, he'd be gone. Jerry couldn't keep him, or the players would walk.

Sure Troy doesn't like his style, but I bet he respects him. I bet we all have worked with someone we didn't perhaps see eye to eye with, didn't like there style, but they did there job. They got it done. You can say all you want about Barry, and everyone likes Sam Wyche, but he couldn't win the lottery with the winning ticket.

Appreciate what we have...appreciate the hours of practice and study it takes to be winners. You would want the same from your fellow employees, on-lookers and critics.

Only one game from the NFC Championship game...that says a lot! Well, at least it does to me, a true Cowboy fan. Not blind to all the problems and how it affects a team and its players, but supportive, caring and proud of the job they do, and who they are.

I'll climb down off my soap box now...just don't forget.