Soon, it will mean something

by Dave Halprin on Sep 5, 2007 11:11 PM CDT in Dallas Cowboys News

I think it’s finally starting to hit me. I’ve been struggling to switch out of training camp/preseason mode and move on to regular season mode. I tried to kick-start it with a post about the New York Giants last night, but it didn’t take. Or maybe it did, it just took a little while to kick-in. Whatever the case, I’m finally starting to get that feeling, that little tingle in the brain that says – it’s almost here. Soon, it will mean something.

January 6th, 2007: Tony Romo fumbles a snap on a chip shot FG, picks it up and makes for the end zone. Martin Gramatica whiffs on the block of Jordan Babineaux and Romo is tripped mere feet from the first down. A moment in time that simultaneously passed in the blink of the eye and played out in agonizing slow-motion. Did Romo just drop that snap? Did he just pick it up, and is he about to score? Where did Babineaux come from? Did this really happen, did we just lose a playoff game to the Seattle Seahawks 21-20?

That’s how long I’ve been waiting for this Sunday to arrive. January 6th, 2007. Look how far we’ve come. As Dallas die-hards, we rarely discuss the bobble anymore; it almost never enters the conversation until someone on the outside brings it up. We joke about it every once in a while, but that moment now seems worlds away. When you’ve been following every move the Cowboys have made since that January game, that moment that still stands out as the last thing outsiders remember doesn’t even exist to us. Not when you’ve waited out the Tuna Watch, sweated the days as Dallas decided on a new coach, treated free agency and the draft like a 2nd and 3rd Christmas, searched endlessly for a morsel of news about OTA’s, studied training camp so intensely that 7-on-7 became part of your everyday lexicon; only then could the Romo bobble seem like it happened an eon ago.

Still, all of that was mere distraction. Don’t get me wrong, it mattered more than oxygen at the time it was happening. It’s also the components that build a team. The draft, free agency, training camps; these are the foundations that football franchises stand upon. In the end though, they are mere prologue, they are the coming attractions. The regular season is the main event.

Now that moment stands just a few calendar days away. And I’m finally starting to get it. I’m starting to get that feeling that this is real. Terry Glenn returning to a full practice means something. You can’t just say that if he didn’t go this week he’ll go the next. The next week is now a real game. One that counts in the standings, against an NFC East rival, a game at home that you need to win. It means something when Kevin Burnett is testing his injury tomorrow at practice because it’s the difference between playing in a real game and just missing some training camp practices. I know you know this - I know this - intellectually at least. But emotionally, it’s just starting to hit me. The anticipation is beginning to build, that feeling you get when you start thinking about the opponent and watching the game on TV; watching the Cowboys in a game that will affect your mood for all of the following week. That’s the kind if emotional investment we have in the Dallas Cowboys.

On the outside, if someone read this post, they’d think that the guy writing it needs to get a grip on reality, but you readers know what I’m talking about. We don’t hide our mania for the NFL and the Cowboys; we parade it in front of the world for the entire Internet to see. Maybe you started getting the feeling earlier in the week, or maybe it hasn’t hit you yet. Me? Like I said, I’m just starting to feel it. Just getting next to the idea that it’s back, that it means something again, someone is keeping the record.

I just don’t know any other way to say it - I frickin’ love the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys.

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Comments

Can't wait either

Sunday is going to be a long day...

by bob maplethorpe on Sep 5, 2007 11:31 PM CDT reply actions

I'm not ready yet

Still feels like pre-season to me. Tomorrow's game will help me get in the mood.

The Romo bobble is ancient history for me. It never crosses my mind.

But we have reporters misquoting T.O., so we must be getting close to the start of the season!

by Rob Zuber on Sep 5, 2007 11:35 PM CDT reply actions

Well Said

People "on the outside" just don't understand how much the Cowboys mean to us. When I rearrange my entire schedule or say that I'll have to skip important events for a Cowboys game, people look at me like I'm insane. It's actually almost a legitimate cultural gap. In the same way that we don't understand the point of an obscure African tribe's sacred rituals, people don't understand our obsession with the Dallas Cowboys. From now on, when people look at me like I'm crazy, I'm going to email them this post from Grizz. Maybe that will help them understand. At least they'll know I'm not the only one out there whose mood hinges on a Cowboys victory.

I can feel it. Sunday is almost here.

by Hookem on Sep 6, 2007 12:16 AM CDT reply actions

I'm In

Let's do this. This is the season worth remembering. The season when transitory highs, excruciating lows, and overall mediocrity vanish. 5 months of glory is all we want. I'm back in.

Ol Hickory

by ol hickory on Sep 6, 2007 12:45 AM CDT reply actions

I know I'm in when...

I can't get to sleep, because I'm thinking about whether Newman should only come off the bench if needed. Then I decide I need to get up and read a pre-game on tomorrow/tonight's Colts-Saints kickoff. But of course I end up here. Because, since the year they lost to the Colts in SB V, I've been a die-hard Cowboy fan.

Walt Garrison, Duane Thomas, Leroy Jordan, Charlie Waters, Jethro Pugh ... Staubach... these are the names that started it, but now I know much more about Canty, Ware, MB3... Newman... Romo. Almost family.

I'm planning my weekend around the game, like I'll plan every weekend for the rest of the year. If I don't watch the NFL one weekend, it will be a HUGE concession to the woman, and she won't even know it happens to be the Cowboys' bye week... if.

Less than 24 hours from the first game. About 90 hours from Cowboys kick-off. Being in Mexico until the first week in October, I'm lucky the local satellite bar is owned by - who else? - a Cowboys fan... so I won't miss anything. If it wasn't for him, I might have scheduled to get home earlier. Gotta luv all the luvin we get from south of the border.

I AM SO IN

(absolutely great post, Grizz)

Cowboys and Tar Heels

by DalaiLuke on Sep 6, 2007 1:34 AM CDT reply actions

Soon It Will Mean Something

What a great way of expressing the essesence of being a Dallas Cowboy Fan. That was as good as Rayfield Wright's HOF speech when he said "I AM a Dallas Cowboy!"

I AM a Dallas Cowboy Fan!

You nailed it!

by Dorsett33 on Sep 6, 2007 1:35 AM CDT reply actions

Good Lord Grizz.

Thank God. I can take the time to write a response to this unbelievable post by our team leader.

Grizz, I rank that rant on the same level as any coach pushing a top team to take control or their own destiny. This is their own time to own up to their God given talent and prove that we ARE a supreme team.

Your speech inspired me at 3:00 AM after a ton of beers to step up and ask every Cowboy fan to be there and shout out to your neighbors....where ever they may be.....we are the most celebrated and hated football organization in history. We know we have a championship coming.

Soon I will have a diary, inviting any Cowboy's fan to join me.

Whomever is attending the Giants game...Meet with me in the parking lot to put to rest this uplifting but emotional offseason.

Let us together hold Grizz's, and all of our family crest's, the Dallas Cowboy's Crest, high in the air.

Together, we can uplift the fans on every third down to pulverize the opponents offense.

This was Jordan Noble, and I'm signing out. (drunk)

by Jordan2 on Sep 6, 2007 2:48 AM CDT reply actions

Nice work

We can count on you to give us the Coach's pre-game pep talk and I suspect he would do well to simply post yours.

Each year we enter the season full of optimism. Some years it is proven out and that helps to keep us coming back for more. How would you like to be a Cleveland Browns fan tonight looking to the season and trying to convince yourself that Brady Quinn is the next John Elway and hoping they lose the first two games so the Coach will put him in? How about the Buffalo Bills fans - always the bridesmaid and never the bride? No - we are blessed and America's team for a reason. We care more and obsess more and will more wins. Thankful. No matter where we end the season we are still blessed.

by lee3022 on Sep 6, 2007 3:42 AM CDT reply actions

Bad choice posting this, Da-Grizz

How you gonna top it???

Excellent piece - well written and straight from the heart of a die-hard fan. I can identify with every word and sentiment.

Win or lose, I'm looking forward to seeing my team compete every week.

How 'bout them Cowboys?!

by dunkman on Sep 6, 2007 6:56 AM CDT reply actions

Thankfully

I have a girlfriend that at least somewhat understands how I feel, and can put up with me spending the next 22 Sundays on the couch in front of my new 56" DLP, which I bought for the sole purpose of watch the Cowboys on in HDTV. have spent the better part of my life consumed by all things Cowboys, and have steadfastly refused to waiver in my obsession.

Grizz, you do us proud, man.

You find out life's this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game - life or football - the margin for error is so small.

by Brandon Worley on Sep 6, 2007 7:02 AM CDT reply actions

After that pre-game speech...

I'm now so pumped, so amped, so jacked with adrenaline -- after reading this post -- that I feel like running through a wall for Coach Grizz... SLAPPING FACE, WAKING UP, FEELING THE FRESH KNOT ON MY FOREHEAD. "Wait a minute, I'm not the one playing, I'm just one of the fans... But not just any fan -- Heck, I'm a BTB Dallas Cowboys Fan!!! YEAH, BABY!!!"

Come Sunday night when our Beloved Boyz play their first game -- a home one in front of a national telecast at that -- King Jerry & The Son of Bum need to invite Eric Ogbogu into the locker room before they run out onto the field, so he can shout...

"We must protect this house."

"Look up. Get up. But don't ever give up." -- Michael Irvin, NFL Hall of Fame Induction Speech 2007

by kcbrett5 on Sep 6, 2007 8:35 AM CDT reply actions

Seahawk playoff loss

What kicked me in the gut in that game worse than the bobbled snap was Terry Glenn's fumble. It was all good 'till that. But, yeah! I'm ready for some football. Julius Jones and Jacques Reeves are who we'll be raving about Monday morning.

by DavidL on Sep 6, 2007 9:30 AM CDT reply actions

Thanks Grizz...

I'm now officially psyched too!

It's been a busy baseball season for me as a Yankees fan, but hopefully the 'Boys will provide a little less aggravation!

by Pete on Sep 6, 2007 9:56 AM CDT reply actions

Bobble

Ya know, as Cowboy fans, we've had more than our fair share of success over the years, but also tragedy and heartache to go with it. Most of you guys aren't old enough to remember it, but the Cowboys first SB ended in heartbreak when the Colts' Jim Obrien kicked that FG with 5 seconds left. The very next year we came back with a vengeance and the mission ended in Supe VI with a dominating 24-3 victory over the Dolphins. Not to say it's gonna happen like that this year, but in sports you often have to suffer along the way before you taste that ultimate success. That's what makes it all the more sweet when you do come out on top.

Grizz, great piece as usual, and I too am so pumped I wish I could be running down covering the opening kickoff on Sunday night! It all starts with a convincing win against the hated Giants!

by Warden on Sep 6, 2007 10:45 AM CDT reply actions

well said.

1989 and then later the Dave Campo era was suffering enough for everyone, though. :-)

by Pete on Sep 6, 2007 11:33 AM CDT up reply actions

This will be the start of a truly

special season for the 'Boys and it will end in the exact opposite way as it did last season.

Tony and the 'Boys will be hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in Arizona!

In Romo we Trust

by Terry on Sep 6, 2007 1:41 PM CDT reply actions

That would be sweet

Could you imagine the bedlam here if we won it? And just imagine how obnoxious we'd all become in the next offseason. We'd be insufferable. Six time world champs has a nice ring to it.

If you're reading this, you could be commenting, too. Sign up for a free account on Blogging The Boys.

by Dave Halprin on Sep 6, 2007 1:57 PM CDT up reply actions

STOPPPPP!!!!!!

You're overloading my rabbit's feet, and my knuckles are bleeding from wood splinters! I beg of you.

by dunkman on Sep 6, 2007 3:40 PM CDT up reply actions

I think I just...

blew a load. That was ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL!!!

Grizz, you are a God send!!!

I was pumped, but nothing, nothing like that, at all. That was a truly inspring piece. Everyone's comments were phenomenal. As it has been said, I believe we are blessed, and we are destined for glory this season. God Bless you Grizz, God Bless America, and God Bless The DALLAS COWBOYS!

The 'Boys are Back in Town!!!

My popcorn's ready!

by CowboyBawler4 on Sep 6, 2007 3:55 PM CDT reply actions