I’ve been passionately rooting for and living and dying with the Cowboys for 36 years now.  Yet, I wake up today with a feeling I’ve never felt before when I think about this team.  I feel like an all day sucker.

I honestly feel like I’ve been conned and that I’m not only a fool, but a sucker for believing:

1. That Jerry Jones really wants to win above all else
2. That the players actually care about winning and appreciate and understand the privilege and honor of being a Dallas Cowboy
3. That we have the “best talent” in the league

If I dated a woman and caught her cheating on me and she proceeding to tell me I was mistaken and she would never do such a thing, I may give her the benefit of the doubt and assume I might not have the facts straight.  If another scenario occurred where she was clearly cheating, lying and taking me for granted, I’d be gone.  No way would I stay with her as she continued to lie to me and cheat on me 13 times in a row and if I did, I’d be both a fool and a sucker.  Yet, that’s what I feel like I’ve done with the Cowboys for the last 13 years by believing Jerry Jones truly wants to win and that our team actually cares.  I’ve always defended Jerry’s desire to win (while criticizing other aspects of his responsibilities), but this 13 year run and recent comments he’s made have made me begin to question my belief in this organization and whether I’ve been a fool to continue to devote my heart and soul to a team and organization that treats me as a fan no better than the woman I described in the scenario above.

We have an owner who had the best view in the house of what a winning organization looks like (the 90’s Cowboys).  Yet, I am expected to believe an owner who tells me this is the best coaching staff and team he’s ever put together.  Really?  This is the best team and coaching staff you’ve ever assembled? Really, really Jerry?  Are you that stupid or am I for believing it?

When I hear the comments from the players after the loss and see how they performed last night and the big party they appeared to have on the flight home as well as their overall demeanor on the field, I feel like an all day sucker for actually believing and hoping this team would show up and compete in a game that could end their season or put them in the playoffs.  If the players don’t care, then why should I?  Do they honestly deserve my heart felt, undying devotion?

Lastly, I hear it said over and over again and it was even stated once more by Terrance Newman after the game last night that we have the “best talent” in the league.  I bought into this too, but as the season has wore on, I think this may be the biggest con job of all and ironically is the one core belief this team actually has.  They really believe they have the best talent in the league.  Not only have they succeeded in conning me as a fan, they have conned themselves.  Because they believe this lie, they continue to think they can merely lace up their shoes and chalk up a W.  Well, my friends, if this is what you get when you have the “best talent” in the league, then I’ll pass.  I’ll take a bunch of gritty hard working, passionate & motivated average players that will display effort, heart and desire above a bunch of spoiled, heartless, overpaid prima donna millionaires any day of the week.  Even if that means we go 1-15.  And in case you don’t believe me, two of my most memorable and enjoyable seasons I have had as a Cowboy fan were when we went 1-15 in 1989 and 7-9 in 1990.  Why?  Because those teams played with passion, heart and desire and you just knew they would eventually be rewarded, which they were beyond my wildest dreams

What I had hoped was merely an aberration is now an undeniable reality.  This is an over rated team, full of players that are content to merely pick up their checks.  They feel no responsibility to the fans, their family, their own sense of pride or to the rich Cowboy history.  They continually spit on the Star with heartless performances like they gave us for much of this season with the crescendo being last nights putrid effort in Philly.

Not that any player or the owner himself would actually read this or care, but you guys don’t deserve the loyalty, love and devotion that the Cowboys nation continually gives you year after year.  You have taken our passion and devotion to you for granted and you are no better than a lover who continually lies, cheats and breaks our hearts.  You don’t have any realization or appreciation for the position and blessings you’ve been given.  In an economy where people are fighting just to find a way to put food on the table and a roof over their heads, you have an opportunity to give us a welcomed distraction from our problems.  You have the opportunity (and dare I say responsibility) to give us a sense of pride, hope, joy and escape from the doldrums of our daily lives.  Not only do you fail to realize this, you don’t even care.  Yes, it’s just a football game and it really doesn’t matter in the scheme of life, but because it does actually matter to millions of fans everywhere, you get paid millions of dollars as well as receiving love, respect and devotion from millions of people you’ve never even met

Tony Romo is right.  If the worst thing that happens to him is that he loses a game in professional sports, then he’s had a great life.  However, if you don’t realize what an incredible gift you’ve been given, especially considering you’re humble beginnings, then you my friend are not only looking a gift horse in the mouth but are spitting in its face.  You like to do good by helping stranded motorists fix their flat tires and take homeless to the movies, but you completely miss the opportunity to spread joy among millions by merely playing the game of football with heart, passion, relentless effort and above all else, pride and expecting and instilling that in the players that surround you.

Many, if not most, of the die hard fans will never make in an entire lifetime what many of you will make in one year of being a player for the Dallas Cowboys.  You have an opportunity to spread joy and hope, however shallow it may appear to you, to fans everywhere who will never know success, wealth or the privilege that you have been given.  And while we all want to win, all we really expect from you is to care. 

Is that too much to ask? 

13 years and counting I, and I think many others, have felt things were going to change, yet the song remains the same.

What do they say the definition of insanity is? 

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

Well I guess I’m not only a sucker, but I’m certifiably insane

Dallas Cowboys, you’ll always have my heart, but I’m seriously questioning whether you deserve my love and devotion.