Here we sit, poised in the midst of another week--and you know what that means: FanPost awards! Immediately after the draft, our members were filling BTB's FanPost coffers with a bounty of golden, bejeweled posts. Since the fervor of the draft has waned and the subsequent doldrums of the labor dispute have set in, this steady flow of priceless merchandise has dwindled to a trickle. However, we shouldn't mistake a lack of quantity for a lack of quality; our FanPosts of late have been richly ornamented and of great worth. As its not nearly as much fun to talk about treasure as it is to let it run through your fingers, lets open our chest and see which of the last fortnight's posts have sparkled brightest.
Lets start with a couple of honorable mentions. An infrequent but often stellar contributor, Pineywoods, offers a thoughtful reflection on the peculiar state of the sports universe, particularly as it applies to Dallas and the Cowboys. Noting that long-time losers like the Rangers and Mavericks are enjoying stellar seasons while the Cowboys were reduced to--gasp-irrelevance by midseason, Pines asks: what happened to invert the cosmic sports balance? His answer is one that I have long harped on, most recently in a post comparing Mark Cuban to Jerry Jones: leadership. The Rangers and Mavericks have developed strong, purposeful, winning organizations. The Cowboys? The hiring of Jason Garrett give us all hope.
More FanPost goodness after the jump...
Next on our list of meritorious contributors are a pair of regulars, both in terms of FanPosts and comments. This time around, both have penned worthy posts on the two running backs in Dallas' stable that seem to be on the way out. The first of these, Kegbearer, asks us to remember Marion Barber--who almost certainly won't be a Cowboy in 2011--not as the oft-injured guy who had lost his explosiveness, but rather as the "Barberian," the beast who terrorized defenses in 2006-2008. When you think of number 24 years form now, Keg says, think of this, one of the greatest two-yard runs in NFL history, as his defining moment.
We know Barber is on his way out, and have a pretty clear sense that Felix Jones and DeMarco Murray will be the feature backs in Jason Garrett's multiple offense in 2011. Where does that leave Tashard Choice? Our final honoree, ChiaCrack, asks precisely this question, wondering what the Cowboys see (or, more properly don't see) in a guy that many fans and media types have considered the "most complete back" on the Cowboys roster. I have to admit, when the Cowboys drafted Choice in 2008, I thought they were getting a mini-Emmitt Smith. Clearly, Jason Garrett doesn't think so. In his FanPost, Crack considers the reasons why.
Continuing with the Cha-Cha-Cha-Chia theme, this week's winner by a landslide was the latest installment in his long-running series, "Crack Hits" that, in its precision and intelligence, belies its name. In this, the thirteenth edition of the series, Chia authors an epic--and I mean epic--saga, in which he judges current and former members of the Cowboys coaching staff according to the code of honor by which William Wallace of Braveheart fame lived and died. While it should come as no surprise which coaches qualify as "a Bravehart" and which don't, its an interesting and fresh rubric for judging leaders of men...just as long as I don't have to see Rob Ryan lift his kilt!
I encourage all of you to grab a cold beverage, kick your feet up, and enjoy these terrific recent additions to BTB's FanPost treasury. And if you still have a bit of extra time on your hands, check out some footage of Braveheart here. Even if it doesn't induce you to grab a stick and pound on some poncey Brits, it'll get you juiced for football season.