Trolling The Nation: At 8:59 PM ET On April 29th, 2011, The Dallas Cowboys Drafted RB DeMarco Murray

Tim MacMahon had a nice story up on ESPN Dallas yesterady in which he looks at how DeMarco Murray is dealing with being in the spotlight after setting a franchise rushing record. Along the way MacMahon details Barry Switzer's contribution in bringing Murray to Dallas.

Needless to say, Switzer thought Murray was a steal when the Cowboys selected Murray in the third round with the 71st overall pick. Switzer said as much about 30 minutes before the Cowboys went on the clock, when Jones called him from the Valley Ranch war room and put Switzer on speakerphone.

I found this quote particularly interesting, because it establishes a time for the call from the Cowboys warroom to Switzer: about 30 minutes before the Cowboys made their pick. As you can see from the title of this post, we know exactly when the Cowboys made their pick, so that call must have taken place slightly before 8:30 PM EDT on April 29th.

After the break we relive those thirty minutes through the comments of Cowboys fans on that day, and we also take a look at the initial reaction to the pick by Cowboys fans and fans of other NFL teams.

Now on to the 30 minutes prior to the Murray selection, and a little background to get you in the proper mood.

We join the action at 8:27, just as as the Redskins trade down with the Dolphins, who now are in possession of the 62nd pick. At right about this time, the Cowboys are on the phone with Switzer, inquiring about DeMarco Murray. Based on this conversation we'll assume that the Cowboys had their sights set on DeMarco Murray from at least this point, if not earlier, but will have to wait for another ten picks before they are on the clock with the 71st pick of the 2011 draft. The situation is tense.

Running backs Shane Vereen and Mikel Leshoure had just been taken by the Patriots and Lions with the 56th and 57th picks. Miami had been widely expected to take a running back in the first round, but took Mike Pouncey instead, and did not have a pick in the 2nd round. The Dolphins just traded up, they need a running back badly and they are on the clock.

Also waiting in the wings are the Packers at 64 who are thought to have a need at running back, and the Patriots are a threat to trade up from the 73rd pick to potentially get another running back.

The Cowboys are sweating bullets, and hope fervently that Murray will fall to them.

This is where we take the blogging equivalent of an extremely annoying commercial break.

The initial fan reaction to the Murray pick was predictably negative, as most fans had not expected the Cowboys to draft a running back. So keep that in mind as you read those initial comments a little further down this post. Also, this post not intended to call out any of the commenters, it's meant in good fun, and I'm sure that every Cowboys fan who reacted negatively to the pick at first is quite happy to have been proven wrong by Murray since.

Before going into the individual comments, full disclosure up front: I was dead set against drafting a running back on the second day of the draft, particularly when reports had surfaced that the Cowboys had seriously considered going after Mark Ingram on the first day of the draft. Like most other fans, the Murray pick caught me completely by surprise and it took me a while to get comfortable with the selection. Here is my comment on the possibility of the Cowboys taking a running back, about four hours before the Cowboys selected DeMarco Murray:

In the end, nobody shot me, so on to your regularly scheduled programming