[Ed. Note] Greetings BTB Community,
Every so often we decide to add a new writer to the front page. So I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of that group, Joey Ickes. You already know him as IckesJb, he has done an incredible job of writing a lot of X's and O's FanPosts. Now he's going to bring his talents to the front page. Please join me in giving him a big welcome. Congrats, Joey! - Dave Halprin [End Note]
Joey's intro:
In the 1960's, Vince Lombardi, the guy most people consider to be the best football coach not named Tom Landry to ever walk a sideline, consistently emphasized to his players what their priorities needed to be. "Faith, Family, & Green Bay Packers football" were the only things Lombardi wanted his players to focus on.
Almost 7 years ago, in the fall of 2006, my freshman year of college at a division three school, just down the road from Tom in Marshall, TX, something happened and I fell back in love with the game of football. I didn't play high school football, because, in my mind I was going to play college baseball, but I had spent my entire life around the game. My best friend was a coach's kid, who had moved to Houston from the Dallas area, and was a huge Cowboys fan. Spending Friday nights as a ball boy at the High School football games, and weekends on the couch watching 20+ hours of football formed the foundation for who I am now as a football fan.
Since 2006, you can describe my life very similarly to those famous priorities muttered Lombardi so many times. Faith, family and football, particularly Dallas Cowboys football, have been my most passionate pursuits. I decided then that I wanted to be more than a casual observer of the game. I wanted to know it, really understand it, and be capable of communicating the most intricate details of what was happening on the field.
Largely due to my best friends love for the Cowboys, and the lack of a quality team in Houston for the first 23 years of my life, I love the Cowboys. The oldest football memory I can recollect is watching Larry Brown run down the sideline in Super Bowl XXX on the way to a Dallas Victory over the Steelers, and the rest is history.
I happened upon Blogging The Boys in late 2011, but really latched on about a year ago. I remember writing my first Fan Post in the middle of the night a few weeks before the draft. As soon as I posted it, I was hooked. I refreshed the page every 15 seconds the next day, hoping someone had commented so I could reply. Finally, after spending time on the mothership, I felt I had a place I could talk Cowboys football with an intelligent and competent body of fans.
This is the greatest community of Cowboys followers anywhere and I am honored to be a part of it. As you might anticipate, a lot of my writing will be in my area of relative expertise, X's & O's as well as personnel, player evaluations, film analysis and the like. I am very excited to be a part of what is for many of you the primary source for all things Dallas Cowboys.
I want to thank our fearless leader, Dave Halprin, for bringing me on, as well as KD, Rab, OCC, Tom, Archie, & Coty for the great work they do here every day. Their quality will inspire me to reach greater heights.
Finally, I want to thank you, our amazing readers. Without you BTB would not exist, and I wouldn't be getting this opportunity. I promise you my best work, as we continue to build BTB - the best Cowboys community there is.