By VICTORIA ADDISON
Executive Editor
As an avid football fan, I never thought I would find myself watching Toy Story at 4 p.m. on a Sunday night. But, when the alternative is seeing your team struggle to score a single touchdown, laughing at a movie about toys coming to life is much more exciting.
With Matt Cassel at quarterback, a star wide receiver underperforming and the offense hanging on by a thread thanks to kicker Dan Bailey, the Dallas Cowboys have hit rock bottom. Yet, despite their 4-9 record, the team still has a chance to come out on top in the NFC East, a feat that seems more pathetic than brag-worthy.
After witnessing a 13-5 season last year and suffering through what may have been the most stressful play call of my entire life against Green Bay in the divisional round of the playoffs (Dez caught it by the way), I had high hopes for the Cowboys going into this season. But, those hopes were immediately drowned by the Philadelphia Eagles.
First, they took DeMarco Murray; a move that will forever and always make my blood boil. Just when I thought I couldn’t hate a team anymore, the Eagles did the unthinkable. They broke Tony Romo.
Flashback to Week Two; Dallas was up by 13 points with almost 10 minutes left in the third quarter. Then, a fumble, followed by a tackle by Eagle’s linebacker Jordan Hicks. That was all it took. Next thing I knew Romo was out for eight weeks with a fractured left clavicle. It was at this point that I lost all hope for my beloved Cowboys.
The weeks leading up to Romo’s return were filled with a lot of swear words and a lot of stress. I suffered through six weeks of losses before Dallas finally managed to pull out a win against the Dolphins in Week Eleven. It wasn’t the prettiest victory, but a win’s a win. I just kept telling myself that Romo would be back next week and everything would return to normal. Boy, was I wrong.
I guess you could compare Romo’s return on Thanksgiving Day to the rise of Jesus Christ. That’s at least what the major sport networks made it out to be. Needless to say, I ate my turkey with belief that the Cowboys could make a terrific comeback and completey turn their season around. That was until I checked the score of the game.
Looking back, Dallas’ 19 point loss to the Carolina Panthers on Turkey Day was the most debilitating gut punch since the injury of Romo in Week Two. Then, the unthinkable happened again.
I’m not entirely sure what made the football gods hate the Cowboys so much, but I’m convinced Jerry Jones has something to do with it. In retrospect, Romo should have been benched for the remainder of the season after his first injury. At this rate, I am completely fine with sitting through losses as long as it means having a healthy quarterback for next year. I don’t think I can stomach another season of watching second and third strings try to take over. It is crucial that the Cowboys use their first round draft pick to take a quarterback, or else this cycle may just keep repeating itself.
After yet another loss on Sunday, all I can do is laugh and talk about how there’s always next season. I mean, on the bright side, Dallas definitely doesn have to worry about going 8-8, so I guess Cowboy haters can save those memes for next season.
