This will probably apply to the older one more than the younger, although it is interesting to think about from the younger perspective too. Personally, being a traditionalist, I have a hard time with change of this nature. Maybe things would be different if I was a Cardinals or Bengals fan. The toughest part is that I am hesitant to buy into the merchandising when the players follow this merry-go-round. Link here By BRAD SHAM DallasCowboys.com Columnist March 3, 2005, 8:08 p.m. (CST) IRVING, Texas - Jerry Seinfeld was right. We're all just cheering for laundry. Seinfeld was talking about baseball, but it doesn't matter. The same thing applies to the NFL. I'm an unashamed Cubs fan. My favorite team was the late 60's bunch, the one that choked away the '69 pennant to the Miracle Mets. That team was populated by lifelong Cubs, brought up through the farm system: Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Don Kessinger, Glenn Beckert, Randy Hundley. They got Fergie Jenkins from the Phillies, but he was only a minor leaguer in Philadelphia, so that didn't count. Cowboys' fans from the Landry area know what I'm talking about. Your Heroes were always Cowboys: Staubach, Pearson, Lilly, Howley, Jordan, Randy White, Ed Jones, Dorsett, Harris, Waters, Wright, Niland. All of them Cowboys and only Cowboys. That was then. This is now. Then isn't coming back. Whether or not that's a good thing probably depends on your age. I believe in free agency. It goes with my politics. You and I have the right to go anywhere we want to work, if we can get hired. We can change companies or cities as long as we can find work. Why should athletes be any different? But there was something that felt right about the way it used to be. It felt right to many of those players, too. When the Cowboys introduced one of their three primo prizes Thursday, four-time Pro Bowl guard Marco Rivera, his first two answers to media questions included instinctive references to his belief in "the Packer organization". The guy sweated blood for Cheeseheads for nine years. Why wouldn't he think of himself as a lifelong Packer? Do you think Dexter Coakley wanted to leave Dallas? But the system is the system. You don't care where the guy comes from. Put a player in a white Cowboys' jersey and a helmet with the star, you'll cheer for him. Yankees fans see the pinstripes. We're cheering for laundry. It's hard work being a progressive dinosaur. We want our guys to be our guys forever. But that genie is out of the bottle, and he isn't coming back. A few years ago I did some college basketball work for a national radio network which underwent sweeping management changes. The producer with whom I worked couldn't adjust, and he didn't last with the new guys. My advice to him was applicable to any walk of life: You don't have to like the new bus company owners, or the driver they hired or the route he drives. You have a choice. You can stand on the corner and shake your fist and rant and rave about how things used to be, and suck up the fumes as the bus pulls away from the curb. Or you can get on the bus, even if you don't like the new driver or the upholstery on the seats or the re-designed routes and go for the ride. But one way or another, the bus is leaving. Cowboys' owner-g.m. Jerry Jones addressed the subject Thursday with easy directness. As he finished writing millions of dollars in checks for free agents Anthony Henry, Jason Ferguson and Rivera, wasn't there some part of the fan in him that wished a great player could always finish his career where he started it, if that was his choice, instead of having to leave as a salary cap casualty? "No," Jones said. "The world we live in today gives us economic choices. You can't have that and the old system. This system allows competition and lets the players benefit from the marketplace. You have to give to get. That other stuff is 30, 40 years ago." Ouch. Thanks for that. The truth hurts. Some players love the idea that they can hit a big payday late in their careers, even if it means pulling up roots. Others hate that they can't get paid and stay where they grew up as professionals. Maybe most are like Rivera, who said Thursday, "I find it invigorating. I'm really looking forward to this new challenge. Change is good." Cowboys' passing coordinator Sean Payton grew up a 49ers' fan, especially of quarterback John Brodie. Does he think the system today makes the game better? "I look at it this way," Payton said Thursday: "What are the two hottest things going in sports right now? The NFL and college basketball. Both incorporate change. Sure, in college basketball, you used to have a guy come in and he'd be there four years. But they're both pretty popular. Someone's doing something right." Well said. If you're a Cowboys' fan of any age, you had to like Thursday. Two days of negotiating brings you one of the better young veteran corners in the game, one of the top nose tackles and clearly one of the best guards, and a classy bunch with the character and work ethic you want for your team at that. This team may be forty percent better just with those three signings. You can make yourself crazy wishing for the way things were, or you can enhance your life by deciding that these are the good old days. One way or another, the bus is leaving. And my favorite Cub is now Nomar Garciaparra. Go, laundry!
That was a good article Cowboy. I looked at the title and thought, "No way Cowboy misspelled Landry". So I clicked to check it out. I was glad I did.
That's funny KC. I thought the same thing about Landry. Thanks to Cowboy for something interesting to read this time of year.
Interesting that Rivera called the Cowboys the "Packers Organization" twice in his first press conference... *laughs* Bet he won't do that again. Good read.
