There’s only 33 and a half weeks left till the 2015 NFL Season starts up, but who’s counting? I love football. I love watching it, but I never played it. I’m a Chicago Bears fan by birth and a Dallas 
Cowboys fan by geography, having lived in the Dallas area for more than 28 years. Let’s be honest, the Bears need some major work in order for them to be a driving force in the NFC North again. That probably won’t happen for another three to four years, minimum. Their coaching staff is in shambles, their offense doesn’t look any better and their defense couldn’t stop a headache… which is what the Bears Nation has after watching the “Monsters of the Midway” limp into the offseason, yet again.
But as a Cowboys fan, I had hope! For a team that by all predictions, my own included, weren’t going to have a record any better than 8-8 this season, they did a fantastic job of winning games and giving fans the confidence that this team might actually be worthy of the playoffs. They were worthy of the post-season. This was a team that did their very best to reach the playoffs and they did it with style.
When Tony Romo would hand the ball the DeMarco Murray this season, I would get the same anticipation and excitement that I used to have in the 90’s when I watched Troy Aikman hand the ball off to Emmitt Smith. Because you knew something special was going to happen. On a run that Murray should’ve picked up only two or three yards, he’d pick up eight or nine. Romo seemed to be able to do no wrong by throwing only nine interceptions, when only two years ago, he threw nineteen. He completed more passes than he missed and all of a sudden, the Cowboys are in the playoffs.
But then heartbreak could be heard all across the Cowboys fan base with this past Sunday’s game against the Packers in Green Bay. A game that the Cowboys were predicted to lose in a blowout; they made the Packers work for that win. They never faltered, even though there were several plays where Dallas should’ve stepped up, they stuck with Green Bay to the very end. Then there was the call that undoubtedly cost them the game in the last minutes of the 4th quarter; Did Dez catch it? Did he drop it? Did he maintain control through the process? Did he make a “football move”? Despite all of that, the Dallas Cowboys held their own against a great Green Bay team and for that we should be proud of them. Sure, we’ll have the conference championship games next week and then the Super Bowl. But personally, I’m just waiting to hear that Dallas Cowboys training camp is back open.
Robbie Hoy