All The Whos...

If it was Dr. Seuss commenting on the Vikings steamrollering the Cowboys Sunday in the NFL Playoffs it might have been, "All the Whos down in Whoville the small and the tall, couldn't believe their great Dallas team had really dropped the ball!"  (apologies to the Dr.).  Let's get one thing straight, I'm a Green Bay Packer fan, but watching Brett Farve at 40 years old do what he does gives me a modicum of hope that I can get better as I age rather than just older.  Watching the game from an Austin sports pub packed with raging Dallas fans was worth the price of the, well...chicken strips.  At first, the frenzied Cowboy crowd cheered wildly for every Dallas play no matter how small.  They went crazy for a two yard run pounding on the bar, clapping and screaming their heads off.  When the Vikings scored the first time the sound level in the room dropped by 10db (decibels, a unit used to indicate the volume of a sound).  The second time Minnesota scored it became eerily quiet.

Fortunately, I was seated in between two older, placid Cowboy fans.  We actually had an interesting conversation.   But the lady in gold hooped earrings and  her boyfriend stole the show rooting for Dallas.   All he could do was pound  on the bar and scream "Go long",  when Tony Romo could'nt even hold on to the ball  much less muster a throw.  But his girlfriend  was the real treat.  She pounded on the bar, stood up on the bar rail hollering "Go, and beat these  mother-f**kers."  That was the real show in the room.


It's mighty hard to believe that the Cowboy faithfuls who assembled  to watch Tony Romo circle the wagons actually thought that Dallas had a chance to win this ballgame.  Emotions replaced logic.  It wasn't a matter of watching to see who won, as much as watching to see how they won.  Mr. Farve in his own retirement speech (one of them and let's not go there) said that he had nothing left to give.  I'll take experience, savvy and pure, raw ability every time, which Brett brings to the table  when it really counts as he has proven over and over again.  Had no one  present watched any NFL games for the past  19 years?


And despite the cool demeanor  a quarterback has to present on the field, you can't help but wonder that in the back of Romo's mind is "Yikes!  I'm playing against THE  Brett Farve who I grew up idolizing!".  It's got to have some effect  even if it's buried deep in his subconscious.  The biggest job in the off season is for the NFL.  First, finding better handling arrangements for the refs' seeing eye dogs during the game and secondly, figuring out how to stop CBS from dictating game times to protect the CBS staple "60 Minutes" .  You've got the goods NFL!  I suspect you can find a more cooperative customer if you try hard enough.



Every Dallas fan there left muttering , "The Saints will get 'em!".  Here we go again.