Well I made it through the worst day of the year. Actually, there are no really bad days when you cover sports for a living, but if you believe my buddy Junior Miller on The Ticket, the second Tuesday of August is the worst day on the calendar each year. I had never thought about ranking the bad days until I heard his segment. A list of the best days of the year is fairly easy to compile. As for the worst, I have never thought about it. I do know this, I get depressed when summer ends every year.
It has not always been this way. Some of the best memories of my career include counting down the days until the first day of the Cowboys season. In fact, the last quarter of the last exhibition game was the longest 12 minutes of the year. Back in the day I cherished the change of seasons. Now I must drag myself into a Cowboys season kicking and screaming. I miss the excitement that once accompanied Cowboys games. I miss the buzz that would start in mid-July and end in mid-February. I miss caring.
This seemingly endless string of 8-8 has rendered us apathetic and bored. The nation has noticed too. I went to the movies the other day and during that time before the previews they showed the making of the Sunday Night Football open. It was filmed in a huge studio or warehouse. This was a huge production. Carrie Underwood was there, and so were the biggest stars in the NFL. Noticeably absent was anybody from the Cowboys. There was a former Cowboy, DeMarcus Ware. Some of these guys may be future Cowboys, but no current Cowboy was part of this shoot. That doesn’t mean they won’t be on Sunday Night Football, they will. What it does means is they aren’t relevant.
My early prediction is that they will not be a part of the Sunday Night Football promo next year either. This might be a year when we actually wish the Cowboys could manage to be mediocre. Why would a guy normally so optimistic paint such a bleak picture? Well, I admit I watched the first pre-season game. That means I saw that defense. A defense that was historically bad in each of the last two years will be worse this year. In these parts that means there might be several Sundays this fall that make the list of the worst days of the year.
