The Internet Has Made Being a Dallas Cowboys Fan Better…and Worse

Dec 2, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; Dallas Cowboys fan holds up a sign for Santa prior to the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Cowboys Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

But other people do not take something to that extreme like I did. So they don’t learn that lesson. Instead they insert trick plays and score and think it proves they are a football genius. Have you ever noticed how some fans celebrate trick plays like they are crack? How many teams run a trick play every game? None, that I know of. Trick plays are rare. Yet, we have fans lamenting the fact that we never use any.

Some people actually believe you can grab an Aaron Rodgers and Adrian Peterson in a Draft because they did it this year in their 10 team fantasy league. One of these days, I’d love to see a 32 team Fantasy Football League and hear the whining or see the scrambling for that 2nd RB or 3rd WR. For that matter the TE.

The Internet has reduced the newspaper to a dinosaur. Magazines are an endangered species. Journalists are basically paid bloggers now. Traffic clicks are what make them valuable and they’ve learned the game that says being negative will get you more clicks than being positive will. We still turn to the media for news (I have no idea why, other than I too have some Pavlov’s dog in me), and they are feeding the frenzy, chumming the waters, empowering the belief that they know more than the players and coaches, just like we do.

It is an illusion. All of it. Okay, not all of it. I was using hyperbole just like they do to push your buttons. There still exists some sanity in the sports world. It rests not in sensationalism, but rather in loyalty. Don’t you ever give up your loyalty to the Dallas Cowboys, because as long as you cling to that, something is right in the world. It means that something still matters to you. That you aren’t buying water in a frenzy because of some Mayan rock. That you aren’t stockpiling Twinkies in the hope that in 2 or 3 years and beyond you can sell them for 20 times what you paid for them. It means that deep down, you still stand for something that you believe in, because they matter to you.

And while they do matter to you, what better way to enjoy them than to engulf yourself in every scrap of information there is out there? The Internet it a tool. In the hands of a craftsman, it can be made into something worthwhile, even attractive. In the hands of a fool, it is nothing short of mindless.

Sometimes I stare at the screen in front of me and I wonder what I can say to give someone some hope. Because let’s be honest about something for a minute. Every normal person across the scale who is obsessed with this team comes to the Internet looking for a story about their team that restores their hope. That’s why so many of the self-professed realists are clinging to a fairy tale that Sean Payton is coming. I find that so ironic, but am refreshed that they still want hope.

Here’s a secret most of them will never learn. Cynicism blunts hope. It makes you blind to the small things that actually matter. For instance, the most respected players on this football team sound like echoes of the head coach. Have you heard them. “Behind the chains.” “Next man up.” “We’re just focused on today.”

Small comments with huge implications of hope for our future. Without the Internet, we’d never hear them say these things most likely. Because of the same Internet, their failures are magnified like the ripples from that pebble. It really is as Charles Dickens said, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

For all of us who have suffered through the ups and downs, we only want it to be our time. The question is, can we appreciate the process? Yes, there really is one. That was true in the days of Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson, and it is true now.

We may never win another Super Bowl in our lifetimes folks. They are not guaranteed. If the only thing you hope for is that, you’re missing so much that is rich and wonderful. That doesn’t make sense to me at all. It reminds me of someone who would rather look at porn and masturbate than try to woo his beautiful lady into a night of passion. If all you want is the orgasm, you really don’t get it. Literally. Because quite frankly, they just aren’t even close to the same.