A Dallas Cowboys Fan Plans for NFL’s Dead Zone
The NFL draft has come and gone. The temperatures outside where I am are starting to sneak into the 80s. Training camp is a mere blip on the radar screen. All these things add up to one sad fact, fellow Dallas Cowboys faithful… We are now entering what I like to refer to as The Dead Zone.
Granted, for those of us who cheer for the silver and blue, The Dead Zone truly started after week 17 of the 2012 season when the ‘Boys once again cleaned out their lockers before wildcard weekend. Still, we had some sense of anticipation for free agency and what our unpredictable owner might have up his sleeve. When nothing but the sound of crickets came out of The Ranch as our NFC rivals wheeled and dealed, we thought, surely good old Jerry was saving what little cap room he had for a big find in the NFL Draft. After three days of weird and wacky picks, though, there turned out to be more head scratching than hand clapping from Cowboys Nation.
Dec 2, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) scrambles against the Philadelphia Eagles at Cowboys Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Just about the only excitement coming out of The Ranch these days has been Tony Romo’s blockbuster contract extension and the fallout that ensued…mostly due to Mr. Jones’ inability to keep his mouth closed to the media.
Since I haven’t quite reached the point where The NFL Network and its endless barrage of top 10 countdown shows sounds tempting, I have decided that the best way to keep by sanity is to plan for the 2013 season. Usually I take one pilgrimage to The Lone Star State to see a Cowboys’ game and indulge in some retail therapy. When it was announced that my hubby’s beloved Denver Broncos were headed to Big D for an October match up with the Cowboys, I was sure autumn would include an extra road trip to Jerry’s World.
Not so fast my friends…
After seeing the prices for the Dallas Cowboys vs Denver Broncos on the more reliable ticket outlets, my better half started backtracking faster than Tony Romo when the only thing between him and a blitzing linebacker is Doug Free. Not a single ticket, excluding the standing room only sections of Jerry’s billion dollar baby, were priced under 200 bucks. Luckily for little old me, there are a precious few home games where tickets can be had for under $150…a very few. My hope for a second journey to Jerry’s World in 2013 now rests on whether or not I can manage to snag a pair of tickets at face value when the Cowboys turn loose single game tickets at summer’s end. Just in case that doesn’t work out, though, I would love to know where the folks who are filling Cowboys Stadium every week got the seeds for the money trees that they surely have growing in their backyards because I’d love to plant a couple at my place.
When I take a close look at how the Cowboys match up with Peyton and company, it is not inconceivable that Dallas could pull an upset. If Tony Romo is having a good day and the Broncos secondary has a flashback to the 2012 divisional playoff game that got away from them, the Star might prevail. Putting the rush on Mr. Manning would certainly be a plus for the Cowboys, as would some reliable play from our own D backs. If those things don’t happen, I might be glad to be sitting on my sofa watching my own big screen instead of in the nose bleeds of Cowboys Stadium watching Jerry’s so that I can escape the taunts of my husband my removing myself from his general vicinity.
For now, though, maybe those NFL Network countdowns don’t sound so bad after all…