Dallas Cowboys: Will this season’s Super Bowl title have asterisk beside it?

The Dallas Cowboys are facing a potentially unprecedented season, as is the rest of the NFL. With that, will this year’s title have an asterisk beside it?

The Dallas Cowboys are on the precipice of something never before seen by man nor woman. Heck, up until six months ago, none of us thought we would ever see a day where our cities, our country, and practically our entire world looked like the set of some sci-fi movie.

Even with the current world pandemic though, the NFL and their players have determined that the show must go on. Unlike the NBA, they won’t be able to play in a bubble, while they don’t want to eventually end up like the MLB. They are talking shut down if they can’t get a better hold on their coronavirus situation.

With the threat of the coronavirus all around the country, players from many teams have begun to make their decisions and intentions clear on this coming season. Of the 32 NFL teams, 22 teams have players that have chosen to opt-out of the season.

Of the 40 players that have opted out as of now, the Dallas Cowboys are home to three of those guys in defensive back Maurice Canady, wide receiver Stephen Guidry, and fullback Jamize Olawale. While the team will surely miss those guys, especially Olawale, they could be the New England Patriots.

They are home to eight of those players on the list, which include some of their more important players like offensive lineman Marcus Cannon, safety Patrick Chung, and linebacker Dont’a Hightower.

The Dallas Cowboys have three of their own players that have opted out of the season. Do the league-wide opt-outs put an asterisk next to this season’s title?

All of this talk of players opting out though brings up an interesting question. Does this mean that because you may not be facing the best possible teams that any opposing team can field due to the opt-outs, that this season’s eventual Super Bowl champions and title may have an asterisk beside them in history?

For me, the answer is no, in any scenario. If the Cowboys are fortunate enough to win the big one, then that notion would go double.

While the best talent possible is what you usually expect from professional sports, anybody that suits up to play is a pro-level athlete. With coaching playing such a vital part in any professional sport but especially professional football, the chances of the fill-in players producing aren’t that much less than the actual player that would normally be lining up there. That’s so because a ton of making any play in the NFL is about being in the right spot at the right time, which is 100 percent coaching.

Again, this isn’t to say that whoever replaces or fills in for Hightower, Chung, or Olawale in Dallas’ case, will be better or as good as them. What it is to say is that the dropoff won’t be that huge if they are as good or better at following the coaching as those players may have been, while being “better” or having more discipline to the gameplan than those normally ultra-talented regular guys could totally account for the difference.

Even if none of that was the case though, I would still feel the same. You still have to go through a long and grueling season. You still have to win the games and you still have to make the players. That’s why, for me, this season’s Super Bowl title and eventual champion won’t have an asterisk beside them.