Five ways the Dallas Cowboys (and fans) got lucky this offseason

Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? The Dallas Cowboys sure do! Let’s count the ways

Whether you call it good fortune, felicitous, or providential, luck isn’t just when something good happens. Positive things happen all the time, but we don’t always feel lucky. Let’s say the sun is shining and the air is clean – it’s just a beautiful day. That’s nice. But it probably isn’t unexpected. It doesn’t feel out of the ordinary.

And that’s really what luck is. It’s when something favorable, even wonderful, unexpectedly occurs. That’s the key to luck: It’s something good coming out of the blue, like finding ten dollars on the street.

Of course, sport lends itself to feelings of luck, because you never know what’s going to happen. Everything is unexpected when you think about it. But when your team experiences a particularly good turn, it does feel fortuitous, doesn’t it?

And this offseason, the Dallas Cowboys have gotten lucky more than usual. Observe …

#1. The Clapper is long gone

I think a lot of Cowboys’ fans celebrated when this finally happened. Maybe it’s not fair. Jason Garrett wasn’t a terrible head coach. He had a winning record. If his teams had been total losers, Garrett never would have lasted ten years at the helm of America’s Team.

But with only two playoff wins in a decade, it’s fair to say Garrett never brought the team to the next level, never won the big game. They certainly never got within spitting distance of the Super Bowl.

But despite this overwhelming lack of playoff success, it still took ten years for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to let go of the man. It’s incredible when you think about it. By his last day on the job, Garrett was one of the four longest-tenured coaches in the NFL. The other three had all brought their teams to the championship game.

And so, I think a lot of fans didn’t quite believe that Jones would finally let the clapper go. And then it happened. Don’t tell me you didn’t feel lucky. I know you did.