Some days, I can only take so much of the meaningless hand-wringing that goes on here:
"Let's sign this guy who just got cut!"
"Let's trade our first round pick for the next 4 years for some QB I only learned existed last month!"
I suppose some of you are young, but the old timers should know better. I fully expect to go to my grave waiting for the Cowboys to win another Super Bowl. Blow smoke up your backside if it makes you feel better, but the 3 SBs in the 90s were all about Jimmy. It's not an accident that Jerry and his son haven't been able to sniff another in a quarter century - do you need another 25 years to accept reality?
Sign Dak! Don't sign Dak!
I'll do you one better - it doesn't matter. The Cowboys brain trust isn't smart enough to build a champion, with or without Dak. The sooner you accept it the less frustrated you'll be when the inevitable happens next season, and the next, and the next...
Yes, the old timers should know better but living through 20 winning seasons and the playoffs were a given, 8 trips but that lull between #5 and #6 just served to set up some time lock. OK, it's been 14 years since our last trip in 1978, time to go again and then another 3 in 4 years. OK, been another 14 years in 2009, time to rev up the SB machine but it just sputters and dies.
Know what? Being an old timer teaches me at my age, I am not what I was 25 years ago or even 10 years ago. Things change, time changes and situations change. We either change with them or we're left shouting "life isn't fair". Especially with change out of our control.
On the old forum, I would be accused of "lowering my standards" when I tried to reason with my fellow posters about accepting reality. I suggested to them then keep yours high and continue to complain and whine and add another year to that X years without a ring. But that gets really old, really fast.
Being a sane Cowboys fan means accepting the reality that the team you are a fan of is not what it used to be, things changed. It's not lowering one's standards, it's adjusting them to meet reality or you find a new team if getting a ring is so important to you. Does that mean you are happy with the situation? Of course not, acceptance has nothing to do with being happy or sad.
Truth be told, we don't like being like Skins fans, we're better than that. Got a little ego entangled in that fanhood? I deserve better?
This team is going to have to get very lucky to get another ring anytime soon. Booger is not a good or full time GM, his son hasn't proven he's able to handle one thing, the cap. The cap is not about being under, it's about how that money is used. It's about evaluating FA's and draft classes and having the self discipline to know when to walk away from a player.
Or here's a strategy. I won't buy in, no matter how much I want to, and then I won't be disappointed like the ones that did. Only you are just as disappointed because why go into any season without hope? Raining on the parade doesn't earn any points any more than being Pollyanna and ignoring reality. And reality can be hard to find and even harder to accept.
The beauty of it is this is still just a game. To me, being a fan isn't about being there when it's easy. The reality is the Dallas Cowboys are only a player in the media. It's all promotion and surface beauty, underneath is a very mediocre football team with less than competent management. I accept that and still remain a fan.