Good DMN article on DeCamillis

[cowboyjf]

What a great read. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Bleu Star]

What a great story!!! Thys guy is a winner. Period! I've said it before and I will say it once more. Joe D is a shining star on our coaching staff and easily one of the MVPs on this team to this point. His STs make me excited to sit up and see what's going to happen next. What a great guy.

 

[Go Big D!]

I'm proud to call Joe D our coach. He epitomizes everything I want our team to represent: dedication, strength, perseverence, tenacity....

He leads by example and I think our whole team feeds off of it, not just STs.

We are very lucky to have him.


The bit bout the Brooking head-butts made me chuckle.

 

[SC Cowboyfan]

The players definitely look up to him and take inspiration from him. After he scored the first punt return TD, Crayton said it was for coach Joe D...

 

[NeonNinja]

Outstanding article. You can see the players love to play for him.

 

[guag]

Definitely the best article I've read in a long time. Thanks for posting it. And thanks Coach Joe for being AWESOME! :starspin

 

[Cowgal]

Thanks for posting. Great article! What an inspiration!

 

[DallasEast]

Once he hangs up with Dana, he receives a frantic call from one of his daughters. Caitlin DeCamillis is a nursing student at Auburn University. By now, Joe's neck is killing him and something else isn't right.

"Dad, if you don't have any feeling in your hands, lay down and don't move," she says.

No one can say for sure what would have happened if Joe didn't follow his daughter's advice before the paramedics arrived. But Dana knows.

"If you see the X-ray, she probably saved his life," Dana said. "His spinal cord was literally hanging by a thread."

The damage is devastating. Joe has four fractured vertebrae. His lower cervical and upper thoracic spine must be reconstructed.

Dr. Howard Morgan is the professor of neurosurgery at UT Southwestern. It has been more than 30 years since he's cared for a patient with injuries this extensive who wasn't paralyzed for the rest of his life. He performs the surgery along with chief resident Atif Haque.

Two days later at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Joe spends more than five hours on the operating table. A 13-inch incision is made as doctors' slice through the muscles in his neck and back. Morgan removes a rib on the right side between the sixth and seventh vertebrae to use as a bone graft so his patient's neck won't slip and compress the spinal cord.

Morgan implants two titanium rods that span from C5 to T3. The reconstruction requires 10 titanium screws, five on each side.

Five months later, when DeCamillis goes in for an MRI, he must change machines because the "extensive instrumentation" in his neck, as Morgan calls it, disrupts the magnet in the first device.

If you're not willing to run through walls for this guy...

Excuse me. Let me repeat myself.




















If you're not willing to run through walls for this guy, you're not much of a man. We're seeing his guys running through walls this season on special teams. It's not really that hard understanding why.

:toast: Coach Joe DeCamillis

 

[Danny White]

What a shoddy article.

How can you interview the Cowboys special teams coach and not ask him about punts hitting the video board? :




Seriously, this guy is a real inspiration.

 

[Hostile]

 

[Jay]

Great, great article. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Cover 2]

Amazing story. He is one tough guy.

 

[jswalker1981]

DeCamillis is the best acquisition we've made all offseason. And not just because our special teams is better, but rather his heart, and his passion for the game. How can you go half speed in practice or in the game and not feel like a complete waste of a man when a guy who was almost dead or paralyzed is chasing you down the field? Every time I see him on TV, I just want to shake his hand, and give my respect to him, because he has earned it sevenfold.

 

[Hostile]

DeCamillis is the best acquisition we've made all offseason. And not just because our special teams is better, but rather his heart, and his passion for the game. How can you go half speed in practice or in the game and not feel like a complete waste of a man when a guy who was almost dead or paralyzed is chasing you down the field? Every time I see him on TV, I just want to shake his hand, and give my respect to him, because he has earned it sevenfold.

The players better be as impressed as I am. I bet they are. Have him give the half time speeches. No one would feel an ache or a pain.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Amazing article. Gonna put it as a stickied thread on TrueBlue in a minute.

 

[gimmesix]

Watching him on the sideline, I have had great respect for the job he's been doing, especially considering the circumstances. Now, I have even more respect ... and some degree of concern.

 

[JBell]

Joe D is the freakin man.

The part where Joe misses celebrating really got to me when they started talking about how pumped up Brooking gets...

Whenever they show Joe on the sidelines (usually after an awesome special teams play, which happens a few times every game now), he's really stiff and you can see in his eyes how bad he wants to show some emotion, but he just can't.

Joe D... never leave us

 

[Sarge]

Thanks for finding this article Chief. Great story....

 

[adbutcher]

The players better be as impressed as I am. I bet they are. Have him give the half time speeches. No one would feel an ache or a pain.

I love inspirational stories. It never cease to amaze me how we as humans have the ability to triumph over the most insurmountable odds. Coach D is definitely a beacon of inspiration.

Great article, thanks Chief!

 

[CarlJohnson]

DeCamillis AND Brooking are just what this team needed. IMO the more they rub off on this team the more success we will have this year. Their kind of attitudes are contagious.