I am taking the just say no to hate pledge

[Rockport]

Making the effort and maxing out a player's talent seems to be underappreciated by some. I wonder how they would have been about Bill Bates back then. He earned that S job by pushing himself to the limit every time he got the chance, that's a coach's dream. Landry rewarded him with making him the starting S and he really wasn't very good. But he was a fan favorite. That's why Marinelli was a Nick Hayden fan. Probably the least talented of the DL but the hardest worker chasing his dream.

I look at some of these players with so much natural talent and wonder what they might have been. He was plenty good but imagine Randy Moss with Jerry Rice's work ethic. He would have been unstoppable because he was blessed with the most natural talent I've seen for a WR.

A player does his job, represents his team so well he gets Man of the Year and max's out his talent because he wasn't born fast, will be a 1st ballot HOFer yet some openly criticize his return to the team. We've seen the same about Lee, only there for his knowledge and leadership. These are two players that are going to give everything they've got to help their team and I am glad they are there. You never outgrow your need for role models.

I used to be an "all about the winning" fan but fortunately I moved on from that and the game of football is a lot like life, it's not all about the winning, it is often how the game is played. The lessons are not learned through victories.

Fantastic post.

 

[kskboys]

Making the effort and maxing out a player's talent seems to be underappreciated by some. I wonder how they would have been about Bill Bates back then. He earned that S job by pushing himself to the limit every time he got the chance, that's a coach's dream. Landry rewarded him with making him the starting S and he really wasn't very good. But he was a fan favorite. That's why Marinelli was a Nick Hayden fan. Probably the least talented of the DL but the hardest worker chasing his dream.

I look at some of these players with so much natural talent and wonder what they might have been. He was plenty good but imagine Randy Moss with Jerry Rice's work ethic. He would have been unstoppable because he was blessed with the most natural talent I've seen for a WR.

A player does his job, represents his team so well he gets Man of the Year and max's out his talent because he wasn't born fast, will be a 1st ballot HOFer yet some openly criticize his return to the team. We've seen the same about Lee, only there for his knowledge and leadership. These are two players that are going to give everything they've got to help their team and I am glad they are there. You never outgrow your need for role models.

I used to be an "all about the winning" fan but fortunately I moved on from that and the game of football is a lot like life, it's not all about the winning, it is often how the game is played. The lessons are not learned through victories.

Imagine Dez Bryant w/ Irvin's work ethic, attitude and pure perseverence.

 

[Reid1boys]

Imagine Dez Bryant w/ Irvin's work ethic, attitude and pure perseverence.

you guys make it like DEz was a disappointment as a player......lol

 

[Melonfeud]

Well,I openly&honestly admit to finding page one of this thread to be an uproariously riotous real hoot of a read

 

[Established1971]

The word "hate' gets thrown around the forum too freely and I am taking the pledge not to use that word again in here.

We are surrounded by hate in our own country and the world and most of us come here to take a break from the real world with others that share the same feeling about their team. Yep, even some come to argue and debate as part of this but hate is just too strong a word to use here.

So, I CouchCoach, do solemnly pledge not to use that word in ANY post, even in the attempt to repel it, and the Staff here has my permission to give me a time out for breaking my pledge.

My fellow posters, please join me in removing this word from a place it has no place in.

no way, its just a word, any and all words, and I do mean all, can be used properly. It all depends on context. No way I would take a pledge to not use a word. Thats now how one should view language.

 

[Miller]

Hate should only be used as “hate to lose.” Between posters it’s hideous because it’s an opinion message board

 

[kskboys]

you guys make it like DEz was a disappointment as a player......lol

He was to me, because he didn't live up to what he should've been.

 

[Bobhaze]

He was to me, because he didn't live up to what he should've been.

Agree 100%. Dez was a fantastic talent who relied almost exclusively on that talent rather than expanding his game by learning to run disciplined routes. WRs who rely only on their ability to out muscle you or run you eventually fade, often too early as was the case with Dez. He never learned to add that extra mental dimension to his game.

Which was as you said, a disappointment. Still had a nice career here. But it could have been so much more.

 

[armadillooutlaw]

It really does. I know that I would never speak as rudely to people face to face as I'm sometimes driven to speak here from the childish stuff.

Same here.

 

[Londonboy]

Well,I openly&honestly admit to finding page one of this thread to be an uproariously riotous real hoot of a read

1,7,4,9,3,5,2,8,10,6,11, is My ranking, best to worst.
The sequel, "Page 12, this time it's not personal", promises to be good too.

 

[DandyDon52]

What do you want to replace it with? LOL........resentment, dislike, abomination? We need something.....

dislike instead of hate.

 

[Pantone282C]

Joe, you go on feeling all the h*** you want. I'll still love ya!

This is more of a personal thing for me. I was using that word as well, even formed the Dakaters but then it began to bother me when I'd see it and that has little to do with a sports forum and everything to do with what's going on outside of this forum. I've lived seven decades and never witnessed the level of hatred I see around me in this country right now. And it's not sports, it's real hatred and it saddens me.

I can live with others using that in here but if this slows down just 10% of that, it's worth the thread.

It is a personal thing for those of us who have seen too many and too much of the bad things in society for too long. It's not just a task of separating the connotation from the denotation of the word and then choosing to assign it a different associative value. Some words burn their way into the deepest corners of our psyches and stays there. It's a valuation that defines our identity and what we stand for or against. I really do get the difference for those that using it in the sports fan forums. What bothers me is the associated intent of some posters. Gets my hackles up!

 

[Londonboy]

It is a personal thing for those of us who have seen too many and too much of the bad things in society for too long. It's not just a task of separating the connotation from the denotation of the word and then choosing to assign it a different associative value. Some words burn their way into the deepest corners of our psyches and stays there. It's a valuation that defines our identity and what we stand for or against. I really do get the difference for those that using it in the sports fan forums. What bothers me is the associated intent of some posters. Gets my hackles up!

I tackles My hackles with emotional shackles.

 

[Pantone282C]

no way, its just a word, any and all words, and I do mean all, can be used properly. It all depends on context. No way I would take a pledge to not use a word. Thats now how one should view language.

Understandably so. In the end, it's not so much the context as the intent. I dislike the personal vitriol that people exhibit toward each other in the context of this forum. I tolerate it like I do some things in society. Speaking for myself, and possibly for others, some of us have simply been trying to make a statement about the way some statements are made. If level of civility can move up a few degrees, it would improve the enjoyment of being here. Otherwise, we can go back to hunting woolly mammoths, beating our chests, and grunting. The personal attacks are unnecessary to the forum's purpose as I understand it.
Edited

 

[Reid1boys]

He was to me, because he didn't live up to what he should've been.

well if all of our draft picks had th eproductivity of Dez Bryant, even our Jerry and front office haters would have to admit how great our draft picks are. Im so tired of hearing his undisciplied routes also.........I bet cole beasley ran incredible precise routes.... all take Dez all day. UNless you are watching film and know the exat routes Dez was supposed to be running, you dont know much about the quality of "Routes," he was running.

 

[CouchCoach]

Imagine Dez Bryant w/ Irvin's work ethic, attitude and pure perseverence.

And it's not like he didn't have support. He drove his coaches in Stillwater nuts because they were just trying to help him get better. They even, along with a couple of teammates, asked him not to go to Dallas to meet with Sanders and he did anyway and when the NCAA got wind of it, he was told by his HC and position coach just to come clean but he chose to lie and lost his senior season. There was speculation that Sanders tole him to lie bit no proof but I wouldn't put anything past that dbag.

No player represents "being his own worst enemy" more than Bryant and I used to make excuses for him because of his upbringing, or lack of, but that only works until a person realizes that they are now in charge.

The Dallas staff, just like his OSU staff, finally gave up on him. Shame when I think of how good he could have been.

 

[cern]

dez was a product of being raised in a horrible environment as a child. it's all too common amongst kids who grow up in poverty and with a parent heavily dependent on drugs. they grow up resenting authority and are usually involved in crime. dez was gifted athletically, but had social issues. you can only help those who want to be helped. he was classic le infans terrible.

 

[CouchCoach]

you guys make it like DEz was a disappointment as a player......lol

Any player/person that does not reach their potential because of their own self imposed shortcomings is a disappointment. And any player that walks off on his team will always be a disappointment to me. There are just somethings I don't overlook and he became my least favorite Cowboy after that.

I look at these marginally talented players, always worried they're on the bubble and they know they do not have the natural talent of others they're competing with yet they push it to the very limit.

I look at a player like Amendola, he's on his 6th team. He's 5'11" and ran a 4.58 and he's been fighting to keep his NFL career going by following every bit of coaching advice and just joined his 6th team. Then I look at a guy like Bryant with natural ability but if I want to really look at the contrast, I look at the guy compared to Bryant at OSU, Justin Blackmon.

One guy was "raised" by a crackwhore and the other by two really good and attentive parents. One was predicted to have an iffy future and the other was predicted for greatness. And they got it exactly wrong. The guy with even more natural talent threw it all away.

That's why Bill Bates is one of the most beloved Cowboys of all time. He was the Cowboys' Rudy. So strong was his desire and drive to make it in the NFL, he took the only position available to him in order to make the team and single handedly turned that into a Pro Bowl position. Steve Tasker said without what Bill did, he would have never attended a PB.

I do not admire people with natural talent because they did nothing to earn that. But someone that pushes that talent to it's limit like Emmitt Smith or Jerry Rice, yep, something really special about them.

 

[CouchCoach]

dez was a product of being raised in a horrible environment as a child. it's all too common amongst kids who grow up in poverty and with a parent heavily dependent on drugs. they grow up resenting authority and are usually involved in crime. dez was gifted athletically, but had social issues. you can only help those who want to be helped. he was classic le infans terrible.

I agree with that except for the ones that overcome that. I feel for people raised in that environment but once the awareness kicks in, it just becomes a convenient excuse to hide behind. Poor poor pitiful me becomes the badge they wear.

And I've seen those raised in a very loving and supportive environment go south. I met Blackmon's parents and from everything I knew about them and him, he had it all right there in front of him and threw it away.

I never thought Dez was the sharpest knife in the drawer but he couldn't help that, you are either smart or you're not. But I think he had some mental issues as well and not just immaturity. He just didn't learn from his mistakes. He excused himself too easily. Like when he walked off the field on his team. His excuse "I hate to lose". But that wasn't the worst of it, his owner, the guy he probably looked up to more than anyone else, called that "passion". Not only was he making excuses, he had others making them for him.

 

[Reid1boys]

Any player/person that does not reach their potential because of their own self imposed shortcomings is a disappointment. And any player that walks off on his team will always be a disappointment to me. There are just somethings I don't overlook and he became my least favorite Cowboy after that.

I look at these marginally talented players, always worried they're on the bubble and they know they do not have the natural talent of others they're competing with yet they push it to the very limit.

I look at a player like Amendola, he's on his 6th team. He's 5'11" and ran a 4.58 and he's been fighting to keep his NFL career going by following every bit of coaching advice and just joined his 6th team. Then I look at a guy like Bryant with natural ability but if I want to really look at the contrast, I look at the guy compared to Bryant at OSU, Justin Blackmon.

One guy was "raised" by a crackwhore and the other by two really good and attentive parents. One was predicted to have an iffy future and the other was predicted for greatness. And they got it exactly wrong. The guy with even more natural talent threw it all away.

That's why Bill Bates is one of the most beloved Cowboys of all time. He was the Cowboys' Rudy. So strong was his desire and drive to make it in the NFL, he took the only position available to him in order to make the team and single handedly turned that into a Pro Bowl position. Steve Tasker said without what Bill did, he would have never attended a PB.

I do not admire people with natural talent because they did nothing to earn that. But someone that pushes that talent to it's limit like Emmitt Smith or Jerry Rice, yep, something really special about them.

My daughter follows Dez on Instagram.... that guy busts his ***. Look at his workouts and then come back to me and tell me he did nothing to get where he was. Do you live with him? Were you at practices everyday? The guy was a great athlete... but there arelots of great athletes that never sniff the NFL. Perceptions are amazing, and often time not founded in reality. Dez Bryant exceeded expectations when he was drafted... well, unless you expect every 1st rd WR to become the teams all time leader in rec. touchdowns. We can only pray every first rd pick the cowboys makes has the career Dez Bryant had with us.

Dez downturn just coincided with a qbs downturn... not unlike Thomas in Denver, or most WRs when the starting QB goes down. Antonio Brown wouldnt have made a pop warner team with the numbers he had when Ben got hurt.