sjordan6
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IRVING, Texas - It doesn't matter to Bill how they get here. It only matters that they get here. Sometimes they agree, sometimes not.
I'm guessing Marc Colombo agrees.
Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells can explain away a failed draft choice by pointing out it's balanced if you get a free agent from the street who turns into a player. The general manager who has to account for a high pick who didn't make it and took his big bonus home with him may not agree.
But Monday night, when the Cowboys line up against the powerful New York Giants in a big early-season match-up at Texas Stadium, no one will mind that it's not Jacob Rogers hunkering down in his three-point stance against the Giants' great pass-rushers. Everyone will feel good about it being Marc Colombo who takes that stance. And that's one of the amazing stories that pro football offers up from time to time.
The just-turned-28 Colombo was supposed to be a good NFL player. That's why the Chicago Bears spent the 29th pick in the 2002 draft to select him from Boston College.
But for many, the knee injury that finished the big man's rookie season would have been the end. Goodness knows it was infinitely more severe than the comparatively mild assortment of pinpricks that finished Rogers, drafted in the second round by Dallas in '04 to do the job Colombo is now doing.
You've had dozens of opportunities to read about the litany of people the Cowboys have employed in a vain attempt to replace Troy Aikman at quarterback since the end of the 2000 season. That was also the last year Erik Williams manned the right tackle post at Valley Ranch.
Since then, in the five years prior to this one, the Cowboys' right tackles have included Solomon Page, Javier Collins, Ryan Young, Kurt Vollers, Torrin Tucker and Rob Petitti.
Not exactly Rayfield Wright or Ralph Neely.
All that is why Marc Colombo was signed by Dallas off the street almost a year ago, on Nov. 1. This was done with now in mind, not then.
"I told him right from the start," Parcells recalled Monday, "we're concerned about a year from right now. Not now, a year from now. You know this kid lives in the weight room. He's a gym rat. When we got him he hadn't played in three years. The nature of his injury was such that he couldn't really lift weights. But his hard work is paying off. He tries hard, and he fights to overcome his limitations."
A little history review lends appreciation for what Colombo has done already. The Bears' first-round pick in '02 made his first start, at left tackle, in Week 6 of that year. After five starts, about a week before Thanksgiving, in St. Louis, Colombo dislocated his left kneecap and suffered femoral nerve damage. He missed the rest of that season, all of '03 and the first half of '04. The Bears released him after last year's opener, and he was out of a football job until Dallas signed him in November.
Parcells and Colombo give a good deal of the credit for the resurrection of a career to Cowboys' strength and conditioning coach Joe Juraszek. Juraszek turns it right back around to Colombo.
"We had to develop a circle of trust, because he had a long way to go," Juraszek recalls. "There was a lot more damage in that knee than a lot of people know. The nerve damage just robbed him of any strength, and then he had to battle the ego problem of being in the weight room and not being able to do anything. But he was there every day, doing everything we asked. At first he had so little strength in that leg he couldn't jump up on a four-inch box. When he finally got to where he was jumping up on a box, he was like a kid at Christmas."
The work ethic wasn't lost on his teammates. Guard Marco Rivera recalls telling offensive line coach Tony Sparano during the spring that the Cowboys might have something. "I mean, the guy is in the weight room every day at 6:30 a.m.," Rivera marveled. "He did extra lifting, extra running, he always did more than he was asked."
As you might expect, Colombo, a bright young man who has his degree from Boston College, is grateful about his second chance. "It feels great," he was saying following last week's win over Houston. "This is a true blessing. I fought very hard to get back here, and now I just want to help my team."
Colombo is already doing that by making people forget he's out there. "I know how well he's doing," says quarterback Drew Bledsoe, "because when I watch our offensive film, his guy doesn't get noticed much. I just don't worry about him."
There is also something a lot of us still don't know about Marc Colombo. We know that he is tall and smart and hard-working. Apparently he is also tough to the point of being nasty, a trait much sought-after in offensive tackles.
"Colombo?" defensive end Chris Canty repeats. "He is nasty, now. He wants to mess up the guy in front of him."
"Kick-*** attitude," reports Bledsoe. "I knew we were on to something the first week of training camp. We had three or four fights, and he was in two of them."
"If you tear his left arm off," offers Rivera, "he'll try to beat you with it."
OK, too much information, but we're starting to get the picture.
This is a good time for the Cowboys not to be worried about a tackle. The next couple of games offer Michael Strahan from the Giants and Carolina's Julius Peppers. They've been known to send tackles into a collective shell, and take the quarterback with them.
You never know how these things work out. The year Colombo was the 29th pick in the draft, Buffalo took Texas' Mike Williams fourth overall. He's now on his second team, and injured reserve, and he hasn't played like the fourth pick. On the other hand, while the Bears were drafting Colombo in round one, the Eagles were finding Brian Westbrook and Michael Lewis and Sheldon Brown in round two. The Steelers were drafting Antwaan Randle-El and the Broncos, Clinton Portis.
Colombo is signed through this season, but at this rate you'd think the Cowboys would want to keep him. And it sounds like he feels like he's found a football home.
"I do," he says directly. "This is an unbelievable football city. This team took a chance on me, and I hope it keeps paying off." It's not where you start, after all, it's where you finish. The Cowboys and Marc Colombo both hope he's not finished yet.
If only we didnt notice Flozell so much!
I'm guessing Marc Colombo agrees.
Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells can explain away a failed draft choice by pointing out it's balanced if you get a free agent from the street who turns into a player. The general manager who has to account for a high pick who didn't make it and took his big bonus home with him may not agree.
But Monday night, when the Cowboys line up against the powerful New York Giants in a big early-season match-up at Texas Stadium, no one will mind that it's not Jacob Rogers hunkering down in his three-point stance against the Giants' great pass-rushers. Everyone will feel good about it being Marc Colombo who takes that stance. And that's one of the amazing stories that pro football offers up from time to time.
The just-turned-28 Colombo was supposed to be a good NFL player. That's why the Chicago Bears spent the 29th pick in the 2002 draft to select him from Boston College.
But for many, the knee injury that finished the big man's rookie season would have been the end. Goodness knows it was infinitely more severe than the comparatively mild assortment of pinpricks that finished Rogers, drafted in the second round by Dallas in '04 to do the job Colombo is now doing.
You've had dozens of opportunities to read about the litany of people the Cowboys have employed in a vain attempt to replace Troy Aikman at quarterback since the end of the 2000 season. That was also the last year Erik Williams manned the right tackle post at Valley Ranch.
Since then, in the five years prior to this one, the Cowboys' right tackles have included Solomon Page, Javier Collins, Ryan Young, Kurt Vollers, Torrin Tucker and Rob Petitti.
Not exactly Rayfield Wright or Ralph Neely.
All that is why Marc Colombo was signed by Dallas off the street almost a year ago, on Nov. 1. This was done with now in mind, not then.
"I told him right from the start," Parcells recalled Monday, "we're concerned about a year from right now. Not now, a year from now. You know this kid lives in the weight room. He's a gym rat. When we got him he hadn't played in three years. The nature of his injury was such that he couldn't really lift weights. But his hard work is paying off. He tries hard, and he fights to overcome his limitations."
A little history review lends appreciation for what Colombo has done already. The Bears' first-round pick in '02 made his first start, at left tackle, in Week 6 of that year. After five starts, about a week before Thanksgiving, in St. Louis, Colombo dislocated his left kneecap and suffered femoral nerve damage. He missed the rest of that season, all of '03 and the first half of '04. The Bears released him after last year's opener, and he was out of a football job until Dallas signed him in November.
Parcells and Colombo give a good deal of the credit for the resurrection of a career to Cowboys' strength and conditioning coach Joe Juraszek. Juraszek turns it right back around to Colombo.
"We had to develop a circle of trust, because he had a long way to go," Juraszek recalls. "There was a lot more damage in that knee than a lot of people know. The nerve damage just robbed him of any strength, and then he had to battle the ego problem of being in the weight room and not being able to do anything. But he was there every day, doing everything we asked. At first he had so little strength in that leg he couldn't jump up on a four-inch box. When he finally got to where he was jumping up on a box, he was like a kid at Christmas."
The work ethic wasn't lost on his teammates. Guard Marco Rivera recalls telling offensive line coach Tony Sparano during the spring that the Cowboys might have something. "I mean, the guy is in the weight room every day at 6:30 a.m.," Rivera marveled. "He did extra lifting, extra running, he always did more than he was asked."
As you might expect, Colombo, a bright young man who has his degree from Boston College, is grateful about his second chance. "It feels great," he was saying following last week's win over Houston. "This is a true blessing. I fought very hard to get back here, and now I just want to help my team."
Colombo is already doing that by making people forget he's out there. "I know how well he's doing," says quarterback Drew Bledsoe, "because when I watch our offensive film, his guy doesn't get noticed much. I just don't worry about him."
There is also something a lot of us still don't know about Marc Colombo. We know that he is tall and smart and hard-working. Apparently he is also tough to the point of being nasty, a trait much sought-after in offensive tackles.
"Colombo?" defensive end Chris Canty repeats. "He is nasty, now. He wants to mess up the guy in front of him."
"Kick-*** attitude," reports Bledsoe. "I knew we were on to something the first week of training camp. We had three or four fights, and he was in two of them."
"If you tear his left arm off," offers Rivera, "he'll try to beat you with it."
OK, too much information, but we're starting to get the picture.
This is a good time for the Cowboys not to be worried about a tackle. The next couple of games offer Michael Strahan from the Giants and Carolina's Julius Peppers. They've been known to send tackles into a collective shell, and take the quarterback with them.
You never know how these things work out. The year Colombo was the 29th pick in the draft, Buffalo took Texas' Mike Williams fourth overall. He's now on his second team, and injured reserve, and he hasn't played like the fourth pick. On the other hand, while the Bears were drafting Colombo in round one, the Eagles were finding Brian Westbrook and Michael Lewis and Sheldon Brown in round two. The Steelers were drafting Antwaan Randle-El and the Broncos, Clinton Portis.
Colombo is signed through this season, but at this rate you'd think the Cowboys would want to keep him. And it sounds like he feels like he's found a football home.
"I do," he says directly. "This is an unbelievable football city. This team took a chance on me, and I hope it keeps paying off." It's not where you start, after all, it's where you finish. The Cowboys and Marc Colombo both hope he's not finished yet.
If only we didnt notice Flozell so much!
