Chocolate Lab
Run-loving Dino
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Thanks to shnagy posting the Hulu links to all the Cowboys vids, I watched all the 2002 Hard Knocks shows. Hey, it's the boring offseason, and I needed a laugh. But honestly, seeing the bad ol' days before we made so much progress the last several years was more interesting than I thought it would be. Some random thoughts:
-- The Roy Williams trade down really was great, picking up an extra 3rd that became Derek Ross. Jerry does plenty of things wrong, but he's really good at handling draft day trades IMO. I'm talking about the actual mechanics of it -- staying calm while working the phones, etc.
-- Campo, Campo, Campo. He tried so hard. But he was being upstaged by Jerry even at the opening party at his own house. It's possible to admit that Jerry is the boss without being totally punked by him, but Campo never got that.
-- I actually forgot that Rocket Ismail started out the year on that team. He and Galloway would've been pretty good... Not that they had a QB to get them the ball.
-- There were really a lot of good coaches on that team: Campo (as a position coach I mean, NOT as a head coach), Zimmer, Avezzano, Wes Chandler (tough guy who looked like he could still play and whup half the players on the team), and more. I mean, Clancy Pendergast, who is a highly-regarded coach in the league now, was our secondary coach.
-- The problem was, they had no leadership. Campo was sort of a first among equals in the whole bunch, but they'd all give their opinions on players and it just sort of went into thin air... No one acted on the ideas except maybe Jerry. And Jerry was far more up front as the leader of the whole bunch in meetings than he is now. People say now that Wade is only the DC and Jerry is really the HC of the current team, but at least in the most recent Hard Knocks, Wade sat at the head of the table and the position coaches reported on the players to him. With Campo, Jerry sat at the head of the table and the coaches talked to him as much or more than the real head coach. Campo just kind of sat there and chipped in just like the position coaches did.
-- Speaking of coaches, I know this is a very unpopular opinion and I'll get blasted for it, but I still think Coslet was a pretty good coach and knew what he was doing. Yes, we sucked that year in his very first year with crappy players and his O-line coach was way too green, but he'd had top offenses before and had been a HC at two other places. IMO he could recognize that some guys just weren't football players better than some of the other coaches back then because he had the experience from all those years and different places in the league. For instance, he constantly complained about Randal Williams and Deveron Johnson while others were making excuses for them.
-- Speaking of DJ, I can't believe we wasted a 5th round pick on a guy like Deveron Johnson who was from a tiny school and said on camera that basketball was his real passion. Just a complete joke of a draft choice.
-- And speaking of the failed WRs, I thought it was interesting that Tom Ciskowski was one of the few who seemed very skeptical of Randal "4.04" Williams. Tom C said he could run fast and might be fine on special teams, but he doubted he'd ever be a good route runner. Funny too that there was a shot of Jeff Ireland sort of glowing about one of these projects who couldn't play... Can't remember who it was now. And Jim Garrett was still a scout on that staff and was pumping up Randal just like he later did Todd Lowber.
-- Hutchinson and Quincy. What can you say.
-- For everyone who still thinks coaching is about screaming and yelling and cussing and hitting, Campo did tons of that. He was constantly telling them they needed to pick it up, telling them their performance was unacceptable, screaming and ranting about this or that. And they hit a lot and did a lot of live drills -- but they also had tons of injuries.
-- Yeah, the time clock scene is still priceless. And I'd forgot that Campo started it out by ranting, "Who here thinks that after (x number of) high schools, (x number of) colleges, ten years in the NFL, and three Super Bowls, I don't know how to win?!? Well I guess (players x, y, and z) don't because they didn't punch in this morning!!!"
-- Those players were so bad. So bad! And what's worse, the powers that be didn't even realize it. There was a scene where Jerry was telling someone that the O-line was the strongest he'd seen it in years, and even claimed something to the effect of, "If Coslet thinks he's seen a better group than this offensive line, I'd like to know who it was." Coslet coached Anthony Munoz, for crying out loud! And we had a bunch of nobody losers like Solomon Page. As it turned out, that was the worst line we've had and maybe the NFL has seen in a decade.
-- It's easy to forget that Roy Williams really was a stud when he started out. Even looking back at this, he was a dominant player in the making. The problem was that he didn't love the game (he even mentioned in this how he really went gaga over singers and actors) and just wasn't smart enough to succeed once the game wasn't easy for him.
-- Looking back on this, you'd think Pete Hunter would be Deion Sanders by now. Sigh.
-- I'm not the first to say it, but Emmitt was such a jerk. It was so evident that he thought he was the king out there and most of these other peon players, and training camp in general, were there to amuse him until the season started. He cared about Emmitt and Emmitt's record at this point, and that was it. At one point he screwed up four out of five assignments in practice and just laughed about it.
-- As bad as that team was, this was still a fun show to watch because NFL Films did such a good job with it.
-- The Roy Williams trade down really was great, picking up an extra 3rd that became Derek Ross. Jerry does plenty of things wrong, but he's really good at handling draft day trades IMO. I'm talking about the actual mechanics of it -- staying calm while working the phones, etc.
-- Campo, Campo, Campo. He tried so hard. But he was being upstaged by Jerry even at the opening party at his own house. It's possible to admit that Jerry is the boss without being totally punked by him, but Campo never got that.
-- I actually forgot that Rocket Ismail started out the year on that team. He and Galloway would've been pretty good... Not that they had a QB to get them the ball.
-- There were really a lot of good coaches on that team: Campo (as a position coach I mean, NOT as a head coach), Zimmer, Avezzano, Wes Chandler (tough guy who looked like he could still play and whup half the players on the team), and more. I mean, Clancy Pendergast, who is a highly-regarded coach in the league now, was our secondary coach.
-- The problem was, they had no leadership. Campo was sort of a first among equals in the whole bunch, but they'd all give their opinions on players and it just sort of went into thin air... No one acted on the ideas except maybe Jerry. And Jerry was far more up front as the leader of the whole bunch in meetings than he is now. People say now that Wade is only the DC and Jerry is really the HC of the current team, but at least in the most recent Hard Knocks, Wade sat at the head of the table and the position coaches reported on the players to him. With Campo, Jerry sat at the head of the table and the coaches talked to him as much or more than the real head coach. Campo just kind of sat there and chipped in just like the position coaches did.
-- Speaking of coaches, I know this is a very unpopular opinion and I'll get blasted for it, but I still think Coslet was a pretty good coach and knew what he was doing. Yes, we sucked that year in his very first year with crappy players and his O-line coach was way too green, but he'd had top offenses before and had been a HC at two other places. IMO he could recognize that some guys just weren't football players better than some of the other coaches back then because he had the experience from all those years and different places in the league. For instance, he constantly complained about Randal Williams and Deveron Johnson while others were making excuses for them.
-- Speaking of DJ, I can't believe we wasted a 5th round pick on a guy like Deveron Johnson who was from a tiny school and said on camera that basketball was his real passion. Just a complete joke of a draft choice.
-- And speaking of the failed WRs, I thought it was interesting that Tom Ciskowski was one of the few who seemed very skeptical of Randal "4.04" Williams. Tom C said he could run fast and might be fine on special teams, but he doubted he'd ever be a good route runner. Funny too that there was a shot of Jeff Ireland sort of glowing about one of these projects who couldn't play... Can't remember who it was now. And Jim Garrett was still a scout on that staff and was pumping up Randal just like he later did Todd Lowber.
-- Hutchinson and Quincy. What can you say.
-- For everyone who still thinks coaching is about screaming and yelling and cussing and hitting, Campo did tons of that. He was constantly telling them they needed to pick it up, telling them their performance was unacceptable, screaming and ranting about this or that. And they hit a lot and did a lot of live drills -- but they also had tons of injuries.
-- Yeah, the time clock scene is still priceless. And I'd forgot that Campo started it out by ranting, "Who here thinks that after (x number of) high schools, (x number of) colleges, ten years in the NFL, and three Super Bowls, I don't know how to win?!? Well I guess (players x, y, and z) don't because they didn't punch in this morning!!!"
-- Those players were so bad. So bad! And what's worse, the powers that be didn't even realize it. There was a scene where Jerry was telling someone that the O-line was the strongest he'd seen it in years, and even claimed something to the effect of, "If Coslet thinks he's seen a better group than this offensive line, I'd like to know who it was." Coslet coached Anthony Munoz, for crying out loud! And we had a bunch of nobody losers like Solomon Page. As it turned out, that was the worst line we've had and maybe the NFL has seen in a decade.
-- It's easy to forget that Roy Williams really was a stud when he started out. Even looking back at this, he was a dominant player in the making. The problem was that he didn't love the game (he even mentioned in this how he really went gaga over singers and actors) and just wasn't smart enough to succeed once the game wasn't easy for him.
-- Looking back on this, you'd think Pete Hunter would be Deion Sanders by now. Sigh.
-- I'm not the first to say it, but Emmitt was such a jerk. It was so evident that he thought he was the king out there and most of these other peon players, and training camp in general, were there to amuse him until the season started. He cared about Emmitt and Emmitt's record at this point, and that was it. At one point he screwed up four out of five assignments in practice and just laughed about it.
-- As bad as that team was, this was still a fun show to watch because NFL Films did such a good job with it.
Yet they handed us a loss in their first ever game in history.
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