AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT: A Voice In Support of A Philosphy

There are no ethics in the NFL, and why should there be?

Every NFL team, from the players to the coaching staff to the front office has an obligation to win. At all costs.

The Seattle Seahawks and their head coach Pete Carroll have recently come under fire, stemming from their decision to fake a punt with less than five minutes to go in the fourth quarter of a game in which they led by three touchdowns. The game, which was played last Thursday night, saw the Seahawks ultimately complete their rout of the Los Angeles Rams 24-3, as the outcome was never in question.

Another Thursday Night Football game, another blowout.

At first, there was consideration from this scribe that this maneuver may have seemed a trite bush-league. I mean come on, faking a punt up 21 points! It even sounds funny.* However, "upon further review" it dawned that this is nothing new. More importantly, it may even be something to be lauded, if not appreciated.

A few seasons ago, 2007 to be exact, during their undefeated, record-setting, record-breaking run to the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots under the stewardship of their incomparable head coach Bill Belichick, continually and routinely, almost as if in their sleep, ran the score up on their opponent from week to week. Some of the outcomes were closer than others. The majority being blow-outs on the scoreboard, but the message was clear: This is a professional league. Players get paid to perform. ALL. THE. TIME. There is never a moment to take a play off. There are only so many possessions and plays within those possessions to be treasured with the utmost respect. For at any time, the game, and the momentum it totes so carefully, can shift.

There have been games in which teams trailing by three touchdowns have overcome such a deficit. The instances are many, albeit far and few between, to provide evidence of such, but rest assured it does occur. Opposing teams have scored three touchdowns in less than two minutes as well; similar to what took place between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers a month ago when both teams traded back-to-back-to back touchdowns, the Cowboys being the one to fall on the right side of the coin in that affair. So the game can change, and the tempo and momentum can increase at any point in time in a game, and it is there which lies the reason as to why teams should never take their foot of the gas, take their foot off the throat, take their foot out the...well, you get the point. So for Carroll to take the friendlier (read: less aggressive) approach with about five minutes left in the game it would be the football equivalent of sacrilege. The football gods are watching. Always watching.

There are various other instances where the supposedly improbable suddenly became probable. This is why coaches like Belichick and Carroll (who themselves are from the Bill Parcells School of Coaching) do what they do. They are not putting their destiny and fate in the hands of anyone else but their own. They get paid to win, not to make sure that the other team is feeling good about themselves.

Yes ethics and morals do matter...in all walks of life. Yet, as is the case with most things, there is a time and a place for everything. The football field is not one of them.


* Not that it was funny, but the punter, Jon Ryan, who faked the punt, after a gain of 26 yards on the play was concussed on the ensuing hit. Imagine that. You fake a punt up 21 points and get your punter knocked out. It provided a measure of hilarity to the whole situation. For the Los Angeles Rams it provided a measure of retribution to the fake.

One Rule To Rule Them All

When it comes to certain things in life and the approach with respect to how those things are formulated, there is usually one rule. And whatever it is, that rule, once agreed up, supercedes all other rules below it. Everything delineates from that point forward. Take the science of math for instance. Within this science are hard and fastened rules from which all answers and outcomes flow. We know that when you add a negative to a positive you get a negative. Or that  prime numbers are... These are the rules and they govern the empirical process for how things get answered, discovered, or for this particular case, built.

The Dallas Cowboys are facing one such conundrum in the form of a top-five pick (#4 to be exact) in this year's incarnation of the NFL Draft. A team with the potential to compete for the ultimate crown next season, but beset with a myriad of holes to fill in order to make that novelty a reality, the Cowboys are in dire need of creating that one rule for themselves which will supercede all, as they approach the best way to check-off everything on their shopping list.

Should they draft the quarterback they so desperately need as evidenced by last season's debacle? Should they go after the sexy speed rusher at the DE position that has long been a need since they let loose Demarcus Ware a few seasons ago to free-agency as a cap casualty? Or do they address a porous secondary by grabbing a dynamic cover man to A)-Finally get the DB they so desperately need and B)-Possibly select just the best overall talent available in the draft, and at that #4 pick (providing that they do hold onto their current position). Option B obviously serving as the final rule on the list: Drafting the best talent period.

Looking at each scenario based upon each rule for that scenario can and will yield something interesting, no matter the approach. If they decide to go after a quarterback they will choose whomever they feel is the best (or best available) and look for their DE, DB, and WR or RB (they need one of those too) with their subsequent picks. If they decide that an edge rusher is the more pressing concern for the success of defensive-coordinator's Rod Marinelli's defense then they will start there and find their QB and WR later on as well. And finally, if they decide to go with the best player, regardless of need or position, then that is what they will do and the remaining selections which the Cowboys front office will make at that point in time will be evidence of them going in that particular direction, fundamentally speaking. In fact with each approach by the rule that is being adhered to, the evidence of those picks will become to make obvious just which rule the Dallas Cowboys believed in at that time.

So, if Joey Bosa is called you know which rule is in place. If Carson Wentz or Jared Goff are called we know which rule is being employed. And if a player like Jalen Ramsey is selected , a talent which can take care of a few needs in one (best player/DB), then it becomes evident once more just which way the 'Boys are headed. And that is hopefully to the top.

WHERE WE ARE

The beauty of where you are is the ability to look back and see where you were. Only two seasons ago the Cowboys were one Dez Bryant catch away from possibly going to the Super Bowl. One season later they decided against bringing back one-third of their formidable trio of Tony Romo, DeMarco Murray, and Bryant when they chose not to re-sign the aforementioned Murray. A decision which may or may not have come back to haunt them in the form of Romo's left shoulder injury suffered in Week 2, on a play which could have involved the sorely missed running back by the possibility of Murray making a block on the defender who subsequently injured Romo, after a botched blocking assignment by Murray's replacement Joseph Randle, or even the remote possibility that if Murray was there that day that they Cowboys call a running play for him, thus avoiding the Romo injury altogether, and although this is pure speculation and conjecture, it still stands as a possible outcome had Murray still been there.

However everything happens for a reason, and the reason stands in this case that although last year may have seemingly been a lost season (for various reasons as previously discussed), it may have provided the answer for the problem that last season created (and for the forseeable future): the need for a quality, starting-caliber quarterback. Romo's absence and his understudies own version of absence, even while competing on the field, point to a glaring weakness which can be strengthened immediately in this spring's NFL Draft. Whether it be any of the two outstanding prospects currently seated at the top tier of the NFL wish list for teams without quarterbacks, Jared Goff or Carson Wentz, the Cowboys must seriously consider taking one of the two with the pick they currently own at the fourth spot.

Considering their abysmal 1-11 record during Romo's absence, defense and special teams notwithstanding, this was the season of the absent and missed quarterback for the Cowboys. That said, the Cowboys ought not be absent of mind and miss out on the opportunity to draft their next Roger Staubach or Troy Aikman. Heck even, their next Tony Romo. Romo like his idol Favre, could tutor another Cal stud in Goff, similar to the way Favre did for Aaron Rodgers, and we all know how that worked out. The Cowboys owe it to themselves to get the most important position on the field filled. A position which showed and proved to them to be the flash-point for everything they did (and did not do) last season. If the Cowboys are looking forward to something in this year's draft, they need only to look backward at last season.

He Giveth & He Taketh Away: The Story of Tony Romo

"That's my teammate. That's my quarterback..."-Terrell Owens

With a little less than two minutes left and facing a 2nd & 16 from inside his own 20, Tony Romo stood 86 yards away from a date with destiny. The opportunity for victory over the undefeated, Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos and the possibility of having his name etched in the annals of NFL greatness lay within his grasp. And in the end it would be fate who kept that date, destiny running off into the Texas sunset with Manning, another notch on a belt that needs none.

Such is the case when Romo has had these types of game-defining, legacy-defining situations in his hands since talking over for the Dallas Cowboys midway through the 2006 season, and it is his belt that could use a notch or two of wins of great magnitude. Instead losses of great magnitude and the questions that accompany have become part of Romo's wardrobe, and yet it is this accessory which he would like to hang up for once and all, as failing to come through when it counts most these days is so out of style.

This failure, this withering in the presence of pressure, has become the constant essence of Romo in critical situations. You don't have to be even the most knowledgable football fan to have an opinion, usually of the disparaging variety, on him. Most pedestrians know of his epic failures (That still is what the kids are calling those these days, right?) in great detail and can rattle off game after game, play upon play, moments in when he has been true to his ability to be shortcoming. Regular season games with playoff implications, playoff games with championship aspirations, whether his performance suffered for an entire game or at a crucial time and place within the game itself, you name it he has done it. Well, actually he has not. You get the point.

Those occasions could be listed here, but there is neither the time nor the space for them to be eulogized here. And, after taking stock of 

everything. After listening to the naysayers, after digesting enough anti-Romo rhetoric to make one sick and tired of digesting enough anti-Romo rhetoric it comes time to support and defend the guy who makes the possibility of winning on Sunday for the Cowboys a reality. Without running the risk of ssounding like Terrell Owens, circa 2007, "I LOVE MY QUARTERBACK! THAT'S MY QUARTERBACK!" 

If you have seen all that I have seen from #9 over time then you know whereof I speak.  If you are aware that he is the quarterback who both Bill Parcells and Sean Payton (Super Bowl winning coaches themselves) believed him to be then you know why I believe in Romo. He is the keeper of the gate; the one who holds the key to the Cowboys return to the promised land. He is my quarterback. 

Half the teams in the NFL would love to have Tony Romo at the helm of their respective teams don't let them fool you. He can play any time, any where, against any one. He's as tough as nails, cracked ribs and all. He spins out and into and out again from trouble all the time. He throws the throws that the Rogers' and the Brees' throw, although he has yet to throw his team the ultimate bone that those two quarterbacks have thrown their's by winning Lombardi trophies. He can be a wizard and a dunce (seemingly) all in one game, this recent game no exception. Truly though, which quarterback has not played that role as well at some point in their career, whether or not it was an extremely fruitful or extremely middling campaign? This is what life is for an NFL quarterback, and this is what life is like for a Dallas Cowboys quarterback.

This will always be Tony Romo's legacy until he changes it and, for every quarterback that has played the game, whether it be Steve Young trying to emerge from Joe Montana's long shadow, or John Elway trying to erase memories of earlier failures on the grandest of stages, the Super Bowl (XXI, XXII, XXIV to be exact), the script was the same for them as well. Not to compare, because Young never faltered, but only needed a chance to play, and Elway although a three-time Super Bowl loser himself, will always be remembered as a winner in Denver for aligning himself with a running back and a coach that could provide him that opportunity to change his legacy, but this is the same movie. Only difference is that Romo is in the lead role now. He gets scrutinized as much for where he plays, as for how he plays. This is how it is and how it will be until he comes through in the clutch for a change. When it's all said and done he will probably own all the passing records in Dallas Cowboys history, and that is saying a whole lot when you consider it contains heroes such as Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman in it's midst. Will he have their rings; rings such as they own when all is said and done? This is the truest measure of greatness is it not? For this is it how it is for Romo. A question which remains in search of answer.

So there was Tony Romo again this past Sunday in Dallas searching for an answer. A raucous AT&T Stadium home crowd bellowing it's approval of his performance for all of the prior 58 minutes of this searingly-contested battle against a team whom most have picked to win the Super Bowl. It may not have been the playoffs, and as of right now it is a game of no importance with regards to determining making the playoffs (although every game matters immensely in this league), but the opportunity for a defining moment nonetheless awaited Romo; for him and his team, for him and his legacy.

The opportunity of passing Norm Van Brocklin's single game passing record of 554 yards and putting his name in record books amongst the greatest passers of all time would become an opportunity not be capitalized upon.* (Romo would finish with 506 yards for the game, a stellar feat no matter the outcome). The opportunity to beat a team that 16 straight opponents have laid down for, the opportunity for a win that could propel this team to heights only imagined would once again be a possibility not realized. A dream deferred if you will. This is the reality that is Tony Romo, a dream that remains beautiful till awoken. One day this dream will continue when awoken, and Romo will finally answer it. It is a dream I too share. For he is my quarterback.

* Although winning a game is more important than breaking a record, I point this out because the Cowboys were at their 14-yard line, after a sack of Romo on 1st down, and if they were to win the game whether via field goal or touchdown, they would have to at the very least reach the Broncos' 35-yard line in order to attempt a FG. This means they would have had to matriculate the ball at least 50 more yards, Romo only needed 48 more yards to tie the record. Not to say they would have attempted to gain all of those yards via the pass, but who knows. They way which Romo was passing and the manner in which Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, and Terrance Willaims were receiving that day who's to say they would not have broken-off another big play or two down the field to help their teammate, their quarterback?