Judgment Sunday in the NFL...

I was really excited about watching the NFL games today. Coming into week 17, there were so many different scenarios that could get various teams into the playoffs. I've always rooted for the Cowboys growing up, which could be expected since I grew up here. Lately though, the organization has just made me sick. They always take chances on troubled players who cannot seem to keep themselves away from legal trouble or have just torn other teams apart (see "the player" under Bill Parcells' English Dictionary). Today, incidently, one of those players, Adam "Pacman" Jones, played a major role in the complete meltdown of a team that was dubbed a Super Bowl favorite before the season started.

In the past few years, I've gotten pretty heavy into fantasy football. In doing so, I have tried to make sure (3 years running now) to get Eagles' RB Brian Westbrook onto my roster. Last year in a big fantasy matchup, the Eagles were playing the Cowboys. I had Westbrook as well as Romo on my roster. I was down by a few points and so was Dallas at the time. The Eagles were driving late in the 4th quarter. At this point in the fantasy contest, I needed a Westbrook touchdown and then to have Romo throw for a good chunk of yards when the Cowboys got the ball back. Westbrook got a handoff at about the 30 yardline and broke into the open. The 2 minute warning had just passed and the Cowboys had no timeouts. I lept into the air with excitement as the path between Westbrook at the endzone was completely clear. Imagine my surprise when Westbrook decelerated rapidly inside the 5 yardline and slid down at the 1. There aren't many, if any players in the NFL that would pass up a touchdown to guarantee a victory but since Philadelphia was ahead, Westbrook knew the Cowboys had no timeouts and could no longer stop the clock. The Eagles downed the ball to run the clock out, and I shared the loss with the Cowboys. The selfless act by Westbrook made me develop a whole new respect for him. He's a team player; the kind of player that the Cowboys lack.

In my appreciation for Westbrook over the past few years, I have also started to really enjoy watching Donovan McNabb play, too. He's been on my fantasy team 3 out of the last 4 years, too. It wouldn't be accurate to label myself an Eagles' fan, but I do root for them to do well.

Coming into today, they had long odds against them to get in the playoffs. They found themselves in the odd situation earlier this year of accumulating a tie into their record, which helped them to their 8-6-1 record coming into today. With the tie factoring in, if they were to even up wins with anyone, they would take the tiebreaker because they had less losses than the team they would be tied with.

That being said, they were behind 4 different 9-6 teams for the last wild card spot. The Vikings and the Bears were both 9-6 but since one of them would be the winner of their division, they did not factor into the wild card mix. The Vikings ended up beating the Giants to win the NFC North Division. The Eagles then needed Chicago to lose at Houston and for Oakland (one of the worst teams in the NFL) to go into Tampa Bay and win, even though they were a 13 point underdog going in. Even with all those unlikely scenarios to play out, the Eagles would still have to beat the Cowboys, too. With all those games going on in the early session (12 PM kickoffs), we would know by Cowboys/Eagles kickoff how much the game was going to mean.

The Cowboys scenario was simple; if they won, they were in. It was just a matter of wheather the Eagles would be playing for anything. The Eagles and the crazy Philadelphia crowd learned the outcomes of the other games and knew there was still a shot they could score a playoff berth.

I told Jessica earlier in the day that I just wanted all the situations to play out so that the Eagles/Cowboys game would actually mean something for both teams. That was one of my wishes; the other one being that the game would be a good one. My 2nd wish fell through with a huge crash.

The Eagles looked absolutely dominant on defense, causing 6 straight Dallas turnovers at one point. It was really sad to watch after a while. Even when the Cowboys got momentum and drove down into the red zone (inside the 20 for casual football viewers), Marion Barber fumbled and the Eagles ran it back for a touchdown.

It was an unbelievable debacle for all Cowboys fans for sure. Here's what should make it worse, though:

A year ago, the Miami Dolphins were the worst team in football with a 1-15 record. Bill Parcells, the former Cowboy coach who fans said "good riddance" to, took over as their General Manager in the offseason. He hired away the Cowboys offensive line coach and Assistant Head Coach in Tony Sparano to take over as Head Coach for the Dolphins.

At this point, the Cowboys were in need of an offensive line coach. Where better to hire that person from than the 1-15 Miami Dolphins? Interesting, I say.

Well here we are today with the Cowboys on the outside looking in on the playoff picture. What ever happened to the Dolphins anyway?

Oh, they beat the New York Jets today, led by Brett Favre, to take their record to 11-5 and win the AFC East Division championship, edging both the Jets and the New England Patriots for the playoff spot.

Here's my take on the state of the Cowboys: As long as Jerry Jones is multi-tasking as Owner, Team President and General Manager, Dallas fans should expect disappointment to continue. He lets the good coaches get away (Jimmy Johnson, Sean Payton, Tony Sparano & Bill Parcells) and hires puppets like Wade Phillips, Chan Gailey and Dave Campo, so he can run the show behind the scenes.

It really is a shame to see such a talented group of players not live up to potential but when teams lack leadership, it will always happen.