Hard hat days and honky-tonk nights

Here at Week 11 of a 16 week season of the 2010 NFL season and for the first time this last Wednesday the Dallas Cowboys practiced with full pads according to Rowan Kavner, staff writer for the Dallas Cowboys. What? What is wrong with this picture? They were sitting at a 1-7 record and off to their worse start since 1989. This Dallas Cowboy's team is on it's way to an early round selection in the 2011 NFL draft. I can hear Roger Goodall, "with the 4th pick in the NFL Draft, the Dallas Cowboys select ....." We will have to pick that up at another time. Comparing the 1989 team with the 2010 is not right, right? This past week Jason Garrett is trying to instill hard working values in a team use to having a domino break after lunch.

The Dallas "Urban" Cowboys are a tough team to evaluate. This team managed to win a playoff game last year against Philadelphia. This playoff win was the first playoff win for Dallas in thirteen years. The "Urban" Cowboys managed to look good in one playoff game and they were given 2010's title. In Urban Cowboy, staring John Travolta as Bud and Sissy played by Debra Winger. Sissy approaches Bud to question if he is a real cowboy. Just like any real cowboy would do, Bud shows off his dancing abilities and his great skills of looking like a real cowboy. Just like all of those real "cowboys" that ride mechanical bulls to real "cowboy" music like Dan Fogelberg singing Times Like These. Sing with me, " In times like these, It's hard to keep a man on his knees, In times like these, It's hard to keep a man on his knees."

The Dallas "Urban" Cowboys are just like Bud in Urban Cowboy. This team managed to win a playoff game last year against Philadelphia. They look great in their cowboy gear but at the end of the day it's all just smoke and mirrors. This current team if you can even call it that, doesn't work hard and is more concerned about entertainment than hard work. Jason Garrett was able to lead them to a 33-20 against the NFC East leading New York Giants. No one doubts the amount of talent that resides in those locker rooms each and every Sunday. They have the talent to match with any team in this league. When we think back to the toughest cowboys of all time, we don't think about John Travolta. Tough cowboys are not dancing across the floor of their local community center. The real cowboys I think of are working the ranch everyday. They have long hours, they keep their mouths shut and don't celebrate a first down.

Johnny Cash has a way of summing of what a real cowboy does. When I listening to this song it makes me think back to great Dallas Cowboys like Tom Landry, Roger Staubach, or Troy Aikman.

"The greatest cowboy of them all"

"The trail he rides is narrow but it's straighter than an arrow
and he rides point for all the great and small
He will take us through the wire onto the plain that's higher
He's the greatest cowboy of them all, once he rode into sunset....
He's the greatest cowboy of them all."

Carrying Your Love With Me

George Strait was topping charts in 1997 with "Carrying Your Love With Me". The average price of gas was $1.23 per gallon, President Bill Clinton was serving his second term, and on September 13, 1997, Texas was beat down by UCLA 66-3. That game known as "Rout 66" would be the turning point in the career of John Mackovic. Texas finished 4-7 season that season and just one year before they won the inaugural Big 12 Championship in 1996. That same year in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Mack Brown was leading the University of North Carolina to a new birth in football. The Tarheels went on to their second straight 10 win season and a Gator Bowl bid. Brown would leave to take the University of Texas head coaching job. Now in 2010, Brown may be looking to repeat what John Mackovic did in 1997.

September 25, 2010, The Longhorns, who were favored, would lose to UCLA, 34-12. Following this disappointing defeat, Mack has seem to lose his team with eerily similarity to the Mackovic team. Both Brown and Mackovic won Big 12 titles the previous year and after all they both have Mack in their names. Since Brown arrived in Austin he has managed to reach a bowl game every year. His first year in 1998, Texas would finish 9-3 with a victory in the Cotton Bowl against the Mississippi State Bulldogs and would continue a bowling every year since.

1999- Cotton Bowl, Arkansas (lost 27-6)
2000- Holiday Bowl, Oregon (lost 35-30)
2001- Holiday Bowl, Washington (won 47-43)
2002- Cotton Bowl, LSU (won 35-20)
2003- Holiday Bowl, Washington State (lost 28-20)
2004- Rose Bowl, Michigan (won 38-37)
2005- Rose Bowl, USC (won 41-38). National Champions
2006- Alamo Bowl, Iowa (won 26-24)
2007- Holiday Bowl, Arizona State (won 52-34)
2008- Fiesta Bowl, Ohio State (won 24-21)
2009- BCS National Championship Game, Alabama (lost 37-21)

Texas is sitting at 4-5 record with 3 games remaining. If they can't manage to win two of their remaining three games it will mark the first time since 1997 they are not bowl eligible. The three remaining game are all in Austin but, still have to play the #10 ranked Oklahoma State, Florida Atlantic (3-5), and the #25 Texas A&M Aggies. Where will the two wins come from?

Mack Brown has managed to mirror John Mackovic's 1997 season. The question is what will the final result be?