Despite the fact that the Dallas Cowboys lost to the Philadelphia Eagles last week, and despite losing 4 of their last 5 games, they still have a shot at winning the NFC East division on Sunday. A Cowboys win combined with an Eagles loss against the Giants would earn Dallas the 4th seed in the conference and a trip to the playoffs. Is it likely that it will happen? Do the Dallas Cowboys even deserve to go to the playoffs? Probably not, but Dallas Cowboys fans are divided on what would be the best outcome for the future of the team.
On the one hand, the goal for every season is to win the Super Bowl. That goal begins with winning the division and making the playoffs. It can be argued that no matter how poorly the Dallas Cowboys have played so far, that as long as they make the tournament there is always a chance for them to win it all. On the other hand, it is pretty evident by now that Jason Garrett and the current coaching regime are not championship material. The Dallas Cowboys may be better off losing this game, moving on from Garrett and hiring a coach that will hopefully take them to the next level. It would also be helpful for that new coach if the Cowboys could secure a better draft position by losing to the Redskins. Doing so would guarantee that the Cowboys draft in the top 20, and even as high as #12 overall. Which would be the better outcome is a topic of great debate among Dallas Cowboys fans.
There have always been two distinct types of Dallas Cowboys fans. There are the optimistic, never say die, blue blood purist fans. Then there are the negative, cynical, pragmatic fans who are never satisfied and can’t seem to enjoy periods of success because they are always waiting for the sky to fall. This divide, often leads to conflict when Dallas Cowboys fans are presented with a scenario such as the one presented this Sunday. The optimists will claim that fans hoping for a loss are not true fans. They will accuse them of being haters, and they can’t fathom why anyone would ever cheer for their own team to fail in any circumstance. Meanwhile, the pessimists will accuse the optimistic fans of being simple, short sighted, and even lacking knowledge about football. They will say that those fans are nothing more than a bunch of blindly faithful cheerleaders who are the sole reason that ownership is not motivated to produce a winning product on the field because ticket sales and merchandise sales are still booming. Which type of fan is the better fan? Who is right and who is wrong in this scenario?
The truth is, both types of fans are both right and wrong at the same time. Neither type of fan is superior or more true than the other. The divide between them is simply a difference of opinion. Often the optimistic fan is rewarded for their blind optimism and every so often a miracle happens that only they would have believed in right from the start. Just as often the pessimistic fan who relentlessly criticizes without mercy is proven that they were right all along.
As for Sunday, I can’t decide what type of fan I want to be on that day. In the lead up to Sunday, I am the pessimist. Long have I waited for Jason Garrett to be fired and a new voice to lead our Cowboys to greater accomplishments. A loss to the Redskins would assuredly set in motion the winds of change. Little faith do I have that this team can turn it around based on how they have performed all year, even if they do manage to back into the playoffs. Yet, when the whistle blows and the opening kickoff sails across the field on Sunday, with the roar of the home crowd in the background, the optimist will suddenly awaken. The optimist will remind me that this is still the Dallas Cowboys and those are still the Washington Redskins on the opposite side. I will still be checking the score of the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants game and hoping that those vile Eagles fans choke on their words as they so often do. Against all odds, I do believe that maybe, just maybe, there could be a miracle instead of mercy.
*Photo by Joe Glorioso All-Pro Reels https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/legalcode
