Well, as most of you know, I live and die with the Dallas Cowboys. Ever since I went to my first game in 1969 - at the Cotton Bowl (Dallas Beat the Green Bay Packers 16-3) - I have been a huge fan. Even after moving away from Dallas years later, no team in any other city has captured my heart like 'Boys.

My father and brothers were/are big fans as well. In fact, Peter Golenbock - in his book, "Cowboys Have Always Been My Heroes" - wrote about my Dad in his book. Back in 1973, we were visited at midnight by a very inebriated John Niland, the Cowboy's All-Pro Tackle. Niland claimed he had a religious revelation and for some unknown reason, walked to our house on Currin Drive (in Dallas). My father recognized him and instead of calling the police department, called the neighborhood watch patrol. Unfortunately, before they arrived, a neighbor across the street - brandishing a shotgun (this was Texas after all) - called the police, who subdued him and took him away in a paddy wagon.

I was 11 at the time, but the memory is still vivid in my mind. A week or so later, Niland came back to the house (sober) and explained that "G-d had sent him there." He had no idea that my father was a Rabbi, and when he found out, he broke down.

The best part for me was that he gave us tickets to an upcoming Monday night game (vs. New Orleans) and appeared at the pre-High Holiday service (called Selichot). Niland began a born-again Christian after that experience. He finished the year as a Cowboys before being traded to the Eagles, where he finished his career soon after.

Anyway, back to the 'Boys.

First of all, let me first apologize to all of you who couldn't care less about the Cowboys (how sad) or about football in general. I'll get back to my regular rantings (and a new article) soon.

As disappointing as this season was, I am impressed with a number of things that happened:

The emergence of Jason Witten.
The consistency of Greg Ellis.
The resilience of Julius Jones.
The stability of Vinny Testaverde.
The team never gave up even though the talent just wasn't there.
The punting ability of Matt McBriar.

I was, unfortunately, unimpressed with too many other things:

The play-calling by assistant coach Sean Payton.
The unmotivated play of Flozell Adams.
The lack of experience of the back-up quarterbacks.
The less-than-stellar play of Terence Newman.
and Eddie George...
and Marcellus Wiley...
and Andre Gurode.

For the season, I give the Cowboys a grade of D. The offence was just capable enough to do some things (especially earlier in the year), but the defense was too weak. By the time the defense started to gel, the offence imploded.

It just seemed that too often, when things were going their way, something stupid, strange or just unlucky happened. Considering the talent on the roster at the beginning of the season, the team should have won 10 games (especially in the weak NFC). But after losing Terry Glenn, Julius Jones, Darren Woodson, Pete Hunter and Stephen Peterman for extended parts of the season (if not the whole year), they just didn't have enough gas.

Tomorrow, I will discuss the needs and changes for next season.