2010 was a horrible year for my favorite football teams. Both the Longhorns and Cowboys played at a ridiculously bad level. The Stars were… well, pretty much the same team they were from the year before. The Mavs and Rangers were the only bright spot. The Rangers, of all sports teams were the glowing star on top of my sports Christmas tree. Yup, the Rangers of all teams not only made the playoffs but gave us an American League Championship Series win over the Baseball Anti-Christ Yankees.
Texas was bad, very, very bad. The highlight of the season was the Nebraska game which gave us hope; it was more of a tease. We thought after that game the ship was righted and they had their swagger back. The Longhorns wouldn’t lose again for the rest of the season or at least that was what my thoughts were. The decisions Mack made and the defense slipping so far were heart wrenching. Even with the offense firing on 2 cylinders we thought the defense would keep them in the game. I’m not sure what Will Muschamp was drawing up but it seemed to work for about 15% of the time. Texas was consistently punched in the mouth by every running back they faced. The inept offense continued running my kryptonite offensive play: throw across the field behind the line of scrimmage to the wideout and hope he can break a tackle. It worked as well as their non-existent running game. Saturday’s became so disheartening that I began to dread any highlights of UT’s game knowing full well it would showcase their opponents running skills. The only benefit from their horrible performance was “cheating” time. I snuck a few Pac 10 games, a little more SEC, and devoted more than a few afternoons watching TCU. I purchased a couple purple shirts of my new adopted city’s home team and cheered them on with great fervor. When UT lost to Aggie in their final game of the season I was slightly relived I wouldn’t have to see ads for “Your University of Texas Longhorns will be taking on the Winona State Warriors in the Aladdin Cups Car Care Cup Holder Bowl”. With a new season brewing I was once again ready for National Signing day and looking to see what recruits committed to them. The whole team knowing McCoy and Shipley 2.0 were in the making while hoping the new coordinator faces bring some life into this team. I sure hope UT gets a running game this year too….
Dallas looked equally incompetent and clumsy. Once Romo was lost the team gave up and you could see it in almost every play. Keith Brooking looked every bit his 35 years of age, the secondary couldn’t cover anyone, and every shot of Wade Phillips from the sideline looked as if he was starring at the Burger House menu but couldn’t quite figure out what to condiments and sides to order. Once he was finally fired by Jerry a collective sigh of relief was instantly heard from the Metro-plex. The move to Jason Garrett was initially thought of as a band aid until the season was over and (fingers crossed) Chucky Gruden or bill Cowher would land at DFW wearing silver and blue. Then a strange thing happened; Jason Garrett knew what he was talking about and his game plan was followed. Garrett followed a few Jimmy Johnson theories: Practice in pads, practice as you will play, and dress nice on the team charter. These little changes along with the major ones helped Dallas psyche tremendously. You could tell the team had talent, but it wasn’t being put to use. I have high aspirations this year due to the return of Romo and Dez, the draft (did we really buy the BS a few years ago of drafting for special teams), and mainly due to Garrett being able to implant his system from the start of camp.
I’m going to skip over the Stars and Mavs for now. The Stars missed the play offs again and the Mavs went about as far as they were expected to. I think the Mavs are pretty fairly rated on a consistent basis. They are one of the few teams that isn’t over or underrated, they are rated correctly. I’m a huge fan of everything that Cuban has done and I go to 4 or 5 games a year and catch another 20-25 or so on TV. Since they are playing right now it’s more relevant to focus on this year and I’ll postpone that topic for another day.
The Rangers. The wholly shit did that actually just happen Texas Rangers. The MLB season is looooong. Unless sports is your job there just isn’t a way to catch three quarters of the games on TV. With the day games, the time changes from East to West coast games, and double headers it’s almost impossible to catch a majority of games. Listening to baseball on the radio is horrendous. Baseball is a game of anticipation which doesn’t translate well to radio broadcasting IMHO. With that in mind I still caught a decent number of games on TV during the week nights, on the weekends, or heading out to the ball park to see them live. The rangers have always been treated as the metro-plex’s red headed step child (sorry Jerry) since their lack of consistency and notorious failing. This season had a different aura on it pretty much from the start. Nolan Ryan’s presence in pitching made me feel good. I can still remember the days of Ryan playing and man was he an intimidating presence. Here was a guy who was in his forties and throwing at an amazing speed racking up career milestones. Then came August 4th, 1993; the Robin Ventura episode. If you have to ask about it, you should be shot. That day entrenched Nolan into the Ranger Faithful, hell even Astros fans loved it. But I digress… Ryan in the bullpen teaching to pitch more by feel and fatigue than pitch count seemed odd to everyone under 40. I remember talking to my dad about this. He told me that when he was in high school in Hereford, he pitched one game, and then caught the next game of a double header. He went on to play a little college ball, but that was the mindset back then. When the pitching and the bats were on point very early on people were heading out to the ballpark, but the mindset was to see a fun game with the undertones of “knowing” this won’t last. About midway through the season there was still a strong buzz about the Rangers. Towards the end of the regular season the DFW area had a sports boner for the Rangers. They made the play offs and had a great chance to get to get to the ALCS if they beat Tampa. During the telecast (which was shown during the worst possible windows ever) every sports bar was packed, blue and red were prominently seen on people who couldn’t tell you who Toby Hara, Juando, or Pudge were. The atmosphere was awesome throughout the DFW. Once Texas dispatched of the Rays and the Yankees were the ALCS opponent people were still pretty confident in Texas. I remember seeing a sports graph ESPN put up where you guess the outcome and the show the results by state. Texas and Oklahoma picked the Rangers, but the rest of America had the Yanks, in a sweep I might add. The games were great from start to finish, awesome endings, A-rod going down looking and before you know it the little Rangers (not the little Mavericks) were headed to the World Series. It wasn’t the ending we all hoped for; I’ll leave the story here.
With so much sports drama in 2010 I sure hope 2011 fears better. I’m not sure how well my Saturday and Sundays will fare if my teams are in the same category as Cleveland.
