The last thing a Dallas Cowboys fan wants to hear right now is "Fly, Eagles Fly," but at this point it can't hurt.
We are close enough to the Super Bowl, so go ahead and let the Philly birdies win their first big trophy.
Should the Eagles win, gloat and point to the Super Bowl scoreboard that says they have won a title more recently than their hated rivals in Texas, the Cowboys will have earned every part of this shame.
As such, every Cowboys fan should be an Eagles fan, but not necessarily in an effort to watch Gisele Brady and Bill Belifun simply miss out on yet another Lombardi Trophy.
Perhaps watching the Eagles defeat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl will be the final, necessary piece of motivation and inspiration for the Cowboys to enact some degree of genuine change that results in a title.
A real title. Not an NFC East title.
I've got nothing else.
With a head coach who should not be around, and at a minimum should be coaching for his job, these are desperate times for the Cowboys, and specifically Jason Garrett.
Because roughly one year ago the Cowboys were the Eagles, and the Eagles were the Cowboys. The team with the great future that was set for a good long run is no longer the Cowboys but rather the Eagles.
Welcome to hell.
Or, as we have come to know it, welcome to being a Cowboys fan/follower.
With the possible exception of the Washington Redskins, few teams in the NFL have asked more from their respective fan base and delivered less this century than the Cowboys.
Props to the fans for keeping the faith, and spending their money on a product that sporadically entertains while consistently crushes their sports' soul.
While another NFC team prepares to play in the Super Bowl, the brain trust for the Cowboys attends the Senior Bowl in an effort to find the players who will get them back to their desired destination for the first time since the '95 season.
Hall of Famer Jerry Jones met with the local reporters at the Senior Bowl and, once again, projected optimism from his veins about the changes in the offense. That he feels good about ... who knows what?
Meanwhile, vice president Stephen Jones is talking tough regarding his team's best wide receiver, Dez Bryant; Stephen dropped all sorts of hints that Dez will have to either take a pay cut or face the prospect of being released.
BTW: Dez should not blink on this threat. Unless, somehow, the Cowboys land a better receiver, he is still their best option, despite his drop in production in the past two years.
And the quarterback who looked so pretty as a rookie wasn't quite so as a sophomore. Nonetheless, the team's decision to commit to Dak Prescott will forever remain the right one; there was no way to feel confident in a 36-year-old quarterback with a 66-year-old body.
Just the same, there is no way to feel as confident in this team, and its quarterback, as the Eagles should feel in their team, and quarterback Carson Wentz.
The Cowboys should be better in 2018. Their schedule won't be quite as loaded, they will have running back Ezekiel Elliott for 16 games, and the defense should be decent.
Looking at Garrett's track record, his teams take one step forward, and one step back. They are on the one-step forward part of this maddening cycle.
The rub is that the Cowboys never sustain their success from their previous season. When the NFL schedule makers create a more difficult road, the Cowboys take the off ramp.
The club hasn't had consecutive double-digit win totals since 1995-96, and last made the playoffs in back-to-back years in 2006-07. Ultimately, that is what defines the Jason Garrett era more than anything else.
None of this breeds security nor does it generate the optimism that Jerry continually, and impressively, sells.
All of this feels like more of the same for a team that needs to do something different to convince people the results will be different.
Perhaps watching the Eagles win their first Super Bowl will be a motivator. I've got nothing else.
All together -- Fly, Eagles Fly.
Sports on 01/29/2018