pain.

the disappointment is overwhelming. i had to wait a few days before i could rationally write a post on the disappointment party that is dallas sports.

at this point, watching the super bowl is debatable. if the pats win this weekend, i just might skip the big game (maybe). who really wants to watch the scrotum licking that is the media on the patriots collective balls? if you havent already, please see exhibit A: andrea kraemer.

this one is pretty funny too.

what can i say? dumb penalties, questionable time management/play calling, bad special teams, and just plain getting tired at the end. put all of those together, along with the fact that everything happened at the most inopportune times, and voila, you got yourself an upset special and a very disappointing end to what could have been a spectacular season.

the number one seed in two different sports, only to be upset in the each teams' first round of play. how does this happen? why do i feel like every time we have a great team in any sport, we're just gonna screw it up? every important game, even if we're in the lead...for some reason, it's always in the back of my mind: "someone is about to fuck up. something fucked up is about to happen." dallas fans of my generation have been trained to think that way. we know what greatness feels like via the early 90's cowboys and the one cup-winning stars team. the one caveat? i was too young to fully understand the mechanics and everything that goes into football/sports and what was happening with the cowboys, and even with the stars i didnt have that strong a grasp on sports. so, to be fair, lets review what has happened since the last cowboys super bowl. the cowboys havent won a playoff game in over a decade (god dammit, we are AMERICA'S TEAM, and we havent won a playoff game in that long? sick, sad world), the stars taught us disappointment in the two seasons before they won the cup (f the oilers) and the one after (f the devils), the mavs have sucked since i've been born, and have only been a serious contender in the past 3 years (but we know how the last 3 seasons have gone: steve nash's coming out party, miami's coming out party, and golden state's coming out party), and i dont even know the last time the rangers were seriously good (yeah the late 90's teams were pretty decent, but were they ever serious title contenders?).

of note: my first memorable experience with sports agony came during the 1994 season, when the cowboys lost to the 49ers in that year's real super bowl (back in the days of a completely dominant nfc), denying us of being the first 3-peat super bowl champs, which would have been extended to 4 championships in a row the very next year. i can still remember getting up early the next morning, pissed as hell, sticking madden 95 into the snes, and kicking the 49ers asses. it was the best i could do to make myself feel better. this past monday, no surprise, i woke up pissed as hell, wrote a mental note that said "FUCK" and went to school. f'in school. what a way to start the semester.

now i've had a little taste of how sox fans felt before making their way to the world series, in an impossible fashion, no less. i'm kind of hoping for that kind of path to a championship. i'm not asking for anyone to come back from 3 games down, or come back from 30 points down...i'm just hoping that when a dallas team does win a championship, we do it in such a ridiculously awesome fashion that it will be so cathartic; it will bring dallas fans to tears. i can only imagine the euphoria sox fans felt coming back from 3 games down, against one of the biggest rivals in all of sports (which was kind of a world series for red sox fans in itself), and then sweeping the astros in the ws. (sometimes i wonder which would be better for sox fans, coming back from 3 down in the world series, or coming back from 3 down against the yanks. i would probably go with the former of the two choices...but you never know.) on second thought...i want something monumental. i think dallas fans deserve it.

true, i can't complain because i'm not a fan of, say, the kansas city royals or detroit lions. i would rather be consistently decent and have some kind of hope rather than dwelling in the throes of despair, but man...speaking purely of dashing very real dreams of a championship, it seems that as of late, no one does it like dallas sports.

i feel like i spent a semester studying for a test, walked into the testing room thinking i knew everything, and ended up with a 45.

thank god i'm not a buffalo bills fan. i think i might have shot myself before reaching the age of 6.

in happier news, the mavs are doing relatively well, and this is as appropriate a time as ever to post this picture, as stack drilled a three pointer (no, not from the corner...it might have been the first time i've seen him shoot a three from the wing) at the buzzer to beat the clips by 1.

chef stackhouse:


for those who have not been keeping up, start watching western conference basketball NOW. we are only a 1/2 game out of first place...but we're only 4 games out in front of 8th place. how sick is that? i'm not really worried about the mavs making the playoffs, but damn, the west is one competitive son of a gun. the playoffs this year are gonna be AWESOME.

on the eastern side, with all the talk about the big trades and signings over the past offseason making the east much more competitive? there are only three good teams over yonder: the pistons (who didnt make any major moves last summer), celts (picking up ray allen, garnett, and damn i wanted big baby instead of fazekas), and i guess orlando (overpaying rashard lewis - 15 mil a year for averaging 18 and 5? nigga please). this year the west is making the east look even worse than last year, despite bringing some bigger names to the east. to put it into perspective, golden state, 8th in the west, would be 4th in the east. the rockets, 10th in the west, would be 7th in the east, but only 1 and 1/2 games from being 4th. true, detroit and boston have more wins than anyone in the west, but look at who they are playing. i'm confident that the big three of the west, and maybe even others, would do that well playing more east teams.

until football comes back, it's mavs time. i have a lot of confidence in this team. i really like how they are gradually coming along (instead of blowing their entire wad during the reg. season), just prowling, waiting for late april to roll around. no one believes in the mavs, especially dirk, this year, and that makes us very, very dangerous. a part of me believes that the best teams and players find a way to win no matter what, no matter what expectations are placed on their shoulders (see michael jordan). i think part of that got to the mavs last year, but it's a very different landscape this year. i think once dirk and the mavs get a championship under their belts, it will make them even more dangerous and better able to handle the pressure (though that theory failed when applied to peyton this year).

to wrap up this post...i am hurt. the cowboys have broken my heart in devastating fashion two years in a row. plus the realization that football is basically done for 8-9 months just compounds the pain. but i will stay resilient. i will patiently wait for our day in the sun. we may fuck up 5 more times (hopefully not that many times) before we win it all with any one of our championship caliber sports teams, but it will come.

a dallas championship will happen soon, my friends. just wait.

after writing this post, i already feel a little better. now comes the waiting.