I'm a sports fan, seems that I always have been and probably always will be. I like professional sports, not much into high school or college sports, don't know why that is. Could be that I'm from Waco and Baylor hasn't given me much to get excited about in my lifetime in the way of sports. Maybe if I had grown up in Austin, or Miami or somewhere that has good college sports I might have taken a liking to it, but alas, I did not. Growing up my family always rooted for the Dallas area teams, the Rangers & Cowboys mostly, some Mavericks on the side I guess. I dont really remember watching the NBA or even caring about it, again, it could be that for as long as I could remember (until recently) the Mav's were pretty terrible.
Over the years the Rangers and Cowboys (and Mav's) have given me some great rooting moments. During the 90's the Cowboys won 3 Super Bowls in 4 years, that pretty impressive. The Rangers actually made it to the playoffs a few times there in the late 90's and in the past few years the Mav's have gotten to the playoffs multiple times and have had some very impressive regular seasons.
But lets look at these things, after winning the Super Bowl in 1995 the Cowboys have not won a playoff game, that's 12 years folks. A 12 year span of not winning a playoff game by one of the most storied franchises in the NFL. Last year the Cowboys made it to the playoffs and lost in the first round to the Seahawks on a mishandled field goal attempt that would have won the game by Tony Romo. It was a crushing blow. I remember sitting there staring at the TV in bewilderment as to what the heck had just happened.
Fast forward to this year, the Cowboys make some coaching changes and everything seems great. They start out 7-0 and take their first loss to the soon-to-be 16-0 New England Patriots. Ok I can handle that, but that should have been their only loss of the season, instead the Cowboys get into December and decide to put it on auto-pilot, they loose 2 more games and coast into the playoffs with a 13-3 record, a very nice record no doubt, but they haven't played a game very well in over a month. After the first round bye the Cowboys meet up with the New York Giants, a team they had beaten twice already in the season, but a team that was getting hot while the Cowboys were rolling over and going to sleep. The Giants beat the Cowboys on a last second interception by Tony Romo and the Cowboys are again out of the playoffs after their first game! And this was their year to get back to the Super Bowl I thought.
Lets look at the Mav's. Two years ago they get to the NBA Finals! Incredible, they beat the Spurs to make it to the Finals to play the Miami Heat. The Mav's rush out to a commanding 2 game lead and are blowing out the Heat in the 3rd game. But that's when everything went horribly wrong. I tune in for the end of the 3rd game to watch it slip out of the Mav's hands. Then the 4th game, and the 5th and soon the Mav's have gone down in history as having had the Championship in hand and basically giving it away. That one hurt. Fast forward to last year, the Mav's rush out to the best record in the NBA and have the NBA MVP in Dirk Nowitzki. Their first round opponent is the Golden State Warriors, a team who got hot in the last couple weeks of the playoffs to sneak in. #1 seed vs #8 seed, should be easy, but somehow the Mav's find a way to get destroyed by the Warriors to go down in history again having been beaten by their former coach and a team of misfits that they should have easily crushed.
Now on to the Rangers. Any Rangers fan will tell you that the late 90's were some good years for the Rangers. They made it to the playoffs for the first time winning their division a couple of times. It was great, however they got pummeled by the New York Yankees each time in the first round of the playoffs and have never gotten back.
As a Rangers/Cowboys/Mavericks fan I have had to go through some crushing losses. Not that there hasn't been some great victories too. But in the last few years the losses have outweighed the wins. What is a great regular season when you lose in the first round of the playoffs? Right now its hard on me to be a Cowboys & Mavericks fan, you go through months of great regular seasons only to be let down in the playoffs, when it all really matters. At least with the Rangers I go into the season expecting to finish in the bottom of the division with no chance of a playoff run.
But don't worry, I will continue to root for my Dallas area teams, I just cant bring myself to be an Astros/Spurs/Texans fan. And hey, like they always say, there is always next year!
