Friday, Saturday, Sunday in Texas

by Nick Eatman

  So why on the Sunday morning following a 17-point victory over Iowa State did Briles have this pit in his stomach? The same feeling he had after a loss? Baylor might have seen its 35–0 lead trimmed to just a 15-point advantage midway through the fourth quarter, but it was still a convincing win.

  What had Briles sick to his stomach was the thought of losing his quarterback, Seth Russell, for the rest of the season, if not longer.

  He saw the look in Russell’s eyes when he came to the sideline late in the game, moments after suffering a helmet-to-helmet shot that would leave him with a serious neck injury.

  “You hate to see tough players hurt,” Briles said. “I know he was hurting, and you’re always concerned about that. Not just as a player, but as a person.”

  He knew Russell was getting further tests on Sunday and there would soon be several phone calls coming his way with updated information. Briles was just hoping for good news.

  Technically, Baylor was beginning a bye week, but considering the next game would be the following Thursday, it wasn’t exactly a full seven-day break. By Friday, the Bears would switch their routine around, practicing on Saturday and Sunday in an attempt to simulate what a regular workweek is like for the team leading up to a game.

  But that still gave Briles time to hit the recruiting trail on Sunday and Monday at the beginning of the off week. He arrived in Dallas looking to catch up with a few players who had already committed to the Bears, but were waiting until the February 3 signing day to ink the dotted line.

  Before he even met with a single recruit, though, Briles got the phone call he was dreading.

  Members of the Baylor medical staff informed him that his star quarterback, who was already garnering Heisman Trophy attention, had a broken bone in his neck and would be out for the remainder of the season. Russell planned on getting a second and perhaps even a third opinion, which would include a visit to Dallas himself to see Dr. Andrew Dossett, an orthopedic surgeon. But that appointment would have to wait until Monday because Dossett was one of the Cowboys’ team doctors and was with the club in New York for the Sunday game against the Giants.

  While news started trickling out about Russell’s neck injury on Sunday, it wasn’t until Tuesday when Baylor officially announced that he would need surgery to repair his damaged cervical vertebra.

  “It was devastating—not for our football team, but for him,” Briles said. “We’re talking about a young man who has been with us for four years. He’s grown up with us and has given his whole life to prepare and get ready for this opportunity to perform. He was playing well and then, all of a sudden, everything changes. I hated it for him.”

  When Briles returned to Waco, he immediately visited with his fallen quarterback, who was wearing a protective brace around his neck.

  “I just remember his spirit,” the coach said. “You’re not going to find many players in that situation who have the faith and the strength he had. He just said, ‘Go get ’em’ and that he was going to do everything he could to come back strong.”

  For Baylor to move forward, it meant the reins would be temporarily passed on to Jarrett Stidham, the true freshman quarterback who had played in all seven games of the season thus far. But Stidham’s talent was the real reason why Briles wasn’t too concerned about a drop-off in his team’s play, and not because he already had some experience under his belt.

  “No, it was because he was good,” Briles said. “You can play and still be bad. He was good. He’s probably the smartest young quarterback I’ve ever had. He just understands the game, and he’s got all the tools. He hadn’t been playing like a freshman, so we knew once he got in there that he would be surrounded by some great players who would help him. I really wasn’t concerned. You can win with him.”

  If there was ever a good time to lose your starting quarterback for the season and be forced to turn to a freshman, it would be during a bye week with ten days to prepare.

  Stidham spent even more hours in the office of Kendal Briles, Baylor’s offensive coordinator, and watched as much film as he could. He was already becoming a regular in the film room, but for this upcoming matchup he wanted to make sure he watched just about every Kansas State game the school had played this season, as well as the Wildcats’ 2014 meeting with Baylor.

  “You can’t be too prepared,” said the nineteen-year-old. “I felt comfortable with the offense and the players around me, but I just wanted to soak it all in.”

  The Bears were 7–0 and ranked number two in the country, but it didn’t take a professor to know the meat of the schedule was coming up. A road trip to Kansas State was first before key games against Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, and, of course, Baylor’s most intense rival, TCU.

  Nevertheless, Briles’ team wasn’t looking ahead to anyone other than the Wildcats. The same, however, couldn’t be said for the rest of the conference.

  At the end of the Thursday night game in Fort Worth between Big 12 opponents TCU and West Virginia, Horned Frogs head coach, Gary Patterson, made it clear what was on his mind after his eighth-ranked team beat the Mountaineers, 40–10.

  During the postgame handshake with West Virginia head coach, Dana Holgorsen, who opened the dialogue with the standard, “Congratulations, coach,” Patterson wasted little time in getting to the point.

  “Thanks, so what do you think our chances are against Baylor?” he asked. “What do you think?”

  “You’ll win,” Holgorsen quickly fired back. “You’re the more complete team.”

  And that was it. Obviously, that was the answer Patterson wanted to hear, especially from a coach that had just played both teams in the last few weeks.

  What it really showed was just how much Patterson was thinking about his matchup on November 27 against the Bears, which was still four weeks away. Some might have thought he would’ve asked the West Virginia coach about Oklahoma State, a team that not only had already faced and beaten the Mountaineers, but was the next opponent on TCU’s slate.

  When asked later about his question to Holgorsen, Patterson didn’t retreat, even saying he had asked other coaches the same question about Baylor earlier in the season. “You’d be surprised how much that goes on,” Patterson said.

  Baylor and TCU were undoubtedly on a collision course. The media had been hyping it up since last year’s 61–58 thriller that saw Baylor rally from twenty-one down in the fourth quarter to win. But now it seemed apparent that at least one of the head coaches was already thinking about this year’s showdown as well.

  Who knows if Briles was doing the same? For now, he was just trying to get a freshman ready for another team in purple.

  Sunday

  In the early months of 1979, Bob Ryan at NFL Films was trying to write a unique opening for each team’s highlight video of the previous season. After watching clips upon clips of the Cowboys, two things became evident to the former editor-in-chief. Not only did the Cowboys have some of the NFL’s most recognizable players, but their fans extended far beyond the city limits of Dallas and even Texas.

  The opening script for the Cowboys’ 1978 highlight film, voiced by the legendary John Facenda, got straight to the point:

  “They appear on television so often that their faces are as familiar to the public as presidents and movie stars. They are the Dallas Cowboys, America’s Team.”

  With that, the ever-popular moniker, “America’s Team,” was born. It wasn’t created by the Cowboys, but of course the franchise didn’t hide from the distinction and actually embraced it.

  Nearly forty years later, the 2015 version of the Cowboys still featured two of the main aspects of the created nickname. The fans had since expanded from being national to now being global, as the Cowboys were one of the world’s most popular teams with dominating fan bases in nearby countries such as Mexico and a strong presence in places like England, Br
azil, and Germany as well.

  As for those familiar figures, that hasn’t changed either. From “Dandy” Don Meredith to Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson, and Drew Pearson to Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, and later Terrell Owens, the Cowboys have always had some of the most recognizable players and faces in the game.

  This year’s team also wasn’t lacking for name power. And as the Cowboys positioned themselves for a showdown with the two-time defending NFC Champion Seahawks, a team Dallas upset a year ago up in Seattle, it was those same high-profile players garnering the headlines in the week leading up to the game.

  It started the Sunday before in New York, when after a disappointing loss to the Giants, Jerry Jones, whose celebrity status outweighed all but a handful of his players, created a buzz when he called Greg Hardy “one of the real leaders” on the team. Hardy had just gotten into a sideline spat with both a coach and then teammate Dez Bryant, who was trying to corral the lightning rod. Hardy was playing in just his second game with the Cowboys after serving a 4-game suspension, and his off-the-field behavior had dominated NFL headlines for the last year.

  Jones and the Cowboys had received all sorts of criticism for even signing Hardy in the first place. And just two weeks after being reinstated to the team, it was believed that Hardy showed little remorse for the actions that had caused him to be suspended, especially after his tongue-and-cheek gun reference. More recently, it looked like the Cowboys’ other high-strung player had restrained Hardy from violent behavior.

  When Dez Bryant was the one trying to calm the situation, it was quite a show.

  So once Jones called Hardy one of the team’s “leaders,” it just allowed more national media pundits to go on the attack against the Cowboys in general as well as Jones personally for enabling Hardy and giving him such as platform.

  With the quote quickly spreading across the Internet, most of the media members were writing their weekly columns based on hearsay from the handful of reporters who had actually sat around Jones when he made the statement. And yes, the owner had called Hardy a “leader,” but the context wasn’t as generic as the quote was portrayed.

  The actual question centered on Hardy’s practice habits and his work ethic. Jones called him one of the leaders because when it came to setting the right kind of tempo in practice, Hardy did, in fact, lead by example. For the most part, that clarification was never mentioned, and Jones to this day still gets heat for calling one of his more controversial players a team leader.

  But by Wednesday of that week, Hardy’s outburst in the previous game or his status as one of the locker room leaders were a moot point.

  True to form in the life of the Dallas Cowboys, another storyline had trumped Hardy’s news. Running back Joseph Randle, who had injured his midsection during the loss to the Giants, only to watch Darren McFadden step in and rush for 152 yards, was still nursing the injury heading into the Seattle game. While his status for the Sunday showdown was unclear, his role on the depth chart was more definite.

  Even though Jason Garrett had said in his press conference that McFadden “absolutely” earned more carries and would get more touches in the game, and Jerry Jones had also said on his radio show that McFadden would likely start, the news didn’t sit well with Randle once it became official. In fact, after the coaches informed him that McFadden would take over as the starter, Randle took off.

  He stormed out of the Cowboys’ practice facility at Valley Ranch, sending team officials scurrying to locate him. For about thirty minutes, Randle wasn’t responding to calls or texts, including some left by Bryant, a “big brother” to Randle considering that they both had gone to Oklahoma State and actually had worn the same number 1 jersey for the Orange and Black.

  Randle never came back to the facility that Wednesday, but did return the next day for treatment and a few closed-door meetings, one of which was with Jason Garrett. This wasn’t the first time in even recent history that a player had left the complex after learning of his demotion. Cornerback Morris Claiborne made a similar exit back in 2014 when Orlando Scandrick replaced him as the starter.

  Like Randle, Claiborne came back the next day. But unlike Randle, Claiborne would eventually get back in the good graces of the coaching staff and play again.

  Randle’s season, and life, was spiraling downward. And ironically, it was all occurring just two weeks after he returned from a bye week where he said he gained a “new perspective on life” after watching his eleven-year-old nephew play running back in his home state of Kansas. Randle said watching that game helped him realize not only his “love for the game,” but also how much of a “blessing it is to be playing for the NFL, with so many kids looking up to me.”

  Now, things were fading fast for Randle, and there was nothing he could do about it.

  Meanwhile, the defending NFC champions were coming to town. There weren’t many NFL cities in 2015 where playing the Seahawks was secondary news, but with the Hardy and Randle situations, plus the return to action of Bryant after he missed six games due to injury, the actual matchup with Seattle wasn’t the biggest storyline.

  That might have been because the Seahawks were also struggling somewhat. With a 3–4 record, Seattle was just one game ahead of the Cowboys, who had now lost four straight games after a 2–0 start.

  During the pregame warm-ups, Bryant was shown on the Cowboys’ gigantic video board several times, and whether he was running a route, catching a pass, or singing along with the music in the stadium, the roar of the crowd was deafening each and every time they saw him. This team and this fan base had missed Bryant’s passion, his energy, and his play on the field.

  But the ones who expected Bryant to simply return as the dominating receiver who set a franchise record with sixteen touchdown catches in 2014 were vastly disappointed. Bryant’s rust was apparent, although it didn’t help that he also had to face Seattle’s All-Pro cornerback, Richard Sherman.

  The Cowboys struggled to move the ball all game long, but the only reason they weren’t blown out was because of their own tenacious defense. Dallas was flying around the ball defensively, which was only fitting considering the team was honoring former safety Darren Woodson at halftime of the game.

  Woodson became the twenty-first member of the illustrious Ring of Honor, which is the Cowboys’ Hall of Fame, an exclusive group led by a one-man committee of Jerry Jones. Woodson was a quiet, but always steady defensive force for the 1990s teams that featured Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, and a dominating offensive line.

  One of the hardest-hitting players in Cowboys’ history and the team’s all-time leading tackler, Woodson no doubt appreciated what he was watching on the field as both teams were trading big hits. There was, though, a scary moment just before halftime during a special teams play when Cowboys safety Jeff Heath caught Seattle receiver Ricardo Lockette with a big block that sent Lockette to the ground, where he lay motionless for about ten minutes.

  Heath was flagged on the play for a blind side block, but wasn’t fined later in the week after NFL officials reviewed the play. However, some of Lockette’s teammates took offense and tried to come after Heath for what they perceived to be a dirty hit.

  Whenever there was any confrontation, Bryant was usually in the middle of it. However, as Lockette remained on the ground, Bryant had a rather heated conversation with the officials, and the Fox TV cameras showed him mouthing the words, “that’s what he gets.” By the time halftime rolled around, social media had taken over. Screen shots and Vines taken off the TV screen were posted, and reposted, and quickly went viral, insinuating that Bryant was talking about Lockette, an assumption that Bryant made sure to address when the game was over.

  As for the rest of the game, Hardy got himself involved in the third quarter, batting a pass from Russell Wilson up in the air and then catching it for an interception deep in Seattle
territory. The play was expected to lead to a touchdown, but even with Bryant back in the lineup, quarterback Matt Cassel and the offense couldn’t find the end zone against the always-stingy Seattle defense.

  Still, the Cowboys managed four field goals from kicker Dan Bailey, which late in the fourth quarter was enough for a 12–10 lead. But in the end, Wilson showed some poise and calmly drove the Seahawks into field goal range for a game-winning kick, giving Seattle the 13–12 victory.

  No matter if the Cowboys hung in there longer than the experts predicted. No matter if the defense turned in one of its best games of the season. The bottom line was simple: this once 2–0 football team was now 2–5 and had two more games remaining before their starting quarterback, Tony Romo, could return.

  The frustration was felt in the locker room afterward. Just a week after he had played peacemaker on the sidelines with Hardy and the special teams huddle, and a few days after he had tried to convince Randle to get to the facility after storming out, Bryant now took his turn to go off.

  This time, the media got the wrath, although the person who initially put the Vine video together was a Fox TV reporter from another city.

  By the time Bryant was back in the locker room, obviously frustrated with another loss and catching just two passes for twelve yards, the receiver chastised the reporters for wrongly accusing him of “trash talking” Lockette, when he was actually talking to the referees, which isn’t exactly a preferred practice either.

  “I won’t ever, ever, ever, ever wish bad on a player that’s been knocked down,” Bryant yelled, standing near his locker deep within the bowels of AT&T Stadium. “C’mon man. Stop with the bullshit. Don’t put clips together and do that. (The conversation) didn’t have nothing to do with (Lockette). I swear on my daughter’s soul I would never in my life do that to anybody.”

  Bryant’s rant was genuine and certainly believable. Again, he was just talking to the wrong group because these reporters were mainly standing around his locker room trying to ask him about returning to the field for the first time in six weeks, not something that was floating around the Internet.