To come up with situations less optimistic than the one the Cowboys are in right now requires leaving the realm of sports, and it's more than a little distasteful to compare millionaire underachievers to people who are actually suffering.
So we'll just say that things are mighty bleak around Valley Ranch. Teams that are 1-6 don't make the playoffs with much regularity, while teams that are 1-6 and starting Jon Kitna usually don't even bother talking about the playoffs because they've given hope long ago.
There's always one man who still sees the sunshine through the clouds, however, and never loses faith in the magic that can happen when good men come together and fight for a common goal. For the 2010 Cowboys, that man is Roy Williams.
"I think we can go nine in a row. People can call me stupid or whatever, but this football team has the core of players, it has the supporting cast of players to win nine in a row. It would be a great storybook ending. I don't know if they'd put us in the Hall of Fame for that, if this team was going to go on and win the Super Bowl, but it's a tough feat to cross. If there is any team in the league that can do it, it's the Dallas Cowboys."
What would it take to make Williams throw in the towel? If he came to work on Friday and found out that all of his teammates were zombies, would that make him give up? What if the team announced that Wade Phillips got a six-year extension?
The immediate reaction to this is to double over in laughter until you feel tears rolling down your face. This Cowboys team has the same chance of winning nine games in a row as Charlie Sheen has of passing a drug test. As ridiculous as the notion might be, however, Williams isn't worthy of your scorn.
All year people have been begging for someone on the Cowboys to stand up and care enough about the team to put themselves on the line. Those pleas have been greeted with deaf ears and the backs of hands as the Cowboys continually make it clear that the team motto of "Apathy Forever" remains strong.
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Williams is going the other way. Words aren't going to change a thing, of course, but given the way the team has played in the last two games it is nice to see that there are some players who haven't simply given up. So keep it up, Roy, because we're in need of a revolution and they usually start with one man who believes that things can be different.
In the end, though, this whole episode merely reinforces something that we've written before: When Roy Williams is the only Cowboy thriving, things are really bad in Dallas.
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