FORT WORTH, Texas — Despite an ability to avoid the Super Bowl that makes the Detroit Lions feel better about themselves, the Dallas Cowboys retain a quality that even among the most reliable losers in sports makes them unique.
We will watch the Dallas Cowboys with the same level of perverse curiosity when they lose as we do when we think they've got a shot.
"Dallas is the one outlier, maybe just a few more," NBC NFL Sunday Night Football sideline reporter Michele Tafoya told me in a phone interview this week. "Or when Brett Favre played; people loved to watch him."
Considering this team has not reached the NFC Championship Game since the 1995 season, the fact that we still care this much makes us all eternally optimistic. Or dumb. Or masochists. Or just perpetually bored.
You pick.
But what Hall of Famer Jerry Jones and his Cowboys are doing now will test our patience for all of it, because what the past six months have taught us is that we can watch or do something else.
The Cowboys are 9.5-point underdogs against the Philadelphia Eagles for their game on NBC's Sunday Night Football broadcast.
We are now in the NFL "flex scheduling" window, which means this will likely be the last time the Cowboys will be featured in the prime time slot this season, at least when it comes to NBC.
"We are calling it, 'This,' " Tafoya said, her tongue in cheek. "They have a rookie starting quarterback (Ben DiNucci), and this once phenomenal offensive line is now a shell of what it once was.
"And," she said while laughing, "first place in the division is on the line. Our approach is to find some interesting stories, and people just are always intrigued by the Dallas Cowboys. They just are."
The Cowboys have one remaining NBC prime time game on the schedule, Dec. 20 against the San Francisco 49ers. It's hard to see NBC not dumping that game.
The Cowboys are scheduled to play the Ravens in Baltimore on Thursday, Dec. 3, and the NFL won't be able to flex its way out of that can't-watch matchup.
How much longer will people consume not just another disappointing/tease Cowboys team but a terrible group during a time when quarantine taught us all we can make do with other devices?
What happened in the last seven days is not your standard week of Cowboys Cowflop. Anyone over the age of 3 who has followed the Cowboys is accustomed to a bad week, or annual disappointment.
This week, however, was a joy ride in the time machine to the great days of the Dave Campo era. If you don't remember the magic of 2002, just know that without it there is no Bill Parcells' era with the Dallas Cowboys.
Last weekend, the backup quarterback, Andy Dalton, had his head nearly blown off in Washington D.C., while his teammates stood around and watched.
The team is blown out by your standard bad Washington Football Team, which, by the way, should be their name for good.
Defensive coordinator Mike Nolan had to pause during a press conference because he got Tabasco sauce in his eye.
The Cowboys cut a handful of players, including defensive back Daryl Worley, and defensive tackle Dontari Poe because he was too fat.
They traded defensive end Everson Griffen to Detroit for what will amount to a pair of tickets to a Lions' preseason game.
During a press conference with coach Mike McCarthy, a member of the media openly groaned about a colleague's question, which is ironic because the groaner in question never asks anything.
During his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan, Jerry Jones told host Shan Shariff to "shut up and let me answer" his question; note that J.J. apologized to Shan and co-host R.J. Choppy as he singed off.
This week is one week after a few anonymous Cowboys players blamed the coaching staff to NFL Network reporter Jane Slater.
This is not a football team.
This is just another clown show.
The Cowboys' season is no different than "The Bachelorette," "Cobra Kai" or umpteen million other selections available on Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Apple+ and on and on and on, just only without the entertainment value.
Tafoya is right in that people will watch the Cowboys in a way like few other franchises when they lose. There is a sector of the population that takes joy in the Cowboys' suffering.
But how much more do any of you want this? Where is the joy in this?
The last six months taught us we can re-set norms, and whatever we thought we needed we don't, which now includes another clown season by the Cowboys.
