Newsgroup: it.sport.americani
Titolo: Omaggio al grande Michael Irvin

We're watching end of the Michael Irvin era
By Tim Cowlishaw
The Dallas Morning News
(KRT)
IRVING - While scholars debate whether a new century starts in 2001 or has
already begun, the Cowboys simply are looking for a fresh start. They are in
desperate need of something new, specifically a victory over a team called
New.
Check the stats. Going back to Dec. 6, 1988, the Cowboys have lost to New
Orleans, the New York Giants, New England, the New York Jets and New Orleans
again. Defying that trend against the Giants on Sunday afternoon would shove
the Cowboys into the playoffs, which is why all that kicking and screaming
was heard coming out of Jerry Jones' office this past week.
If you're excited about this team's playoff chances, go ahead and join Jerry
in the quest for something new. From this angle, Sunday's game is more about
an ending and the passing of an era than it is about a beginning.
Sunday will be Michael Irvin's final game as a Cowboy, his final appearance
as an athlete. No, he's not going to play. He'll be walking the sidelines in
a warmup suit just as he has done since his career unofficially ended on the
Veterans Stadium turf Oct. 10.
No, there has been no official word from Michael although the congenital
condition that was discovered in the wake of the injury makes certain that
no team would risk putting Irvin back inside a helmet. And Irvin, who has
done some stupid things in his life, is far from being a stupid individual.
That retirement announcement will come this off-season, maybe even later
this month. And by then it will be too late.
Not every great talent gets to leave with the Lombardi Trophy cradled in his
arms. Not every player gets to do a John Elway or a Michael Jordan exit.
Stuck on the injured reserve list, watching a hapless offense lose game
after game in which the opponent scores but 13 points - this is not the way
Irvin should have gone out.
If you didn't figure out what Irvin meant to the Cowboys when he caught
those 740 passes for 62 touchdowns in his first 11 seasons or when he caught
balls for 400 yards in four NFC title games or when he scored those two
game-breaking touchdowns in the first Super Bowl win over Buffalo, maybe you
figured it out this season.
The Cowboys don't win games on a regular basis because they don't move the
football on a consistent basis. There's nowhere Troy Aikman particularly
wants to throw the ball on third downs, and there's no receiver who
particularly wants it in those situations.
Irvin always wanted it, had to have it. Aikman's arm and Emmitt Smith's
wheels guided this team to three Super Bowls and its Team of the '90s
status, but Irvin supplied the heart.
If your dominant image of Irvin is that floor-length fur coat in the
courthouse, so be it. The view from here says that the man paid a heavy
financial and emotional price for the dumb things he did and even for things
he didn't do.
Along the way, he did get a few dollars back from Channel 5. I said he
wasn't stupid.
If Irvin struggled with his image off the field, it's in part because he
defined himself on the field. The NFL is filled with great players who
tolerate practice because they know it's part of the job. Irvin made himself
a great player because he loved practice, he loved the sweat, he loved
anything that connected him with the game.
Today, he leaves the game. His next appearance in Texas Stadium will be as a
former Cowboy. Even now, nearly three months since the neck injury, that has
to be hard for him to fathom.
No, not everyone leaves this cruel sport on his own terms, but wouldn't it
be fitting if Irvin was to gain one final moment of recognition?
Wouldn't it be nice if at the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter,
whether the Cowboys are up by 10 or down by 20, Irvin was to be given one
final standing ovation?
You can find him somewhere on the Dallas sideline. Maybe the folks operating
the endzone scoreboards will help point him out.
Irvin's final day in the arena isn't what he would have liked, but he
doesn't have to walk away unnoticed.
If you appreciated what he did on the field, applaud him at the two-minute
warning. If the guy next to you wonders why you're clapping, try to explain
the swagger that Irvin brought to this franchise in its finest decade.
And if the guy next to you is a Giants fan and he starts laughing, tell him
that if New York can embrace Darryl Strawberry and Latrell Sprewell, no one
in Dallas needs to feel guilty for giving one final hand to Michael Irvin.
(c) 1999, The Dallas Morning News.
Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at
http://www.dallasnews.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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Cowboys Chatrooms.....Dallas Cowboys.....Back to Reporter Online

 By Tim Cowlishaw
Penso che attraverseremo anni bui.... Aikman, Smith, Sanders, Smith ed altri
che
chiudono la porta alla carriera.....
Ma penso che con un tecnico abituato a modificare la squadra ogni anno
(proviene
dalle universita...) faremo meno fatica a ritornare sulla vetta ......come
ci spetta di diritto .....
Siamo o no "The America Team" ????
Eugenio
