Mavs up, Cowboys down

The Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks may share the city of Dallas as their home, but for this year, that may be where the similarities end.

The Dallas Cowboys came into Fall 2015 with championship aspirations, which have gone down the drain as the season went along.

The Dallas Mavericks came into Fall 2015 with talk about how bad the team would be and if they should tank but a quarter of the way into the season, they have overachieved.

The reason for the Cowboys’ demise has been injuries, to Orlando Scandrick, Tony Romo, Dez Bryant among others.

The Mavs optimism is also due to injuries, but in the other way. Chandler Parsons, Wes Matthews, and JaVale McGee are all recovering from injuries are slowly getting back to being the players they usually are.

The Cowboys were unable to withstand their injury period, going 0-7 without Romo.

The Mavs are doing just fine, as they boast the 4^th best record in the Western Conference at 10-7 with Parsons, Matthews, and McGee all on minute restrictions.

The inability has plenty of people questioning how good of a coach Jason Garrett really is (nobody expects success without your franchise QB but one win in seven games is not too much to ask).

The Dallas Mavericks success has a lot of people pointing to the coaching excellence on display by Rick Carlisle.

And lastly,

The Dallas Cowboys brought in drama in the form of Greg Hardy to add to Dez Bryant, who has had a few locker room outbursts.

The Dallas Mavericks got rid of pretty much all of the drama in their locker room (Monta Ellis, Rajon Rondo) and have been completely drama-free.

    Obviously, the sports of football and basketball are drastically different, specifically the physicality that leads to injuries. But if you are just a DFW sports fan, at least you have the Mavs to root for right now. Oh, and the Dallas Stars are 19-5 and atop their conference. Maybe it’s the magic of the American Airlines Center, who knows.

Dez Bryant Timeline November 1st - November 12th

I’ve seen a lot of stuff being tossed around regarding Dez Bryant’s outburst against the media today so I just want to provide a timeline of events that led to this. I’ll give this disclaimer right now, if you’re just an irrational, die-hard Cowboys and Dez Bryant fan, that’s completely fine and I get it but this might be a waste of time for you because this is about to just be the straight facts.

1. Dez Bryant returns to game action against the Seattle Seahawks on November 1^st and caught two balls for 12 yards.
2. Bryant goes to the locker room after the game to find that some non-Dallas reporter (I believe from Houston), tweeted out a video of Bryant saying “that’s what you get” is regards to Seahawks receiver Ricardo Lockette getting hit and seriously injured.
3. Bryant calls reporters to his locker and vehemently denies that he ever said that. He told the media present, the local Dallas media, that it was all the doing of “bullshit media” and took the anger out on them. He left the locker room yelling plenty of expletives towards the media.
4. Bryant didn’t talk the entire week following the Seahawks game. On Friday, ESPN Dallas’ Jean-Jacques Taylor wrote a column that basically said if the Cowboys are going to win, they need more than two catches for 12 yards from their superstar receiver. In the piece Taylor did acknowledge that it was Bryant’s first game back so there may be rust, he was going against All-Pro Richard Sherman, and of course, there was no Tony Romo.
5. Bryant read the piece and did not like it so when the media entered the locker room Friday afternoon, Bryant looked for Taylor. But Taylor had been sick for a couple of weeks and just so happened to be at the doctors at that time. Bryant told other reporters, among other things, that he did not agree or like the piece. Later on twitter, Bryant interacted with a fan that was defending him and called Taylor a “coward”.
6. Bryant then went out and had a great game against the Philadelphia Eagles, but the Cowboys lost their sixth straight game. Bryant left the locker room immediately following the game, not meeting with reporters. Though the reason is not known, Bryant did have a birthday party scheduled for after the game so that may have contributed, but he did not speak. He remained out of sight until today, Thursday November 12^th.
7. By reports, NBC’s Pat Doney first asked Bryant if he was going to meet with the media today. That led to Bryant blasting him, which was then followed by a verbal confrontation between Bryant and Taylor. In the midst of this wide receiver Devin Street interfered and accused Taylor of calling the derogatory  “n” word. Bryant, whether he heard it or not, agreed with Street. Doney and others around the situation deny that Taylor ever used that kind of language.
8. This exchange was then described by Robert Klemko of The MMQB. Bryant left he locker room and saw his tweet. He did not believe the tweet painted an accurate picture so he came back and went off on Klemko. This entire locker room situation went on for 15-20 minutes before tight end Jason Witten tried to calm down Bryant, head coach Jason Garrett came in the locker room and the PR staff of the Cowboys calmed things down.

Now, that is the series of events the past two weeks regarding Dez Bryant. I’ll start by saying I know Jean-Jacques Taylor and, not that he needs me or anybody to defend him, but there is no way he uttered the “n” word to Devin Street. Are Street and Bryant lying? I won’t accuse them of that, tempers were flaring they may have mistakenly heard that. But as many reporters around the situation said, they did not hear it. As far as Bryant’s frustration, remember, he was wrongfully accused by non-Dallas media member of a pretty disgusting thing (celebrating another players injury) just 11 days ago. On top of that, the Cowboys have lost six games in a row for the first time since Dez Bryant was just a year old in 1989. 
Bryant’s rookie season the Cowboys went 6-10 but that was the year Wade Phillips was fired midseason and they got things going with Jason Garrett. Bryant was just a rookie and the blame was on the head coach so he didn’t face much scrutiny. Since then, he has endured three consecutive 8-8 seasons and one 12-4 season. So, Bryant isn’t used to losing so maybe that has something to do with his frustration as well.

Now, knowing the facts, you are free to make your judgment.