Cowboys Romo And Dez And The Positives Of Fighting
By Mike Fisher | @fishsports
OXNARD (105.3 THE FAN) -- When you go 8-8 for three straight seasons, your leadership gets questioned. When you go 12-4, it's suddenly assumed that you've miraculously discovered leadership. But when Dez Bryant is losing self-control and is reined in by some forcefully funny words by "big brother'' Tony Romo?
That's leadership for all to see.
"If you break your hand, then I'm going to end up breaking mine, because I'm going to be so mad at you, I'm gonna hit you,'' the Cowboys QB told his receiving star when Dez was slow to cool after a fight with teammate Tyler Patmon. "So no more of this hitting and no more swinging, let's move on and get to work.''
And … the fight was over.
Critics continue to ponder the negatives of the fight and the value in even covering it. (In Bristol, I believe they are planning a 90-minute coverage special to determine whether the coverage represented over-coverage of the Cowboys fight coverage.) But football-practice fights can be as positive as they are commonplace.
Dez and Patmon hugged it out later and likely bonded as brothers. There was a pep in the step of players that helps electrify people through the dog days of camp. There is a fulfilling of the definition of why they are even here, says team leader Jason Witten.
"We all got a shirt that says, 'Fight,''' Witten notes. "Competition is what it's all about. Nobody competes more than Dez Bryant.''
But bonding and leadership is also what this is about. And what Romo said to Dez (as relayed to 105.3 The Fan by Cowboys COO Stephen Jones) put all of that on display. That's why it's OK to "expose'' all of this: Because maybe what's being exposed is a positive.
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