Does CULTURE matter? | Do YOU agree with RETIRED team numbers?

In the latest episode of "Victory Formation," Prescott and Eddie dive into the latest updates and emotional highs and lows of being a Dallas Cowboys fan. We discuss the excitement surrounding rookie signings and minicamp, emphasizing the importance of leadership and accountability in shaping the team's culture. Prescott shares his vivid memory of a heartbreaking fumble against Seattle, while Eddie recalls his own emotional reactions as a fan, as we talk about our best and worst memories as fans. They also touch on the significance of strategic player signings and the evolving traditions within the team. We also discuss if retiring numbers as a team should be a thing or not. Tap in and get the latest from the Victory Formation Podcast

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Introduction to the Podcast (00:00:37)
Prescott introduces the "Victory Formation" podcast and welcomes Eddie to the show.

Rookie Minicamp Excitement (00:01:28)
Discussion about the excitement of new players and their stories from rookie minicamp.

Fantasy Football Dynasty Draft (00:02:05)
Prescott explains the intricacies of a dynasty fantasy football draft and player selection.

Player Evaluation and Hindsight (00:03:29)
Reflection on player evaluations and the unpredictability of player success post-draft.

Undrafted Free Agents (00:04:52)
Discussion about the fate of undrafted free agents and roster cuts during the offseason.

Rookies Signing Contracts (00:05:39)
Update on all rookies signing contracts and attending rookie minicamp.

Rookie Minicamp Overview (00:06:13)
Eddie describes rookie minicamp as an orientation for new players joining the team.

Comparison with Other Teams (00:07:26)
Discussion about the disparity in rookie minicamp attendance compared to other teams.

Culture Change in the Cowboys (00:10:31)
Overview of the changes in the Cowboys' front office and team culture this season.

Earning the Star Tradition (00:11:35)
Explanation of the Cowboys' tradition where rookies must earn their star on the helmet.

Leadership Dynamics (00:15:11)
Discussion on the importance of leadership and player positioning in the locker room.

Mandela Effect and Cowboys Fan Perception (00:16:13)
Prescott and Eddie discuss misconceptions about Cowboys fans and their expectations.

Accountability in Team Culture (00:20:05)
Discussion on how a culture shift can lead to improved accountability and fewer penalties.

Team Culture and Accountability (00:21:13)
Discussion on the importance of leadership in addressing penalties and turnovers for team improvement.

Rookie Number Controversy (00:23:15)
Eddie shares his thoughts on retiring jersey numbers and the implications for team flexibility.

Tradition vs. Modernity (00:27:37)
Exploration of how outdated traditions can hinder team progress and the need for reevaluation.

Draft Strategy and Cap Space (00:31:21)
Analysis of the Cowboys' approach to free agency and draft strategies for team improvement.

Player Draft Picks (00:35:13)
Discussion on which current Cowboys players would be ideal for a keeper league draft.

Favorite and Least Favorite Memories (00:41:42)
Eddie shares his most cherished and painful moments as a Cowboys fan, highlighting emotional experiences.

Podcast Episode Timestamps
Heartbreaking Moments in Cowboys History (00:44:55)
Discussion about a painful memory involving a crucial fumble during a game against Seattle.

Personal Reactions to the Loss (00:45:24)
Eddie shares his emotional response to the game and how it affected his relationship.

Becoming a Cowboys Fan (00:46:41)
Prescott recounts

Transcript

Automatically Transcribed With Podsqueeze

Intro 00:00:05  Yeah. Come on. Here we go. Here I come. Here we go. Here I come. Here we go. Yeah. Yeah. When I fall through a lot.

Intro 00:00:16  Do not lie. Cause how you walkin with a lion. Got me feeling like Mike I've been on the way. The team on my back like a biker. Shawty wanna be with a star. But you lucky if I invite you. We can take her to the next spot. They yellin like Prescott. Everybody like there ain't no brakes, no rest stop. We tryna get your head chopped. The whole club yellin everybody.

Prescott 00:00:37  Here we go, here we go Victory Formation podcast I am Prescott, that is Eddie. Eddie, say what's up to the people.

Eddie 00:00:45  What's up ladies and gentlemen, what's going on? Welcome to another week of cowboy football.

Prescott 00:00:53  They missed our faces, Eddie.

Eddie 00:00:55  Oh, there we are.

Prescott 00:00:56  I feel.

Eddie 00:00:56  It. I mean, I miss my face every. I haven't looked on my face in a while.

Prescott 00:01:01  I know, I mean, my mom thinks I'm handsome, so I guess that's all right.

Eddie 00:01:06  I know people used to say, I have a face for radio. I don't understand what they meant.

Prescott 00:01:10  But we. And are we in a we're in a good time right now. So drive us over. We got when we got new. It's like Christmas is over. We got new toys to play with. We outside riding a bike. We inside playing on a new PlayStation. That's what you know. So that's how we do. Yeah.

Eddie 00:01:27  It was.

Prescott 00:01:28  Then.

Eddie 00:01:29  This last week was kind of fun, just learning the little intricacies and all the little, little things about these new guys. Like, you hear all the little stories about what happened when they came up and they're recruiting.

Prescott 00:01:42  Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. The kind of guy, say, the nun from a pool from drowning back in the eighth grade. All kind of good stories pop out. But I like this. It's it's it's it's opium time.

Prescott 00:01:52  It's like nothing bad. It's nothing bad. Like, why did we draft this guy every, like, all they're finding is this good stuff as to why this person is great for our team, even though.

Eddie 00:02:03  We didn't draft another Michigan player.

Prescott 00:02:05  Yeah, man. I'm glad. And and you know what? You know what? That popped in my mind today. Man, I had a dynasty draft today, right? Those who don't know. Dynasty is a form of fantasy football. But it's more in depth, intricate. Because, you know, normally in fantasy you wait till about August. September. You draft. You play the season. Once the season is over, you're done with dynasty. You draft one time, you draft all the players you want, and then you keep those players year after year. So it's different strategy. You just can't pick all the best players. You got to pick young players, old players, players going to be around for a while. Pick players you think might be good in 2 or 3 years.

Prescott 00:02:41  Stash them on a taxi squads, stuff like that. So when we were doing that, we had the draft. After you draft these players, you got to drop players because you didn't have so many spots on your roster. So once you draft five new players, now you're going to be over the limit. So you got to drop people. So now you got to decide, do I want this new rookie who might be something or somebody I drafted a year, two years ago. Like, one player that caught my eye. Remember the guy from, I want to say Louisville. Malachi Corley. Remember him? Man, I was pounding the table for the Cowboys to draft that guy in like the third or fourth round last year. And he was he went to the Jets and I I'm not going to say he sucks yet because you know he's going to be in there one year. But he got dropped. And I was like man I remember when we won that guy. So it's like hindsight is always 2020 where he's like, well, I wanted that guy.

Prescott 00:03:29  But we didn't get him. Now he's going to blow up somewhere else. And then they just never blow up and they just fall by the wayside. You never in sports, you don't get to go back and and give people a, you know, like the Mel Kiper's and the people who do the draft thing, maybe never go back and be like, you know what? You really were only 16% right and you get paid millions of dollars. And it was just funny to me how that happened like that.

Eddie 00:03:50  You know, football is is a game where, you know, if you're a star, you can be a star right away. There's not really that many, many guys that do that though. Basketball, baseball. When you you have a chance to be a shining star right from the very beginning because it just is football. I really do believe it's like it's like second or third year before we really know who the player is that you drafted. So and but it is weird to see people just, like, disappear, right? Like like that kid.

Prescott 00:04:22  I don't know.

Eddie 00:04:23  Like like the kid that we were talking about just the other day where we we loved that Isaiah Lin, UEFA pick up that one time and we're like, this kid is the next. Micah. Like, it was going to be everything we needed. And then he got stolen. We were all heartbroken, like, oh, I gotta take this guy away from him. Who? Where is he? Who is he? Where? I don't even know. I don't he didn't play any games or anything. It's just I definitely understand what you're what you're saying because I, I don't remember.

Prescott 00:04:52  Especially those especially the undrafted free agents when, Insulin. we bring em in and we're like, oh, man, how does Guy not get drafted? And then when it comes time to cut and players like, yep. And then everybody does their, their cut predictions and like, we can't cut this guy. We can't cut this guy. We can't cut this guy. Somebody's going to snatch him up and steal him from us.

Prescott 00:05:12  And not only do they not snatch him up now do anything for us. So it's like we were just freaking out. But then, of course, it's it's the offseason. We gotta have something to think about, talk about until the games start going on.

Eddie 00:05:24  True true true true. So this week, a lot of, a lot not a lot of news that is really exciting. But like, first thing we talk about is, how all of our rookies have signed. So even the.

Prescott 00:05:39  Little.

Eddie 00:05:40  Sign everybody's signed.

Prescott 00:05:41  It was a couple. It was a couple guys who had held out for a little bit. So everybody signed.

Eddie 00:05:44  Yeah, easy signed yesterday. And I think the last guy that needed to sign signed I don't know if it was yesterday, last night or this morning, but everybody signed. Everybody was at rookie minicamp, rookie minicamp, which started, I believe, on the first or the second. But, that was fun. We got a few stories and a few pictures and a few things, but rookie minicamp really is just an It's it's an orientation to the team for the player.

Eddie 00:06:13  Right? So there's not a lot to, like, learn from. you're just like, hey, this is where your your locker is going to be. This is and then they walk through a few things. This is where, you know, this is how we're going to coach. It's just like any other job that you get, you know, those first two days.

Prescott 00:06:30  About to say think.

Eddie 00:06:31  About.

Prescott 00:06:31  Or think about the job you have. Yeah. Your first day on your job, they don't start saying, okay, now go sign this new line or work this contract. Yeah. Like when you go through, you go to HR, you got to sign paperwork. You find out where your desk is at, they show you where the cafeteria is. They show you who's important to know where to park. You know, things like that.

Eddie 00:06:50  It's really.

Prescott 00:06:51  Exciting. You know.

Eddie 00:06:52  It's so.

Prescott 00:06:52  Exciting. It's Still exciting, but. But that's what they did.

Eddie 00:06:55  Eyes wide open, like, oh my God.

Eddie 00:06:57  You know, like, I, I, I rooted for this team all my life. And now I'm sitting in a locker across from that player. You know what I mean? It's just it's a crazy, reality for these guys. But, I saw a couple tweets yesterday that tried to tweak things, which is really funny. Like they said, Dallas only had 15 guys at the rookie minicamp, but the Miami Dolphins had like 72 players out there. Yeah, right. And I'm like.

Prescott 00:07:26  It.

Eddie 00:07:26  Was insane. Like that's weird. That's a weird thing to to report. Why did that happen? Because they had a tryout. They had they invited anybody and everybody to show up for a tryout. Right. So it.

Prescott 00:07:37  Wasn't. She's had one, too.

Eddie 00:07:39  It was like that. Yeah. So it wasn't. They didn't. Maybe. Maybe it was the Chiefs and not the Dolphins. But I was just paraphrasing like.

Prescott 00:07:45  That was.

Eddie 00:07:45  The Chiefs. So they tried they that person tried to flip it like oh Dallas doesn't have very many people showing up at their mini camps, I wonder why.

Eddie 00:07:53  Yeah, and because look at the Chiefs know how to win. No, no the Chiefs don't know how to win by having that many people there having a fucking tryout for like a left tackle. So they invited like 35 people off of their off the couch to come do that. That's not how it was.

Prescott 00:08:07  It was 80. It was 80 people. And one of them was like Patrick Mahomes brother in law or cousin or something like that. It was it was crazy. I think it was.

Eddie 00:08:17  Crazy to make.

Prescott 00:08:17  People there.

Eddie 00:08:18  Yeah, yeah, I think of people. What was that? I hate the fucking Eagles. But it was a good it was a good movie. The the movie with, Mark Wahlberg in it when he tried.

Prescott 00:08:29  Oh yeah. Yeah yeah yeah, man. Mark Wahlberg when he tried out. I know he's talking about what about that that that TV show we had with with Michael Irvin, how Jesse Holly got on the team. I don't know if you remember that.

Eddie 00:08:39  Yeah. No, I didn't know that he got on the team because of that. But yeah I don't know.

Prescott 00:08:43  Yeah. It was it was a it was a reality show. And at the end whoever won got to be a walk on like a basically a walk on. And it was crazy because he ended up making a team and he ended up picking him because he was like, Tony Romo was a, you know, gets out of the pocket, he needs a big wide receiver. It came down between him and a cornerback, and they and Michael Irvin picked him because he felt that he could help Romo best. And man, that turned into a success story. That guy ended up playing in the NFL. And then now he's a like a podcaster or whatever. So I guess it worked.

Eddie 00:09:17  Oh man, I think you missed the you missed pronounced something as success. I don't remember Jesse Hall, but it is not.

Prescott 00:09:27  That big that he caught that big pass in the in the 40 Niners overtime game where he put the ball up celebrating when he got tackled at the two yard line, when he should have scored a touchdown.

Prescott 00:09:37  But he was so slow.

Eddie 00:09:39  Romo rib injury game.

Prescott 00:09:42  Yeah. Like he punctured a lung. Yeah.

Eddie 00:09:46  So the next thing.

Prescott 00:09:47  You have something interesting to say. Hold on, hold on before we move on. Just so people know how many new players we have this year well, not new players, but how many like the front office was compared to the last three years. I say in the last three years they were more busy this year than the last three years combined, in my eyes. Really. So this is what they did. They resigned ten of their own free agents. They signed nine outside free agents. They drafted nine new college players and signed nine new undrafted free agents. So basically that 3727 brand new players, it's 27 brand new players. And then ten were was players that was already on the team, but they resigned them. So 37 players, they did a transaction for this year.

Eddie 00:10:31  But remember you know there's ebbs and flows of this. The reason why that happened is because we had so many free agents next.

Eddie 00:10:40  Exactly. We brought that up last year where we're like what? What are we going to do? Half our team, it was like.

Prescott 00:10:46  50 like 50 players like contract was ending, so they had to do something crazy. Yeah.

Eddie 00:10:52  So the next thing that we had to talk about was, the tradition. I think some other teams have a tradition like this, but ours, I think is more is a little bit more special. I think it's cool. I have to earn a star. I don't know if anybody knew that was that. When they get. When they get all their equipment and everything, they get everything. Everything that says Dallas Cowboys all over it. Except their helmet doesn't have a star, and they have to actually earn it. And it's a it's a ceremony when when they actually do get it because it's like, you know, a coach will will bring something up and be like, you know, for two days in a row, you know, Prescott's been busting his ass out here and showing everything he deserves to star now.

Eddie 00:11:35  Right. It would be. Yeah, it's it's kind of a cool situation. I don't know how many people knew that that happened, but, you know, some other teams utilize, you know, the stripe, I think, You know, college teams use it a lot, too.

Prescott 00:11:51  Yeah.

Eddie 00:11:52  So, yeah, that's I thought that was kind of interesting to talk about. It's kind of a fun.

Prescott 00:11:56  I do like.

Eddie 00:11:57  That.

Prescott 00:11:57  I, I do like that to to because, I mean, because, you know, a lot of those rookies come in, especially the blue chippers. They come in thinking, man, I was I was like stuff like Tyler Booker, you big stuff in college in Alabama. So it's like to, you know, to put them kind of like I and I think it's good because they replaced they used that to replace like the hazing. I'm pretty sure hazing still goes on. Like when they made this Bryant pay $30,000 for that meal. Oh, no. They gave crazy money to.

Eddie 00:12:22  Those those rookie, the rookie meals and carrying bags and shoulder pads. Like, that's.

Prescott 00:12:31  That should never go away. Yeah, that that's that should never go.

Eddie 00:12:34  Shoulder pads or helmets. back to the locker room ever. And then those, those meals were just getting extravagant because it is. It's insane. Invite everybody. And then, you know, when they.

Prescott 00:12:45  Order whatever they.

Eddie 00:12:46  Want. Bottles of wine for home.

Prescott 00:12:47  And yeah, to take it home like that. Like that's crazy. I'll be.

Eddie 00:12:51  Mad. Every once in a while. There's a rookie that says, fuck you, I'm not doing this.

Prescott 00:12:55  Yeah, exactly.

Eddie 00:12:56  And it's a big controversy.

Prescott 00:12:58  It's a lot. And it's like 50 for a meal to pay for the whole team. Like, oh, man, that's that's a but but usually they only do it to the first round. Who has the big contract. Yeah.

Eddie 00:13:09  And then.

Prescott 00:13:10  Anyway.

Eddie 00:13:11  Let's see last next couple things are well that's what I thought was pretty interesting is when we brought shoddy on everything that they were talking about was, you know, we're we're changing the culture.

Eddie 00:13:26  We have to change the culture, culture, culture, culture. And that was I don't know, that was like the hot word of the day that, you know, we need to change culture in the in the locker room, in the building when it comes to people saying our name. Right. You know, when you say you're a Dallas Cowboy fan out there, everybody always says, oh, is your Is it your year this year? Even though we'd never say that, I don't know how many. I don't know very many cowboy fans that have ever said, oh, we're going to the Super Bowl this year, don't we? Don't say that. But that's it's ingrained in, in our fandom. Right. So but, I thought was cool is that when the, the, a lot of the others were getting interviewed about, you know, why did you choose the Cowboys? You got to chose anybody. A lot of the answers came back with, I really liked the change in their culture, a lot of a lot of what they've what they're doing to change the building and, and the relationships that the players have with the coaches and the owners and even just the other players is really different.

Eddie 00:14:29  I was unaware that we allowed people to choose where their locker was. Yeah. And that usually doesn't happen very often. I mean, it happens in like high school and stuff, but once you get up to higher levels, I mean, things are decided for you. And I guess we were allowing people to sit wherever they wanted and stuff and sorry to sit down. We can't do that anymore. The locker room is is a religious place, and a lot of things go down in it and they move people around. And I really think that there's going to be a you're going to see a big difference in leadership this year because they did you see the the story of where some of them are sitting.

Prescott 00:15:11  Yeah. And they moved. Parsons right next to Dak. Right, right.

Eddie 00:15:16  See right in the middle. Right in front. My Micah and Dak are going to be sitting shoulder to shoulder crying after losses celebrating after wins, being leaders. you know ushering people in being the last one in the locker room making sure everybody you know it's all little things like that.

Eddie 00:15:37  Yeah. They're going to make a big difference. And I think this was so kind of.

Prescott 00:15:40  I remember like exactly what you said. You don't remember like how you said I don't I remember. Cowboys. Like there's a thing for that. It's called the Mandela Effect, where people, like a lot of people, misremember a fact and they take it as fact. So, like back in the day, a lot of people thought Nelson Mandela, you know, when he was in prison for a long time that he died in prison. A lot of people think, oh, he died in prison like. No, he lived until like like they thought he died in prison in the 1980s. He ended up dying. He he got free and he ended up dying in like, 2013. But people were like, I thought he died in prison. So many people remember that that's what they did was.

Eddie 00:16:13  The most famous Mandela is the Bernstein bears one. Oh, yeah. You know how the name has changed since we were little and or the, that the movie with, the comedian and, what's his name? I can't I'm slipping my, It's the black comedian that he was a, not a wizard, but when you a genie.

Eddie 00:16:43  What was that movie? Oh, Sinbad.

Prescott 00:16:46  Yeah. When I thought Sinbad was a was a was a Shazam. Yeah, I know you're talking about, like.

Eddie 00:16:51  Like, I, I don't know about you, but I, I remember that movie. I yeah.

Prescott 00:16:55  A lot of people remember that, but it never existed. Yeah. Yeah, I remember that one too.

Eddie 00:16:58  That's the Mandela effect. Like, we we grew up during it. And all of a sudden now, now we can't. You can scour the internet. You can't find it. That's strange.

Prescott 00:17:06  Yeah. And so the same thing with us. People think cowboys are obnoxious, like, oh, this is our year. We're in the cowboys discord. We hang around a lot of Cowboys fans like like not not casual fans. We hang around a lot of diehard fans. No one ever says, oh, this is our year. Oh, now, now we'll believe that we have a team that can win in the playoffs.

Prescott 00:17:27  Like, you know what? This team can win the Super Bowl. Now, some other people might not believe that, but based off talent, we believe this team can win the Super Bowl. Like we'll say that now. But we're not crazy. Like like.

Eddie 00:17:38  The.

Prescott 00:17:39  Terrible years, you know, the the terrible years when Drew Bledsoe was a quarterback, nobody was like, oh, this is our year. But for some reason, everybody is not. A Cowboys fan thinks we do that because they listen to the Stephen Naismith's and the and the crazy cowboy fans, the, the the Skip Bayless. And then that's who they attribute. Or they find the one crazy fan that gets a full body cowboy tattoo, and that's the person they put on TV and listen to. When it's thousands of us that look at that person like, that's a fool.

Eddie 00:18:06  I don't remember seeing any Dallas Cowboy Super Bowl tattoos. You see it all the time with like, just random teams like the Raiders and the Bucs.

Eddie 00:18:13  Exactly. Like, what are you doing?

Prescott 00:18:16  And they call us obnoxious. Like, no, we cheer our team. And when they lose, we go in there and we drag them appropriately if we think they suck that game. Oh, he he was terrible or he was good. This guy was good. But they think.

Eddie 00:18:28  We.

Prescott 00:18:28  Just blow the cowboys all we like. So yeah. So so trust me and anybody listening to this is not a cowboy fan. No real Cowboys fan do that. He does that to get clicks and likes.

Eddie 00:18:38  It's our year every year if it's not your year year, you know. If you're just like what you said earlier, if you're not playing to win, like if you're not going into the season thinking you're going to win, what the hell are you doing? But,

Prescott 00:18:49  And then even when we suck, we'll say, I mean, we got a decent team like, we we're not saying, oh, yeah, we're going to win the Super Bowl.

Prescott 00:18:56  We're like, I mean, hopefully we we made the playoffs and then anything can happen. Like that's usually our, you know, our mantra when, when, when when the season starts. But but just so you know but but anyway but but overall but yeah. But about the culture I do like that. So and one thing I do like about is what he said from day one, he, he's been going by that like he hasn't switched up like it's, it's not like, you know what, we want high character players that are leaders and then they go out there and draft Aaron Hernandez. You know like they didn't do that. Like they didn't flip flop like they said the kind of players they wanted like and they drafted the kind of players or like.

Eddie 00:19:37  elect me. And your grocery prices are going to go down. And from day one.

Prescott 00:19:43  Then as soon as it comes in, it's like, well, you know, it's kind of hard to get grocery prices down. Like he's not backtracking.

Prescott 00:19:49  But he said he was going to do from day one. Is, is is is what he did. It's like and so like me, I, I like that doesn't mean it's going to be successful. But I like when you say this and then you do this and then you have the your system is going to work.

Eddie 00:20:05  Like when, like when people are evaluating like they hire a new manager. Right. And they're all sitting around thinking like, for the last two months, this manager has done everything that he said he was going to do. And it's a great hire. Everything that he said he was going to do has, has come to fruition. So it doesn't he's nothing has proven to me that anything that he's said he's not is not going to happen.

Prescott 00:20:28  So now watch, I guarantee you I know you don't believe in this, but I guarantee you this is going to translate into us having less penalties this year. I promise you, I promise is going to happen.

Eddie 00:20:41  I know, I believe, I believe that the like having a culture shift like this, I don't think that I, I personally don't believe that the coach saying don't do a penalty is going to change anything.

Eddie 00:20:55  But the overall culture, like what you're saying is if you want to win, you're going to hold that other person accountable and you're going to hold that person accountable. And that person is going to say, oh man, fuck yeah, I jumped offsides. I can't do that to Micah. I can't do it to him again. You know.

Prescott 00:21:13  I don't think is is yelling at somebody like, stop doing those penalties. Like, all right, coach, you yelled at me. So I'm not going to do I think it's one of those things where where when it happened because they didn't have it as such. You know, like like for instance, with Dan Quinn. turnovers were very big to him. So like before he got here, our turnover was like, man, we had linebackers leading our team in interceptions consistently. But then when he got here, he held. Turnovers, interceptions by cornerbacks at a very high level. And it started happening because they could see this was important to him like me and my job.

Prescott 00:21:52  I want to know what's important to my boss so I can do that for him and make him happy or her happy or whoever. So, you know, that leads to my job security. So whenever people look at their leaders and see, well, what's important to that guy. So if they look at their leaders and see, oh, well, he doesn't really consider penalties to be that big of a deal. So chances are I'm not going to hold that as a bigger deal. So that's the part I think is going to change to where something like that is what he thinks is important. So they're going to be like, well, that's important to me too. Like how they thought turnovers were important when Dan Quinn was a you know, it should translate into that. So like they shouldn't have the dumb the dumb penalties like penalties are going to happen no matter who you are. Things are going to happen. But the dumb penalties were like lining up offsides. That should never happen, right? That stuff should never happen.

Eddie 00:22:42  And but it does happen. And it happens. I'm saying, but it doesn't. I don't know, I don't want to argue about this anymore because it's fucking dumb. We can't ask Mike McCarthy. Do you care about penalties? It's whatever, but.

Prescott 00:22:55  It's going to change. Trust me.

Eddie 00:22:56  Oh, yeah.

Prescott 00:22:57  Y'all remember this. Y'all remember this because because we're going to remember going to show Eddie how right I was at the end of the season.

Eddie 00:23:03  I guarantee you we're going to have less penalties. That doesn't have anything to do with because we don't have Mike McCarthy. There's nothing you can do to prove that. There's nothing you can do to prove it. Zero.

Prescott 00:23:13  It is. It's right. I say it is. It's right.

Eddie 00:23:15  It's what's the next thing we talk about is, Or what do you feel about? Because it is a big deal. knowing the the Giants are having a big deal about their, their rookie, their, their number one pick and his number. So and a lot of if you don't know the story.

Eddie 00:23:38  he he wore 11 in college. he came to the Giants and he said, you know, it would be really cool to be able to, you know, make the fans happy and to support me. Being a giant, I'd love to wear 56. Right. So he asked Lawrence Taylor if he could wear 56. And Lawrence Taylor said, you must be joking, right? I don't you're that's a joke. There's no one's going to wear that number. Yeah. No one can ever be me again. Kind of attitude. But if Lawrence Taylor is Lawrence Taylor, he's going to say stuff like that. But then, but then he, he decided, well, maybe I'm going to wear 11. And then now Phil Sims, him and his family were having a oh, no, you're not going to wear our daddy's number. What's frustrating to me and I'm I'll voice my opinion first. And then I want to know how you feel about it because a lot of people don't. I cannot stand Retiring numbers.

Eddie 00:24:35  I love the fact that, you know, teams have like Ring of Honor and and stuff like that, but there's not enough numbers in, for you to retire handfuls of numbers. Right? Because because those those guys are they're not 67, 66, 67. They're those are the, you know, like the quarterback numbers and the receiver numbers. And, you know, you you're you're handcuffing teams. So if if somebody I can understand, the Cowboys have a handful of numbers that they don't pass out. 22 eight 1230 used to be 33. Used to be 77. Right. But now they're handing those out and I, I myself my opinion is please, please hand those out. Let another player wear that number. It's not that person's name, It's a number, right? And you can always, celebrate him by having that ring of honor or having a statue up of that person in that number, but that's that person's. It's not that person's number, in my opinion. Does that make.

Prescott 00:25:47  Sense? Like it? It makes no sense to me because there's such finite numbers.

Prescott 00:25:53  Like if if they had a bigger bank of numbers like from 1 to 10,000, then I can understand retiree numbers. But is it literally 1 or 0 now because they just added zero 0 to 99? That's it. And on top of that, certain positions can only have certain numbers. So you're limited to. No, it's not like an offensive lineman career number 19. So it's like even certain positions are limited to certain numbers. So it's like it's very finite. And then the longer we go the more players are going to be there. Now, I understood the thought of it back in the day because people didn't think about it. But but they're like in the 1960s and 70s, when they didn't know that the league would be around, but and be so popular in 2025, they'd be like, oh yeah, this guy was very important. One of the founding fathers of this team. He's the reason why the Cowboys are so popular. I can understand the sentiment behind that. At a certain point, you got to realize, man, this might this league might be around for another hundred years.

Prescott 00:26:55  So what's it going to look like when we retire 72 numbers. And we have 60 players that have to split 30 numbers left. Like everybody can't be. If everybody's important, then nobody's important. So I'm telling you that that never was a thing to me where I'm like, oh yeah, he should never wear that number. Forget that. Get that guy number 22. Now, if you want to say this guy, is so good, we want to give him the number coming out of college. Kind of. Maybe. But even then I'm like, nah, because you never know, he might flame out because some people are very hot coming out of college and he might flame out. So give anybody a number. The number is not important. It's the name of the Bank of Jersey. And that's why the Ring of Honor is rare. And the Hall of Fame is there.

Eddie 00:27:37  Yeah, well, I think it just comes down to traditions. But then traditions sometimes have to be reevaluated. It's just.

Eddie 00:27:46  It's just the way that human nature is. You just can't keep going on with the same tradition because it just doesn't make sense later on.

Prescott 00:27:54  Yeah, because sometimes traditions made sense back in the day. Like a lot of things that we do now is because of how things were back in the 20s and 30s. Like as like as simple as it is, take gasoline. The reason we have gasoline powered cars is because the guy Rockefeller who made oil. When you refine oil at the very end, the waste, it's kind of like peeling a banana. You peel a banana, you eat the middle, you get the skin. You're like, what do I do with this? You throw it away when you refine oil. Gasoline is the end. It's like. And so they were just dumping it, throwing away gallons, hundreds, thousands of gallons. And he's like, man, I need to do something with this. So he had somebody invent an engine, a car engine that would run off gasoline so he could make money refining oil and off the waste from refining oil.

Prescott 00:28:40  That's how we have gasoline powered cars. That's the only reason we have that.

Eddie 00:28:43  Do you guys understand this? Like some people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on education. You just got educated by by Prescott Prescott about shit that you that you would learn in college. You guys are getting a full out education on this show.

Prescott 00:29:03  Yeah. So you don't have to do stuff just because that's how they did it back in the day. Now change. You can always change. There's nothing wrong with changing for the better. Just because something was done and it works doesn't mean that's the best way to do it now.

Eddie 00:29:19  I mean, it gets it gets difficult when. When it comes to like like Emmitt. Right. Let's take Emmitt, for example. Emmitt is the leading rusher in the NFL. Ever. No, he doesn't have a cowboy record. He doesn't. He doesn't win a couple of games. He leads the league ever in rushing. And I still don't believe that that number should be never used ever again.

Eddie 00:29:46  We can't ever see anybody wear that. No, I think that you you challenge people to, you know, celebrate somebody and then move forward. That's that's all.

Prescott 00:29:57  That's because you can never go back. Like, now what if like some, some numbers like like you said Aikman, Emmitt likes just take those two guys for, for, for example, eight and 22. They never let anybody wear those. Now down the line they're like, man, we need some more numbers. Now if you bring 22 back out and people will lose their minds, like you can't disrespect Emmitt like that, bringing his number out of retirement.

Eddie 00:30:22  And it's like they did for that kid that just got, Tyrone's number. Tyrone. Tyrone 77.

Prescott 00:30:27  Oh, yeah. 77.

Eddie 00:30:28  Yeah. Like, we're we're like, we're just going to throw it in the back of the closet and just say, no, no one's ever going to wear it again. I wore that coat. No one's going to wear that coat again.

Eddie 00:30:36  You know, that's ridiculous.

Prescott 00:30:37  And you know when they should really bring it back. If somebody's playing that position has the same last name. So say we get, Jerry Smith. 20 years from now, that plays left tackle. I can dust off my Tyron Smith jersey and give him 77. Just like you said. If Shiloh Sanders played for this team they should give him 21. That way I can dust off my old.

Eddie 00:31:02  There you.

Prescott 00:31:02  Go. Deion Sanders jersey and I don't have to buy another one. So that's the only time they should even do that. But but that's my $0.02. And I'm the only one that matters because me and Eddie, the only people that matter because we invented the show. And we can say what we want on here.

Eddie 00:31:16  We're the best Cowboys fans anyway, so don't matter, man.

Prescott 00:31:18  So what's the next Sunday before? Like, there's.

Eddie 00:31:21  Just a couple more things. I got some more letters just to touch on a little. so the, a lot of people are trying to figure out, you know what? Why don't we spend any money? We we restructured.

Eddie 00:31:31  We we have cap space. Why didn't we get anybody before the draft in the free agency that we needed? Right. We need a receiver. We need, you know, the draft pass. Now we need a receiver with. But this this time I think is the perfect time to start picking people up. Because if you wait till after the draft to sign a free agent, it doesn't affect your, your, your compensation picks that you receive from the free agents that left the year before last. Yep. So also it also gives us an opportunity to try and fix what we didn't get in the draft. Right. So yeah, because if we would have picked, if we would have picked a running back and we didn't get a receiver, then you know we're screwed. And that's just the way it is. So that's the reason why we're we're waiting until after the draft. Plus we also have and a lot of people don't remember that NFL rule now that if you sign an NFL veteran after the first week, then their salary isn't guaranteed.

Prescott 00:32:31  Isn't guaranteed. Yeah.

Eddie 00:32:32  So we might say this might be looking at something like that, to which I hate the fact that we'd have to wait that long, but I don't think we will have to. But I mean, that is another. I don't think we will want certain ones.

Prescott 00:32:44  We won't. Plus, plus, they're probably waiting for cutdown day. That's a big time, man, when they're very, you know, disgruntled veterans who thought their job was safe. And then all of a sudden, like, for instance, one guy that I saw that we were looking at the slot receiver from Tampa Bay, his last name is McMillan. So he ended up like after, you know, because, Godwin went down for some time, Evans went down for some time and he stepped up. He became their number three. Clear number three. Kind of like how, Tolbert was for us behind Cooks and Lamb. He was like the clear number three. He had a good season, but then they went and drafted the guy from Ohio State.

Prescott 00:33:29  the really good one. And then another guy, they drafted Tess Johnson. So they drafted two wide receivers. And of course Booker plays the exact same position he played. So it was like I had a great year. Why would y'all go? But it's like the talent at that position was too for them. You know too good to pass up. So now this guy might be available. He's disgruntled. He's like, you know what? Y'all don't want to use me. Just release me and they might grant it. So now he's a high quality player or they might not release. Who knows. But they might. It might. Oh, give us a second.

Eddie 00:34:01  Draft like that. It happens like.

Prescott 00:34:03  Yeah. So that's why they wait until the very end.

Eddie 00:34:06  A rookie will come in. And I mean, financially, it makes more sense for you to keep that rookie than to know that you're going to have to pay this vet next year, even though you don't have to pay him this year.

Eddie 00:34:16  Next year is going to come up, but I'm going to have to let him go. It's just that's the game, the game that you're playing, right? You can't have two girlfriends.

Prescott 00:34:24  I hate it. That's what they're doing to bland right now. I don't like it.

Eddie 00:34:27  But no, I think they're doing.

Prescott 00:34:29  Other.

Eddie 00:34:29  Things. I think they're doing it today.

Prescott 00:34:31  Well, they already paid. They already paid them. I know.

Eddie 00:34:34  No matter. They're pissed off about it. And you. I don't know if you read the story or not, but Jerry's mad.

Prescott 00:34:40  Yeah. Because, how he didn't do his rehab and rehab, and. And they think he re-injured it. Fooling around, not doing the right thing. I don't know how true that is, but. But that's what I heard.

Eddie 00:34:50  I think that Jerry paid bland. And Diggs is going to be the one that's gone. I would because he holds like he holds.

Prescott 00:35:00  I like playing.

Eddie 00:35:02  Yeah. So the next thing I kind of wanted to touch on was, going off of piggybacking off of your keeper league draft that you were talking about.

Prescott 00:35:13  Oh.

Eddie 00:35:13  There was a player. If there was a player on on the Cowboys, who would you draft right now on your as a dinosaur or keeper league like they.

Prescott 00:35:25  Have currently on the team.

Eddie 00:35:27  Somebody that's on the.

Prescott 00:35:28  Rough, currently on the team.

Eddie 00:35:29  So so just so you just so people know, you know what you want to have success, but you also want to have future success, right? So yeah, when you're drafting you need to be aware of that. So like you wouldn't want to, you know, draft somebody that you know is is going to be retiring in two years.

Prescott 00:35:48  And actually I think the the better the better scenario is they have a, a disaster protocol for the NFL because it's almost happened once where if somehow an entire team were wiped out and it just happened like in the 60s, they they ended up crash landing in a in a field that back in the day and and nobody died. But if that ever happens, were like the, the whole team, God forbid that they have a, a draft where you only can keep like 5 or 10 players and all the other players become available for that team that lost all their players.

Eddie 00:36:27  That's what happens with that happens when they when they bring on new teams, when they bring it like they brought on.

Prescott 00:36:34  For expansion, like with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Eddie 00:36:36  Every team had.

Prescott 00:36:37  To and.

Eddie 00:36:38  Had the unprotected, I believe like five players. And the two of them had to be like vets that were making over a certain amount. Like you couldn't just say, oh, I'm going to get out of my 70 ranked players. I'm going to give you 65 through 70.

Prescott 00:36:53  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, I'm giving you my five worst players. You can't do that.

Eddie 00:36:56  And so you can't have one.

Prescott 00:36:57  So using that in that scenario. But we're only going to have one player we can keep. Oh man I would probably keep CeeDee lamb only because he's the only player right now I know that has gotten better every single year and not like a little bit better. Like he's gotten a lot better every single year. Yeah. Now, last year, he was he was even better to me than the year before.

Prescott 00:37:24  Considering he was still doing what he was doing with no person opposite him that scared anybody. And with Cooper Rush, and he still put up Pro Bowl numbers to make the Pro Bowl. That's why it made it even more impressive than what he did the year before with that.

Eddie 00:37:40  Yeah, I agree. He's probably one of the that he's probably the the safest pick on that. Like you look about the other ones. I mean you can you can make a case for Dak. Yes. Yeah I really believe I believe him. But if you're I was thinking about this earlier today. I think I think Jaydon Blue would be a really good pick on that like that because I think his touches are going to skyrocket, especially in the in the passing game. Right. So having him early, getting him early like that I think would be a good, good draft.

Prescott 00:38:21  But I gotta see how they do it, man. Because they have two good run. Like I think between Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders, they would be a good one two punch.

Prescott 00:38:31  And then Lou is going to be a.

Eddie 00:38:34  Pick of the Lions. Yeah they're good.

Prescott 00:38:36  He's going to be an excellent change of pace guy because I think Javonte and Miles Sanders are kind of like don't think the same.

Eddie 00:38:42  Don't think about Zeke Pollard because that was a whole different, era. That was a whole different coaching staff. That coaching staff sucked ass at calling plays.

Prescott 00:38:53  Oh, it's so bad. So using them in the right places, that's what I want to see.

Eddie 00:38:58  I like to think of it as like the the the way the lions, use, Gibbs. And, let's face what's his name? The other, big running back, Montgomery.

Prescott 00:39:09  Oh, Gibbs. Gibson. Montgomery.

Eddie 00:39:11  So? So they're not lightning and thunder. They're not. You know, we're going to use Montgomery on the goal line because that is that's too predictable. They're not they don't use Gibbs on third down because they know they can throw them the ball, because that's predictable. But they they meld it. They intertwine it so that they're able to utilize the, the scheme the way that they want.

Eddie 00:39:38  And they have the right running back in there to. So I say, I really think those two I think that are they're going to use blue just like they used Gibbs. I think they're.

Prescott 00:39:50  They're I think a better a better way to look at it is to look at what the Cardinals had, how they used, James Conner back in the day. I think that would be a better indicator of how they are going to use the running backs.

Eddie 00:40:06  Another running back they had, Connor.

Prescott 00:40:09  Well, well, they had Connor and then they had man it was that other guy. It was it was another guy they had Well, now, it wasn't anybody special. It was Corey Clement.

Eddie 00:40:21  They haven't had any concerts like Gibbs.

Prescott 00:40:24  And they haven't had a second guy. You're right. Said so. That might be true.

Eddie 00:40:28  We could talk about. I mean, I was thinking about Lyons.

Prescott 00:40:30  Might be better.

Eddie 00:40:32  there was there was another another one like this, too, I think. The way the Niners used, who was that backup they used last year? That was really successful.

Prescott 00:40:46  Oh, I forgot the guy who they traded for. Yeah. Mason.

Eddie 00:40:52  Not. Not.

Prescott 00:40:53  Mason.

Eddie 00:40:53  Yeah, yeah.

Prescott 00:40:54  Him. Mason.

Eddie 00:40:55  Well, they used him, when they when they were getting a healthy CMC back to, like, they used them together. And one of them wasn't the the goal line back. And one of them wasn't the third down back. They used them together. And I think if we were able to do something like that, I think it's going to make a big difference. So that's all I would say.

Prescott 00:41:15  I think we're going to be all right. I think we're going to be all right. Jordan Mason. That was his name. And then they had Elijah Mitchell, too. Yeah.

Eddie 00:41:23  And I kind of wanted to touch on, which I think is kind of a fun topic is. What is and you might have to think about this for a little bit, or you might even not, might not have something until next week. But really think about it.

Eddie 00:41:42  Go back into your core memories and think about what was your favorite Dallas Cowboy memory out of everything that you've ever experienced as a fan? Watched, Listened to, digested, whatever. And then what is your least favorite? And I mean, I can go because I've been sitting on these questions. I don't know if you want to.

Prescott 00:42:05  Pick up, you can go ahead. Go ahead. Right now.

Eddie 00:42:08  My least favorite cowboy memory was the was the catch the Dwight the 40 Niners versus the Cowboys. I'm sorry I don't really remember the the year. It could have been like 8988. But it was the Dwight catch in the back of the end zone where Joe Montana threw it to Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone. The reason why that was such a heartbreaker to me, I was like 4 or 5 years old, and I remember watching the game and my mom, I remember my mom and my dad, and I think my grandma were in the room. My mom and my dad were big 40 niner fans, and as soon as I don't know if they were big 40 Niners fans as much as they hated Cowboys, right? So yeah, when that happened, I remember turning around and just falling into the chair like just crumpled.

Eddie 00:43:08  I fell into the chair and the tears just started pouring. And I remember my dad picked me up and I thought my dad was going to tell me, you know. It's okay. You know. You're okay. But he picked me up and he goes.

Eddie 00:43:22  Yeah, 40 niners.

Eddie 00:43:23  Like, in my face. And then he put me down. And I know he wasn't trying to hurt my feelings or anything, but God damn, I got that burned into my brain. A hatred for the 40 niners that I. That I still carry to this day. my my favorite core memory had to be when. When T.O. was on the Eagles and he thought he was a badass and tried to stand on the star and. Oh, man. And George Teague went up and blasted him. So the first one was in the corner of the end zone to sit on the star in the corner. And. Oh yeah. Right.

Prescott 00:44:04  First. Yeah.

Eddie 00:44:05  Yeah I remember that. And then he scored again. And he ran to the hand to the mid midfield logo and stood on there and George Teague ran up behind him and blasted his ass, got a penalty, and then Emmett went in and reclaimed that star for us after he scored a touchdown, ran down and put a knee on the star.

Eddie 00:44:24  But that core memory to me was I mean, that that was such an awesome event that just unfolded in front of everybody's eyes. It was like we were they were a bunch of little kids, and they were like, that's our home base. Like the star is. It's not real, right? But when they were, yeah, they were really defending it in real life and it was awesome. Those are those are my let's see.

Prescott 00:44:55  So me I would have to say the one that. Really. Got me saddest was when we were playing Seattle and we finally drove down the field and he had written for the touchdown. And then we were about to win and he just fumbled it. And then he got so close and he got tripped up by the toes and it was over.

Eddie 00:45:24  And that safety was on our team the next year.

Prescott 00:45:27  Yeah. And so that like that that still breaks my heart that that breaks my heart even more than the non day's catch. Even more than the DeMarco Murray fumble, even more than the Patrick Crayton dropping that slant.

Prescott 00:45:41  Where were you taken? To the house.

Eddie 00:45:42  Where were.

Prescott 00:45:43  You? Oh I was. Oh man, I was at home watching it by myself. I don't I don't like watching games with people because.

Eddie 00:45:49  I don't.

Prescott 00:45:49  Like it. I'd rather watch it by myself. But yeah. So that is the part that hurts the most. But the, the, the.

Eddie 00:45:58  I remember I, I remember watching that game too. I, I was by myself and I, and my wife was there and we had we were pretty brand new. Right. I don't think we were even married yet and I remember I was on my hands and knees and I had my hand on my head down below. And she walked by and she's like, are you kidding? She's like, what's wrong? I was like, I pointed to the TV. I was like. And then. And then that happened, and I just, I fell apart and she was like, oh, this is going to be a long life together.

Eddie 00:46:34  If you're sad about the Cowboys losing. And I looked up at her and I.

Prescott 00:46:37  Was.

Eddie 00:46:37  Like, yeah, oh, don't even get me started.

Prescott 00:46:41  And then for me, the best memory was, like I told the story when we first started this podcast, the reason I became a Cowboys fan, I moved to America. I moved to Fort Worth, Texas. I was ten years old, the first the first out of the three Super Bowls. That was I moved here in August. So right before the season started, I moved here. Never seen football before, but everybody was into it. So of course I had to watch it every week. I'm watching it because all my friends are watching. They talk about it the next day. So when they won that Super Bowl, I was man, I'm like Like this is what America is like. We should have moved here a long time ago. And I'm like, I've never been so happy in all my life for a team that I was rooting for, like before I was a basketball fan, so I didn't know about sports.

Prescott 00:47:21  I just didn't know about American football. I watched a lot of basketball that that was back when the Pistons had just won their second championship. So I knew all the Bad Boy Pistons. I knew what it meant to win a championship, watch a whole season, what to watch football and all that. I was so so that was the best right there. I would say.

Eddie 00:47:39  That's so cool. Like, we we knocked people for becoming like fairweather fans or like you can tell, you know, in a series of years there were a lot of Patriots fans created. It had to be. Yeah, because people that were just introduced to the game, you, you, you see a winner and you're like, wow, I'm gravitating to that team because they're, you know, they're the best. They're dominating there. I mean that's human nature. You know, you don't like the Browns because you like losers. You like the Browns because they're your they're your family's favorite. But yeah, like I, I, I understand what you're what you're saying is like, you came into being a cow into a football fan when the Cowboys were the apex of what an NFL team is.

Eddie 00:48:32  Yeah. And that must have been so like, you're like, oh, look at me. I'm picking the winners out of nowhere. Like, I first like to say, yeah, I think they win the Super Bowl. That's like the like when the Super Bowl is a rookie, right? So yeah, when when people win a Super Bowl as a rookie you get jaded, right? You're like I call that. Yeah. You're like this was fucking easy.

Prescott 00:48:53  I call that the, the, Sam Cosell effect because I don't I don't know if y'all remember him, but Sam Cosell, he played for the rockets. So when Jordan was playing, you know, he won his three. And then he retired for two years. And then the rockets won two. And then he came back and they won three. Those two years the rockets won. Sam Cassell was the starting point guard. He started as a rookie. He his first year they won the championship. His second year they won the championship.

Prescott 00:49:16  So it's like for him he's like, man, wherever I go I win championships. But that's always called the Sam Cosell effect.

Eddie 00:49:23  I never heard of that. I remember Cosell, that fucking alien head mofo. Oh, man. He used to always be the teams that I wanted to win. But yeah, I mean that that's that's a pretty good rundown of of the week. And, and you know, there's a few things that we get to look forward to in the next couple of days. You know.

Prescott 00:49:45  We'll have some new hopefully for you guys.

Eddie 00:49:47  Some free agents. Rookie minicamp presented.

Prescott 00:49:51  OTAs are starting soon. OTAs are starting soon, so we'll have it for you. So in the meantime, y'all keep it cool.

Eddie 00:49:59  You know, that's something that we don't always say. But you know, it's implied. But you know, every every single place that you guys are checking us out. Give us a like. Go get in there and take just a second and hit that like button.

Eddie 00:50:12  Let us know what you feel. Right. Because I I'm really I'm I'm guilty of it. You know I'll I'll watch YouTube for hours and and I'll think back I go you know what? I just watched like 3 or 4 videos and I didn't like I didn't click the like button. I liked it physically, but I just moved on right after I watched it. But if I don't like it, then I'm not giving that person, you know, the, some feedback or letting them know what I felt about it. So do do us a favor, get in the comments, let us know what you're thinking, what we can change, what you guys want us to talk about, give us some topics and tell us you know, tell us that you don't like Prescott's hair today. Something like something. Tell it. Tell us what? You're fantastic.

Prescott 00:50:55  My hair is fantastic anyway, but that's how I roll. So. Yes, sir. We'll see y'all next week. Oh, yeah. Y'all keep it up, man.