Minimal Pendulum Swing?

Happy Friday to one and all. That emphatic sonic BOOM! being heard in the U.S. is the arrival of the start of training camps and players arriving to summer camps to engage in conditioning and creating the best staff of 47 players to adorn a given NFL team.

Here in Dallas the excitement is heightened by the fact that a Super Bowl shall be hosted in nearby Arlington on February 6th. If you exclude the 49ers of 1984 who played and won a Super Bowl in nearby Palo Alto, Ca 1/20/85 no Super Bowl has been hosted by a same city team. That won't stop the lather that we call hype by the locals who believe this is the year for the Dallas Cowboys to go all the way.

As a Vikings fan I have other hopes. Be that as it may I am convinced the year 2010 will see record attendance and record TV audiences with the knowledge that a lockout in 2011 will (in all probability) happen alongside the NBA. Of course football fans let loose with that cry of 'It's Time!'

Here in North Texas, that cry also rings familiar as that has been the mantra of the 2010 Rangers. After ten years of being a masochist to sit in 100 degree weather, the fandom base will radically switch loyalties from baseball to football once the Rock Star Cowboys take to practicing and playing. That is of course, when the Rangers are already 20 games out of first place. What will happen now that pennant fever grips North Texas as the Rangers enjoy a 6 game lead? Their first lead of that magnitude since 1999? 

Fact: In the South the order of priorities is Football, College Football, High School Football, and the Bible when autumn nears. When August arrives all the talk is about the weather and the pigskin. I have sen this firsthand. It is an amazing transformation. Crazier still is how the South will shut down the moment the Cowboys play a game. The loyalties and the fandoms go forever.

Be that as it may, there has been a stigma of 'front loaded bandwagoning' that is eminent in Dallas proper. That is to say if a team is winning, all you hear is 'Been a fan my whole life!' When losing all you hear is, 'I hate that damn owner for firing Tom Landry.' A city of absolutes...

I will never forget the first Ranger game I saw in September 2003 on a Friday night when only 10,000 fans showed up to watch the Angels. Meanwhile 25,000-40,000 fans will pack a high school to watch football. BC Bissinger told the truth in his book in 1991.

My point being this is usually the time of the year where Cowboys fans and football fans want to enjoy the exclusivity of the upcoming season and team. Like it or not, this fall unless we witness a massive collapse, the talk of Ranger baseball and a probable playoff run will cut into the plans of football fans. I, for one, am happy about this development.

Rangers and Cowboys fans: You already are neighbors. You may as well learn to co-exist!

Over and out in Big D.

Mr. Will