Two local Cowboys living the Texas dream
By Os Davis on June 16, 2006 12:57 AM
Football is to Texas what basketball is to Indiana, what soccer is to Brazil ... it's more than a game or even a state-wide obsession: The game is instead akin to religion in the Lone Star State, with its players and coaches venerated as mythmakers and treated like kings. For thousands of Texan boys the dream of course is to someday play in the NFL; but the dream within the dream is to play for the only team that matters to those lads: America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys . In this column, at look at a pair of local boys who have made - or are making - it big in attaining the Texan dream.
A veritable icon of the Texas footballer, Marcus Coleman was stunning local followers at Dallas' Lake Highland High School. Back then, he was named all-city and all-district. Dallas football fans (essentially a redundancy) were happy to see him stay in town when he chose to attend Texas Tech. Success continued to come to the talented safety that started thirty-six consecutive games for the Red Raiders when not bagging all-conference honors in track and field. Coleman's final stats for the Lone Star team: 256 tackles, nine interceptions, four kickoffs returned for touchdowns, and six blocked kicks.
Coleman then took a circuitous route in returning to his home state after being drafted by the New York Jets in 1996. Appropriately enough, Coleman reentered The Land Of Football by dint of the expansion draft in a stint with the Houston Texans . Last year saw Coleman switch to free safety, where he is expected to contribute to the Dallas D as one of the marquee free agents picked up this winter.
Joining Coleman in origin and in the secondary this year will be Keith Davis, billed by Cowboy PR as the "comeback story of the year in 2004." Davis jumped at the chance to join the 'Pokes after going undrafted out of Sam Houston in 2002 - in fact, he's jumped at the chance three times in his short career already.
Davis got as far as the 2002 preseason before being relegated to the Cowboys practice squad in September. In July 2003, Davis got himself into some bad old-fashioned Old West type action and received two bullet wounds outside a bar in - you guessed it, Dallas. Though acknowledging that Davis may have had nothing directly to do with the shooting, Coach Bill Parcells personally delivered the message to the media (and thus his team) that Davis had been waived in light of the incident, commenting that he "[intended] to have some pretty good citizens around here."
Last year, Davis sought to show that you can take the boy of out of Dallas, but Cowboys fever never leaves the boy. After racking up four interceptions and sixty-five tackles with the NFL Europe's Berlin Thunder in spring 2004, the Cowboys were willing to give him a third strike. It paid off. Davis was a member of Cowboy special teams that were number one against the kickoff return that year and re-solidified his standing in the mind of the Tuna. He figures to see playing time perhaps as a starter in a safety position.
After the shooting, Davis was quoted as stating, "I really am blessed just to be here." Now that Davis has kept his nose clean and shows no ill effects from the hip wounds, he can consider himself triply blessed to be playing football and to be a Dallas Cowboys .
Football is to Texas what basketball is to Indiana, what soccer is to Brazil ... it's more than a game or even a state-wide obsession: The game is instead akin to religion in the Lone Star State, with its players and coaches venerated as mythmakers and treated like kings. For thousands of Texan boys the dream of course is to someday play in the NFL; but the dream within the dream is to play for the only team that matters to those lads: America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys . In this column, at look at a pair of local boys who have made - or are making - it big in attaining the Texan dream.
A veritable icon of the Texas footballer, Marcus Coleman was stunning local followers at Dallas' Lake Highland High School. Back then, he was named all-city and all-district. Dallas football fans (essentially a redundancy) were happy to see him stay in town when he chose to attend Texas Tech. Success continued to come to the talented safety that started thirty-six consecutive games for the Red Raiders when not bagging all-conference honors in track and field. Coleman's final stats for the Lone Star team: 256 tackles, nine interceptions, four kickoffs returned for touchdowns, and six blocked kicks.
Coleman then took a circuitous route in returning to his home state after being drafted by the New York Jets in 1996. Appropriately enough, Coleman reentered The Land Of Football by dint of the expansion draft in a stint with the Houston Texans . Last year saw Coleman switch to free safety, where he is expected to contribute to the Dallas D as one of the marquee free agents picked up this winter.
Joining Coleman in origin and in the secondary this year will be Keith Davis, billed by Cowboy PR as the "comeback story of the year in 2004." Davis jumped at the chance to join the 'Pokes after going undrafted out of Sam Houston in 2002 - in fact, he's jumped at the chance three times in his short career already.
Davis got as far as the 2002 preseason before being relegated to the Cowboys practice squad in September. In July 2003, Davis got himself into some bad old-fashioned Old West type action and received two bullet wounds outside a bar in - you guessed it, Dallas. Though acknowledging that Davis may have had nothing directly to do with the shooting, Coach Bill Parcells personally delivered the message to the media (and thus his team) that Davis had been waived in light of the incident, commenting that he "[intended] to have some pretty good citizens around here."
Last year, Davis sought to show that you can take the boy of out of Dallas, but Cowboys fever never leaves the boy. After racking up four interceptions and sixty-five tackles with the NFL Europe's Berlin Thunder in spring 2004, the Cowboys were willing to give him a third strike. It paid off. Davis was a member of Cowboy special teams that were number one against the kickoff return that year and re-solidified his standing in the mind of the Tuna. He figures to see playing time perhaps as a starter in a safety position.
After the shooting, Davis was quoted as stating, "I really am blessed just to be here." Now that Davis has kept his nose clean and shows no ill effects from the hip wounds, he can consider himself triply blessed to be playing football and to be a Dallas Cowboys .
posted by The Gryphon at 7:01 AM
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