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Tim Cowlishaw / Columnist


When I see footage of Tashard Choice politely asking Eagles quarterback Michael Vick for an autograph after Sunday's game, I think of Jimmy Johnson trotting off the field at the Vet under a storm of snowballs.

I think of Jimmy and Buddy Ryan trading insults. I think of Ryan making fun of Tom Landry. I think of the Cowboy's other division rivalries with the Redskins and Giants that go back half a century and are so rich with stories.

Harvey Martin tossing the funeral wreath into the Redskins' locker room at Texas Stadium after the 1979 game in which the Cowboys eliminated Washington from the playoffs...I thnk about that.

I think about what it would take for Martin or for Too Tall Jones or for Drew Pearson -- you can pick hundreds of names here -- I think about what it would take for any of those players to be so misguided as poor Tashard Choice was in thinking right after a Sunday night national TV loss to Philly as a good time to collect Vick's autograph.

Look, it's not the worst crime in the world. Choice wasn't thinking, or he wouldn't have done it. Had he been thinking, he would have recognized that NBC's and ESPN's and everyone else's cameras would be on Vick, the leading vote-getter among Pro Bowl quarterbacks and the comeback story of the year in the league, following the game.

But fans feel like today's players just don't care. They see Cardinals quarterback Derek Anderson laughing with a teammate near the end of a terrible Monday night performance by Arizona. They see players embracing DeSean Jackson after he just did everything he could to disrespect the Cowboys during Sunday's game.

And they see Choice getting Vick's autograph and think, "This is the team we pay hundreds of dollars for tickets to watch? This is the team in which we invest so much of our emotions? And these players are thrilled just to be on the same field as Michael Vick?''

For lots of fans, it was a sad ending to another entertaining Cowboys game. Pretty sure Choice won't make the same mistake any time soon.
 
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