The Morning After Wk 17: Unforgettable Night

Cowboys, Lions, and referees put on a night that the NFL will long remember.

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They say “history gets written by the victors.”

If you win the battle, you get to tell the story from your perspective. Most of the losing army has been lost to history or buried, so their perspective gets largely ignored.

Thankfully, our NFL games aren’t that serious. Nobody is dying from these games (we’d like to keep it that way) and for whatever reason, victors do not often get to tell the story from their perspective.

A good case in point is the “Dez Catch” game. Seldom have you heard the story from the Green Bay Packers perspective. Their perspective was “we thought he caught it, too,” but they were pretty happy with the call and therefore the outcome. They moved on. Meanwhile, in Dallas, the Dez Catch game gets referenced more than just about anything in the last decade that this city has experienced. I have even seen a pickup truck that has been painted to commemorate that moment in Cowboys history.

Fans have long memories, right?

So, it should come as no surprise that the events of Dec. 30, 2023, will not be remembered the same way by the millions who experienced an unforgettable night of football.

There will be the Cowboys perspective, perhaps the biggest lightning rod of a franchise in all of sports. The overwhelming Lions perspective that will be told the loudest, as they appeared to be jobbed the worst and are also a Cinderella story who people love to root for.

And then, perhaps, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I would like to tell you I can offer you the sweet middle truth, but I am both a resident of Dallas since 1998, a media type who has covered the Cowboys since then. I’m also a friend of the Detroit Lions’ head coach since 2003 or so. Where that puts me as I sort through the sordid details is anyone’s guess.

But, here we go.