General

Roy Williams Will Take Your Digs and Keep On Digging

Aug 25, 2009, 8:00 PM UTC

Everybody knows the prime motivator in the NFL is disrespect, be it real or imagined. Without it, an NFL player is powerless to rise above a sedate mediocrity. The players must drum themselves into an elevated state of indignant rage at the temerity of those who would not acknowledge them as football gods incarnate. â†µâ†µIn this sense, Roy Williams has had an excellent training camp, having brought himself to a fine boil because of the remarks about his play. Such remarks, typically, are gleaned from analysts or even rival players, in which case they become the dreaded-yet-nebulous “bulletin board material.” But, no, all the dogging of Roy Williams has been coming from four standouts from the ‘90s Cowboys who now have jobs in media: Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders and Darren Woodson. And because they’re elder statesmen of the franchise - even if their careers spanned maybe a decade, they get to weigh in on any current player on the roster and you must take their criticism with nothing above self-deprecation.â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“That’s you guys,” Williams said. “Once again, I suck as a wide receiver. Any time I catch four or five balls in practice, I took it to another gear. But I’m just the same guy.” â†µâ†µâ†µI suppose you can take that to mean he’s still the same guy who has difficulty getting open in games. â†µ

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â†µâ†µâ‡¥“I appreciate it because if you sit around and have to hear how good you are all the dang time, you have to have that Jerry Rice mindset of, ‘I’m not good enough,’ all that stuff,” Williams said. “When I have guys, especially NFL greats and the greatest that played here in Dallas, saying that I can’t get the job done and I’m not a No. 1, it makes me feel good. â†µâ†µâ†µHerman Moore never even bothered to acknowledge Williams when he was in Detroit. Derision is attention, and that’s a step up, right?â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“It makes me want to go out there and prove to them and everybody else across the world who listens to those guys - because obviously everybody thinks they know it all - that I can do my job.”â†µâ†µâ†µYou hear that, meanie distinguished Cowboy greats? Even though Roy Williams is hamstrung from criticizing you back at the risk of alienating the team’s fans, who no doubt would like a return to those glory years, he’s finding purpose in your hateful words.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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