OXNARD, Calif. – The first workouts are always fun. It gets your blood pumping not just for the players but for those of us who cover the team on a regular basis. It means it's time. Football is back and now it's all about getting ready for the season. It's also the first time fans can see the Cowboys in action and they are still just as excited as ever. They crowd a certain portion of about a 10 foot wide opening in the fence line that leads to the Cowboys locker room. It's autograph alley where fans have their best shot at landing an autograph. Some come with targeted players in mind, others are just happy to have anyone sign.
The rookies and first year players are a little more patient since it's all new to them and they make a good run down the line. The veterans are a little tougher especially the so called super stars who don't sign everyday but when they do it is a mad house. Dak hit the fence line running on day one and it's always fun to watch especially the faces of those who snag the signature of the number one player on the team.
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Now it's time to get ready for what I call Cowboys after dark. We are rushing to make deadline for The Nightbeat while we break down from doing interviews on the field and getting set up for our nightime live shots. A new challenge as emerged in that regard. We are the only station in the nation at this time that does an hour long broadcast at 10 pm and while that has it's advantages there are some, shall we say, extra challenges. For example every other station has left the field by 10:50 so it would make sense the Cowboys would set the timer for their sprinkler system to fire off at 11:00pm. Only trouble is we are still on the air. It was a fire drill to get all the equipment away from the splash zone of this sprinkler head monsters who appear to put out more water than the old Alamodome water cannons. And we all remember how well that turned out. Note to self we should ask the Cowboys for an 11:15 start time. And it just hit me. So far we have had fire and water in this blog.