2015 was wonderful (Rangers) and blunder-ful (Rangers, Cowboys, Mavericks) for DFW

Jordan Spieth, Serena Williams, The Seventh Inning, Rajon Rondo, a horse and an alleged horse’s [behind]. Then there was Dez and a monkey. Oh, my. The year 2015 gave us a stocking full of surprises, chief among them the Rangers’ run to the playoffs. How did that happen? The Cowboys? How did that happen? The Cowboys’ Super Bowl-or-bust expectations went bust, but they didn’t do it very quietly, right, Dez? We present to you 12 memories from 2015, even if you’d like to forget some of them.

January

Cowboys fans were feeling good, packing the bandwagon as full as rush hour on Interstate 35W North after a just-completed 12-4 season.

But what are the Cowboys without controversy? And did we ever get it in the postseason, starting with Anthony Hitchens going as free as Casey Anthony after he mugged Brandon Pettigrew as the Lions were driving while trying to add to a 20-17 lead.

Perennially depressed Lions fans were screaming, “well, that’s the Lions for you.” Cowboys fans were strutting through what is now the Robert Cluck Atrium claiming one can’t argue with the work of God’s hands.

Except ... the karma creditor came calling the very next week in Green Bay, looking to collect on a past-due bill.

The Catch. The Non-Catch.

On fourth-and-2 with under 5 minutes remaining and trailing, the Cowboys dialed up their two best playmakers — Tony Romo and Bryant — and it sure looked as if Dez brought down a circus catch that would have rivaled Drew Pearson’s Hail Mary in Cowboys lore.

The game official agreed, ruling Bryant down at the 1, but something about it raised a red flag with Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy. The catch was overturned on replay review.

“If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass [with or without contact by an opponent], he must maintain control of the ball throughout the process of contacting the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete.”

Now, had Bryant made a “football move,” i.e., lost possession while stretching toward the end zone, it would have also been a catch.

Though the sun did indeed come up on Monday, Cowboys fans raised holy hell.

February

Super Bowl XLIX was full of hullabaloo and dispute after someone with the Colts snitched, suggesting that if anyone were interested, they should check the weight of the footballs QB Tom Brady was using in the AFC Championship Game.

Sure enough ... lighter than famous blond Dan Quayle.

Deflategate was born.

Brady denied any wrongdoing.

Most everybody else in the game piled on, insisting there was no way Brady not only knew the balls were slightly deflated, but that he and he alone likely requested it.

“If the Wells investigation is not able to definitively determine that our organization tampered with the air pressure on the footballs, I would expect and hope that the league would apologize to our entire team and, in particular, coach [Bill] Belichick and Tom Brady for what they have had to endure this past week,” owner Bob Kraft said.

The investigation led by Ted Wells, citing text messages between equipment personnel, one of whom identifies himself as the “deflator,” did find that Brady almost certainly was aware.

None of that stopped the Patriots and their coach — who if the football thing doesn’t work out would be well suited as Vladimir Putin’s successor — from eventually capturing a fourth Super Bowl, all in the last 15 years, though they had help from the Seahawks, who had their own “No-Danny-no” moment.

March

Two towering figures of optimism surfaced and resurfaced in March.

The first thing we learned about Jeff Banister, the Rangers’ new manager, is that he has never been a quitter. When Yu Darvish went down in spring training with Tommy John surgery to repair an elbow that had gone sideways, the Texas skipper put on his “Keep Calm and Overcome” T-shirt.

Another guy who will never be accused of quitting put a stop to any thought that he was taking a backseat in making personnel decisions for his Cowboys.

Jerry Jones was putting his stamp on the defense by making the most controversial free-agent signing in pro sports this year.

Alleged bad guy Greg Hardy was coming to town in a deal negotiated over the Ides of March on a one-year deal that could be worth up to about $13 million if he met incentives.

This was quite the deal for a 26-year-old Pro Bowler, who instead of a bag of riches playing his favorite game could have been enjoying a daily lunch portion of baloney sandwiches in the big house.

Hardy, it seemed to many, had gotten away with one (he had already been found guilty by a judge before asking for a jury trial) when the woman whom he was accused of assaulting and threatening to kill in May 2014 declined to cooperate with a North Carolina district attorney’s office.

The episode was all the more squirm-worthy when it was learned that ex-girlfriend Nicole Holder appeared to have an incentive clause, too. She had reached a financial settlement with the defensive lineman.

All charges were dropped in February.

That didn’t keep at least one team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, from staying away.

“Our organization understands the very serious nature of domestic violence in our society and in our league,” Jones said in a statement. “We know that Greg has a firm understanding of those issues as well.”

Soon enough, it became clear that that was very unclear, as well as when, or even if, Hardy would play in 2015. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had yet to take up the subject of Hardy’s league discipline.

The politically savvy Cowboys even deployed Jones’ daughter to help with this hot potato.

“We don’t believe in throwing people away,” Charlotte Jones Anderson told one publication. “The experts have told us it is far better to provide a way out, coupled with educational and rehabilitative services and therapy. That does more to protect the victim and prevent future violence than a zero-tolerance policy. We have to trust the advice of the experts.”

As it relates to how the world turns, March was merely the pilot episode to this soap opera.

April

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle finally cured the pain in his backside by telling Rajon Rondo to hit the road.

And don’t come back.

The Mavericks only saw flashes of the Rondo’s brilliant All-Star playmaking ability. He and Carlisle had simply been unable to get along — particularly over disputes over play-calling — since being acquired in December.

At one point in February, the two had a fiery exchange, that included a fair amount of carnal words, after Rondo ignored a directive from the coach, who benched the enigmatic guard the final 20 minutes of that game.

His unceremonious stint ended after the $13-million a year player quit on his team, simply going through the motions in Game 1 of the Mavericks’ first-round playoff series against Houston.

“No, I don’t,” Carlisle said when asked after the game if he thought Rondo would ever wear a Mavericks uniform again.

A mysterious back injury surfaced, forcing Rondo out of the rest of the series, but it was as clear as the springs of Mineral Wells: Rondo was only coming back over Carlisle’s dead body.

May

Under jockey Victor Espinoza, American Pharoah joined the most elite race horses in history in achieving one of the rarest feats in sports. In capturing the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in May, and the Belmont in the first week in June, the 3-year-old colt became the 12th Triple Crown winner and first since 1978.

“’He’s a monster. ... He’s a freak,” said Irad Ortiz, jockey of Mubtaahij, after the Belmont. “I tried to be close to him. I kept following him and my horse ran very, very good. We had no excuses. The best horse won the race.”

Pharoah won by 5  1/2 lengths, the fourth-largest margin of victory for a Triple Crown winner at the Belmont.

“That little horse, he deserved it,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “He’s the one that did it. We were basically just passengers.”

His future is now a pasture, good food and visiting mares.

Reports of offers up to $20 million for stud rights illustrate that his genes are the most sought after since Prince William.

“That’s a hell of a horse,” said jockey Gary Stevens. “The race was over in the third jump from the gate, it was over.”

June

Jordan Spieth traded in his mammoth potential for mega-star status after turning a Tiger trick with maiden majors — victories in the Masters in April and a U.S. Open in June.

He entered July vying to become the second golfer in history to win the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open in the same season. Ben Hogan remains the only golfer to do it, in 1953. He fell short at St. Andrews, one shot back of a triumvirate of playoff qualifiers.

He backed in to his U.S. Open victory when Dustin Johnson, who led for much of the tournament, missed a short birdie putt that would have forced a playoff.

It’s amazing what that type of success brings. The girls came a-calling, seeking quality time with this 22-year-old greenleaf who has his world all figured out.

When asked by Kendall Jenner if he were interested in a date, the grounded Spieth asked who Kendall Jenner was.

Miss Texas wanted to go out too. Meh.

Spieth, a Dallas native who attended Jesuit High School, prefers the girl he has, his sweetheart from high school.

“Annie’s good for Jordan,” said mother Chris. “He doesn’t need a celebrity girlfriend. He doesn’t want the attention.”

July

DeAndre Jordan’s cold feet left Mark Cuban and the Mavericks at the altar holding an unsigned contract and hurt feelings.

The 6-foot-11 free-agent center from Texas A&M was poised to leave the Los Angeles Clippers, agreeing to a contract reportedly worth $80 million over four years. Only problem is that Jordan couldn’t sign the contract until July 9, some six days later.

“We see him as ‘Shaq-like’ but never having been given the opportunity,” Cuban said before Jordan’s turnabout. “We told him if he came to the Mavs, he would be a focal point. He would grow into being a franchise player. We told him that you’re capable of being a 20-20 guy. You’re just not being given the opportunity.”

He certainly shoots free throws like Shaq.

Jordan, though, began having second thoughts and the Clippers moved in, visiting the center at his Houston home and offering him another deal, which he ultimately accepted and signed.

The episode, however, devolved into comedy.

When it appeared Jordan was set to sign with LA, Cuban reportedly began sending texts with the desperation of the lovelorn. Meanwhile, Jordan declined to answer or even tell Cuban of his plans while holed up in his house with the Clippers contingent, leaving the rest of us with visions of the Mavs owner darting around outside the house looking inside windows.

Jordan apologized on Twitter for leading on Cuban, whose heart had yet to mend.

“Dear Mavs fans,” Cuban wrote on Cyber Dust. “When is an apology not an apology? When you didn’t write it yourself. More importantly, we are excited to have traded for Zaza [Pachulia]. He needs one name.”

And that is how DeAndre Jordan surpassed Kiki Vandeweghe on the MFFL’s list of most wanted villains.

August

Rangers general manager Jon Daniels pulled the trigger on an eight-player swap with Philadelphia at the July trade deadline.

The headliner was steady lefty Cole Hamels, who made his first start on Aug. 1, going 7  2/3 innings in a no-decision against San Francisco.

It was curious move considering the Rangers at the time of the trade were 49-52, in third place in the AL West, eight games behind the first-place Houston Astros. In the wild-card standings, Texas was four games back, but with seven teams in front.

This team wasn’t going anywhere, was the conventional thinking.

“I have said this before,” said Daniels, who also acquired Jake Diekman and Sam Dyson, both of whom very successfully helped fortify a spotty bullpen. “This club has the ability to make a run. It’s not going to be easy. Houston has gotten better, the Angels have gotten better, there are other teams in the wild-card race. I feel we are one of them. All the criteria of health and timing play into it.”

He turned out to be right, with the help of a transformed Shin-Soo Choo and a mediocre division.

Hamels lost his next start, but never again in the regular season, finishing 7-1 with Texas, including a complete-game, AL West-clinching victory on the last day of the season.

September

While the Super Bowl-or-bust Cowboys opened September with two victories, Serena Williams was finishing off one of the most dominant seasons in history with one of the most stunning upsets in history.

How unranked Roberta Vinci defeated Williams was as mysterious as the superconducting super collider.

Yet, no one dare throw her season to the ash heap.

Williams, 34, just missed a calendar-year Grand Slam after winning majors in Australia, France and the UK at Wimbledon. Her record: 53-3. For the first time in 40 years of the WTA rankings, the world’s top-ranked player, Williams, accrued twice as many ranking points as the world’s No. 2.

Next year, Williams will almost certainly at least match Steffi Graf’s Open-era record of 22 grand slam titles.

To Sports Illustrated, she was the top sports athlete of the year, the first woman to win since 1983 (Mary Decker). The selection generated controversy for some who believed American Pharoah’s feats were more impressive.

“I’ve had people look down on me,” Williams said. “I’ve had people put me down because I didn’t look like them, I look stronger. I’ve had people look past me because of the color of my skin. I’ve had people overlook me because I was a woman. I had critics say I will never win another Grand Slam when I was only at number seven and now here I stand today with 21 and I’m still going.”

On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic’s season was nothing to turn a nose at.

The Serb won three Grand Slam titles — the Australian, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open — while going 82-6.

October

The Rangers’ postseason history consists of relatively few games compared with, say, the Yankees, yet, their playoff credentials include some bizarre moments.

The AL Division Series with Toronto included the weirdest, wackiest, most peculiar inning even most of the game’s most devoted longtime insiders have ever seen. Before Jose Bautista’s epic bat flip on a decisive home run in the Blue Jays’ half of the seventh in Game 5, insanity had already taken hold of the Rogers Centre.

Fifty-three minutes of pure mayhem and more proof the baseball gods have a sense of humor.

With the game tied, Rougned Odor led off the Rangers’ portion of the inning with a single to left. Chris Gimenez’s bunt advanced Odor to second, and he then took third on Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson, who made a great bare-handed play to throw out Delino DeShields.

Simple enough. Two outs and a runner at third with Shin-Soo Choo at the plate.

After Choo took ball two, Toronto catcher Russell Martin’s toss back to the mound hit the Rangers lefty in the hand and ricocheted towards the Blue Jays’ third-base side dugout.

Odor came charging home with the go-ahead run, though home plate umpire immediately called timeout when the ball hit Choo and waved off the run. After a review and consulting his umpiring colleagues, Dale Scott overruled himself and allowed the run to score. An outraged John Gibbons, the Toronto manager, played the remainder of the game under protest.

That’s when the hooligans announced their presence, throwing beer and trash onto the field.

Their efforts were in vain.

Elvis Andrus committed two of three straight errors in the bottom of the seventh, setting up Bautista’s heroics, which were followed by a benches-clearing confrontation between Rangers righty Sam Dyson and Toronto slugger Edwin Encarnacion.

“The toughest time in my career right now,” Andrus said. “I can make those plays 100 times for sure. There’s a lot of pain right now. I feel like I let down my team, my city, and it hurts.

November

As if one needed more proof that the Cowboys can be a three-ring circus — a very entertaining one, at that — came word that Dez Bryant had added to his family a monkey named Dallas.

And poor Dallas Bryant, who at one point went into hiding when PETA came knocking on his daddy’s door, has had to deal with a very volatile Dez, who went Vesuvius twice in a week in November.

While he might not always been profound, no one can say Dez isn’t profane.

Only a week after Greg Hardy’s sideline outburst and postgame “no comments,” Bryant, who signed a five-year, $70 million contract in July, took exception with an online video post showing the wide receiver allegedly celebrating a scary concussion sustained by Ricardo Lockette. Missing from the video was any context to the words he appeared to be making — “That’s what you ... get.’

“Stay the [expletive] away ...,” Bryant screamed at reporters. “Why don’t you all get the [expletive] out of here? This is our [expletive] locker room. You [expletive] dirty [expletive].

“I won’t ever, ever, ever wish bad on a player that’s been knocked down. Not once did I say, ‘That’s what you get.’ I got on one knee and prayed for that man. I got on one knee and prayed for him. Don’t put clips together and do that.”

The next week, Bryant accused a black reporter of using a racial slur while talking to receiver Devin Street and then went berserk when another reporter tweeted about the incident.

“How about you fix this [expletive], Rich?” said Bryant of Cowboys VP of media relations Rich Dalrymple, whose job is sometimes the worst in town. “How about you fix it, Rich? You’re talking to the wrong people. You’re talking to the wrong people. I’ll make sure I’ll put it out then. Since y’all not going to say nothing.”

Later on Twitter, Bryant tried to explain in 140 characters or less.

“Yea I blew up on the media but report why I blew up on y’all ... Saying I don’t give a [expletive] about me and calling players [names] — is not professional ...”

December

While the Cowboys closed out a season that more resembled the Hindenburg and 1989 than a Super Bowl run, games of consequence were still being played at AT&T Stadium. The College Football Playoff returns to Arlington, this time for a national semifinal between No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Michigan State.

No. 1 Clemson and No. 4 Oklahoma played at the Orange Bowl in Florida.

Instead of the highly anticipated and favored participants in TCU and Baylor, it was the Sooners and quarterback Baker Mayfield, who emerged as the Big 12 champion and received the favored eye of the 12-member playoff committee.

“Last year was more difficult,” chairman Jeff Long acknowledged, referring to the selection of Ohio State over TCU and Baylor.

The committee, though, appeared to get it right the first time around last year after the Buckeyes went on to win the whole thing.

This story was originally published December 26, 2015 at 1:24 PM with the headline "2015 was wonderful (Rangers) and blunder-ful (Rangers, Cowboys, Mavericks) for DFW."