Cowboys’ visit to D.C. museum should show team they’re much bigger than a blue star
To protect the names of the guilty, the Dallas Cowboys’ Monday morning visit to the National African American Museum in Washington D.C. meant so much to a couple of the players they were both late in arriving.
While visitors stood in line to enter the building at 10 a.m., two defensive starters looked around, not in panic but rather in embarrassment. They didn’t want to get caught, and they weren’t expecting to see a nosy columnist standing in their way.
They were late by nearly 30 minutes.
The term “Stay woke” applies here, but only in the literal sense, because these two were not awake in time for the bus ride to the museum.
The pair met up with their teammates for the rest of the tour of the three-story building where a visitor would need at least one full day, and likely one more, to see all of the artifacts and history on display here.
The Cowboys had a couple of hours in the museum before heading down the National Mall to visit the Lincoln Memorial and then returning home for their bye week.
Forget the state of this sub .500 team for a second. This is the best of coach Jason Garrett, and a lesson to all of the players they stand on a platform built by others that is not to be taken lightly, but used to enhance mankind.
Jason Garrett’s Strength
Both the Cowboys and the National Museum of African American History and Culture were flooded with media requests to cover this visit, which unintentionally became a political statement; no one can go to the bathroom without it being perceived as a political statement.
No media was “technically” allowed to cover the visit, but … the museum is a public place, and a confident wave and a smile, plus a notebook and some healthy pandering, can open a few doors.
Whatever you think of Garrett as a head coach, which again is under justified criticism after he botched the final minute of his team’s loss on Sunday against the Redskins, encouraging his players to visit places outside of a ball field is one of the reasons he never loses a team.
The man’s record is so mediocre it would only make sense if his players check out. They never do.
Like any leader, Garrett has some fraud in him. But actions like these show his players he cares about them and wants to expand their own personal boundaries. Even to a pro jock who makes six figures, that matters.
It is ultimately why Garrett is better suited for a college game, where teaching and the value of education have a place.
Monday’s museum visit was not a political statement, but a field trip for learning. No one can disparage learning.
The Cowboys did a similar thing when they had a team dinner at the Tower of London in 2014 for their road game against Jacksonville in England. Garrett searches for opportunities for his team to visit places well beyond a football field.
He looked into visiting Google headquarters near San Francisco, as well as NASA in Houston. The schedule has to work just right; Monday’s visit to this museum did.
Garrett scheduled for his team to have a team dinner on Sunday evening at the National Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
A History Lesson for All Players
On Sunday in Philly, Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid and Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins exchanged words on the field, and through the media, about their respective position to the protest movement within the NFL that was started by Colin Kaepernick.
It’s the same movement Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has done everything possible to avoid, because it’s not good for business.
Reid was the one who joined Kap’ by taking a knee, whereas Jenkins took a different route that did not include Reid.
Reid called Jenkins a “sellout.” Jenkins would not say anything negative about Reid.
On Monday, Cowboys players saw the artifacts and history of the origins of just how bloody, depressing, amoral and dehumanizing the fight for progress has been for centuries.
Throughout the museum are pieces of history that display the undeniably depressing and tragic treatment of human beings. The stories of slavery. Of accepted, legalized and legislated discrimination.
The entire story of Emmett Till; the young man who was tortured and murdered in Mississippi in 1955 because he allegedly whistled at a white woman.
On display is the bible of Nat Turner, the educated slave who famously led a revolt in the 1800s that was chronicled in the brilliant William Styron book, “The Confessions of Nat Turner.”
Inside the museum is the entire story of U.S. track athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith, who 50 years ago raised a fist on the medal podium during the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
Current Cowboys like Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, and Jaylon Smith can stand where they stand because of Till. Because of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Because of Nat Turner. Because of so many others whose names are unknown, and whose sacrifices undocumented, but whose fight and lives were so painful and so real.
Much like the National Holocaust Museum down the street on the Mall, this museum is full of tales of suffering. Of murder. Of inconceivably abhorrent behavior committed by man against man based on a hatred rooted in ignorance.
Of history that cannot be repeated, or ignored.
Jason Garrett’s idea to have his team visit this museum will have no effect on whether they can return to .500 one week from Sunday against Tennessee. It will have an effect on whether they play for him.
It should enlighten them.
It should have an effect on every one of these players to understand they are part of something much bigger than themselves, much bigger than a blue star; that they stand on a platform built by others and this is their chance to improve and enhance mankind.
This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 6:16 PM.