The Cowboys stand for everything that's wrong with the NFL

by midnitegreen on Nov 6, 2009 11:36 AM EST

During the course of a year, I'll have somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 sports books show up in my mailbox. Unless the book was written by a close friend or my spouse, I don't normally bring it to your attention on the Beast. But while thumbing through Reuben Frank and Mark Eckel's excellent new book "Game Changers: The 50 Greatest Plays in Philadelphia Eagles Football History," I came across an explosive quote from former Eagles assistant and current Ravens head coach John Harbaugh.

Asked why the Eagles have had so much success from 1999-2008 and the Cowboys haven't won a playoff game during that period, Harbaugh had this to say:

"Why is that? Because what Andy Reid and his program stand for if the opposite of what the Cowboys stand for. The Cowboys are a star system. It's all about building around individuals first and collecting talent, collecting great players. Andy has always been about building a team. And over the long haul, it's a team sport, and one of the greatest examples of that is what's happened with the Eagles and the Cowboys over the last 10 years. The Cowboys stand for everything that's wrong with the NFL."

Harbaugh spent nine years with the Eagles as a special teams and secondary coach before becoming the head coach in Baltimore in 2008. It looks like his dislike of the Cowboys hasn't faded over time. Frank and Eckel wrote the book this past offseason, so I'm sure that's when Harbaugh made the comment.

Of the 50 greatest plays selected by the authors, 11 of them occurred in games against the Cowboys. Harbaugh was involved in the Pickle Juice game at Texas Stadium on Sept. 3, 2000. It was his idea to open the season with an onside kick, which the Eagles recovered to set up a touchdown drive. The Eagles won that game, 41-14, and Harbaugh was given a lot of credit for his daring idea. It was called the Pickle Juice game because the Eagles drank the stuff to overcome the Texas heat. The temperature soared to 109 that afternoon.

I just thought you guys might enjoy that quote during Eagles-Cowboys week.

Posted by ESPN.com's Matt Mosley

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I did enjoy that!

"What did it feel like? That collision, I didn't feel nothing, because he was pretty much defenseless. It was like running through a cardboard box. Seriously. Cardboard box."- Sheldon Brown on his pounding of Reggie Bush in the '06 Playoffs

by jalarsen1 on Nov 6, 2009 11:52 AM EST reply actions

I had this scheduled to run on the main page in an hour…

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by JasonB on Nov 6, 2009 12:11 PM EST reply actions

Hah sorry Jason, thought it was too good to pass up.

"I hate listening to people's dreams. It is like flipping through a stack of photographs. If I'm not in any of them and nobody is having sex, I just don't care. "

by midnitegreen on Nov 6, 2009 12:59 PM EST up reply actions

Redskins build (if you can call it that) around stars more than the Boys do, just sayin.

by philiafan14364 on Nov 6, 2009 1:12 PM EST reply actions

They build around has beens

Don't frack with me or you'll get a punch in the kidneys...you've been warned

by jemagee on Nov 8, 2009 7:32 PM EST up reply actions

I just saw that over on PFT and ran over here to see if someone already had it. Honestly, I think I could root for the Ravens to be successful just because Harbaugh is there. F the Cowboys.

Let the beasting begin.

by TransplantedFan on Nov 6, 2009 1:16 PM EST reply actions