Do You Remember Me?

Last Friday for the podcast we went back and watched Houston v. Dallas 2014. It was super fun party time. Arian Foster didn’t have the same burst, but was SLIPPPERY, slinking around making Barry Church drop his laundry as Dan Fouts put it. Rolando McClain was all over the field making tackle after tackle. Tony Romo slipped out of J.J. Watt and Terrance Williams outran Kendrick Lewis to catch a touchdown in the back of the endzone. And it ended, of course, with Bill O’Brien punting instead of going for it on fourth and two and Dez Bryant leaping over Johnathan Joseph to put the Cowboys in game winning field goal position.

It was strange though. The game was only five years ago and only Joseph, Watt, Whitney Mercilus, and DeAndre Hopkins remain. Dallas still has their offensive line, but that’s about it on their end. The worst part of football, from a fan’s perspective, is how quickly the roster turns over. You have your team for three years, and then it completely rearranges itself into something entirely different. Sure the star players will be there, but the complementary pieces don’t remain.

The other eerie thing about it were all the players I had forgotten. Jeff Tarpinian forced a lucky fumble on a punt return after making an egregious tackle attempt. I think he picked off Tom Brady once. I forgot how much I hated Kendrick Lewis and every safety aside from Daniel Manning during that time. A.J. Bouye was out there wearing #34 and sitting on the bench while Corey Moore was torched. I watched a bit of the Texans-Giants game from the week before. Rashad Jennings ran all over Houston. Shane Lechler completed a fake punt pass to Alfred Blue opening up my own personal gates of hell. Kareem Jackson was getting scorched by slant routes five years ago.

And then it made me think of so many others who were briefly here and then disappeared: Mike Mohamed, Justin Tuggle, Garrett Graham, Kevin Walter, Domanick Davis, Ephraim Salaam, Jared Crick’s neck beard, Barrett Ruud, Nate Washington, Eric Moulds, Jake Delhomme, Seth Wand, Joel Dreesen, Steve Slaton, Chester Pitts, Morlon Greenwood, and all the others that have been forgotten.

I know the summertime isn’t the time to be nostalgic, and there is never a time to be nostalgic since it is a disease, and it’s the time to start anew, and enjoy NOW, because it’s IT, and IT is the only thing there is, and that whole sort of thing, but in the NFL, the offseason, the time before training camp, it’s the time to think back on those that were here and what could have been because there’s absolutely nothing else to do.

So let’s remember some guys we may have forgotten. Post who you remember and specific memories below. I’m still mad arguing about Mike Mohamed’s value as a coverage linebacker on here.