Welcome to Our Newest Member, Mike in Plano

Hey Guys,

It's my great pleasure to introduce our newest member, "Mike in Plano", who has just joined our community. Mike has been a personal friend of mine for 25 years, and he's been a Cowboys fan even longer than I have.

Mike was born and raised in Dallas, and is a Texan through and through. We met in the early '90s, during the 10 years he lived in Maryland. He had a sports memorabilia store that was not only one of the first in our area, but was also THE premier shopping destination for sports fans in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Northern Virginia. His clientele included several members of the Redskins and other local sports teams. It was a sad day for lots of folks in this area when he decided to close his store and move back to Texas, but Mike was very much a stranger in a strange land here "up north", and it was always only a matter of time before he went back home.

Mike and I speak every week during the football season, and usually once a month during the offseason, depending on our schedules (he's an insanely busy man). Having been born in the same year, we have a lot of common memories even though we grew up 1500 miles apart, and he always has interesting insights about the Cowboys and just about any other subject. He is the one who coined what I'll call the "Mike in Plano Rule", which I have mentioned before on the various forums we've been part of. The rule, generally stated, is that when you are assessing how long to keep a guy on your roster, the only question that matters is "Is this guy going to be better next year than he was this year and over the past few seasons?". We've been assessing the Cowboys' rosters for the past 20 years under that rule, and we always know when the Cowboys have kept guys around a year or two past their "sell by" date.

I think you guys are going to enjoy hearing from him on various Cowboys issues, and since he is the new guy in our community of guys who've been on three other forums together I thought I'd let you get to know him a little (you may have run into him on the DMN Forum in the past, where he occasionally posts, but it's been years since I've participated in that forum and I don't know how many of you visit that site anymore). Of course you'll get to know him a lot better as time goes by, so welcome aboard, Mike, and join the conversation!

I second that! Welcome, Mike! I hope you find the discussion here entertaining, lively, intelligent, and thought provoking!