It’s that time of year. The end of summer is nearing and preseason games are taking everyone’s attention away from whatever other sports people might watch and honing them in on football. Even the games that don’t matter matter in today’s NFL. Saturday we saw a jumbled version of the 2013 Dallas Cowboys with a mix of starters, backups, and yet-to-be-cut players competing for the title of who could give away possession of the football in the most ruinous manner. At least they acknowledged the dissapointment.

There were bright spots: DeVonte Holloman’s second interception of the preseason, Tanney and Escobar connecting for the first of what could be many touchdowns, and offensive line play that was surprisingly good. But this is preseason. You can only take so much away from these games before getting back to the fact that we are three weeks away from the starters playing more than a few drives.

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Imagine that though, just three weeks away. We’ve made it through another long half-year without football. Another off season of speculation, waiting, boredom, and hope has finally culminated with this: the impending start of the 2013 NFL season. We finally get to see what will come of the Cowboys’ often-debated off season moves. Was Travis Fredrick worth the pick? Can Romo finally get to the playoffs and win there? Or will the big contract prove worthless? Was the Rob Ryan firing justified? Will Jason Garrett live up to his talk, and if he doesn’t, how faithful will Jerry Jones be? As clueless as we are now to these questions, in three weeks we will start to know the answers.

And I guess that is the reason why, at least for me, watching these games is so entertaining. If you give them enough time, they will reveal the truth. It takes patience but, at the end of the day, the NFL lets you measure success. We know when a coach, player, or team was great. It’s recorded. The film is there, the stats are there, and we have witnesses. In a world that so often reminds us of how little we all know the NFL is a welcome source of truth. Even if your team goes 0-16, at least they had a fair chance to win and you got to see how it all played out on the field. One of the worst things in life is to be wronged, but to have no idea how it happened. The mystery kills us, we want resolution. Human beings have a craving to know. This craving has led us to monumental achievements in Science and Society. It is also what glues us to our TVs come football season. We want to know what happens and why it happened. It matters to us.

So, on that note, cheers to you fellow Cowboys fan on the upcoming season. Moreover, cheers to you even if you’re just a fan of the Sport. Or Sports in general. The fall is coming, and with it the truths that we seek. Enjoy the big reveal.

And now for your viewing pleasure…Miles Austin laying the smack down on Curtis Taylor: