The sports scene in Dallas has always, at the bottom line, meant one thing ... the Cowboys.

The recent success of the Stars may have hockey fans crawling out of the North Texas woodwork, the Rangers may be the better part of a month into their new season; hey, even the Mavericks just managed to finish up their best season in nearly a decade.

But like the old saying goes, in Texas there are only two sports that matter: football ... and spring football.

For the Cowboys, "spring football" means the annual NFL draft, the 2000 edition of which was just concluded this past weekend. Coming off a disappointing 8-8 season and a blowout playoff loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the ‘Boys and new head coach Dave Campo entered this particular draft with a feeling of some urgency.

"I think we did very well [in the draft]," team owner and de-facto general manager Jerry Jones said in a Cowboys press release Monday. "Overall, it was a success because we were able to draft players that went right to the heart of where we had a big emphasis in our research. We knew coming into the draft that we wanted to get a cornerback, and hopefully more than one. Now we come out of this with three high-quality corners," said Jones.

The fact that Dallas was seeking help in the secondary was a secret to exactly no one, as the best cornerback in the history of the NFL, Deion Sanders, is headed for free agency, while corners Kevin Smith and Kevin Mathis have been injury prone over the last two seasons. Although Jones, Campo & company signed veteran Cleveland cornerback Ryan McNeil this off-season, and are expected to re-sign their own free agent corner in Charlie Williams, depth in the defensive backfield was the main target of the 2000 draft.

Lacking picks in the first and third rounds, the initial Cowboys selection in the draft was Tennesse cornerback Dwayne Goodrich (2nd round, 49th overall), who had a middling senior season and fell from status as a potential first-round pick. "Never in our wildest dreams did we expect him to be there for us," Jones said. "We're getting a guy that has played at a high level and he's been on a team that's won [a national champtionship]. We can't be more excited about a draft pick," said Jones.

With their second overall selection, (4th round, 109th overall) the ‘Boys grabbed another corner, Kareem Larrimore of small-school West Texas A&M. Campo told The Dallas Morning News that in selecting Larrimore, the Cowboys "have a chance there to have a special player." Like Goodrich, the athletic Larrimore also has experience returning kicks, another position not definitively filled in the projected 2000 Cowboys lineup.

The third and final corner taken in the Cowboy draft was Mario Edwards (6th round, 180th overall) out of national champion Florida State, Neon Deion’s old alma mater. Though he’ll never be confused with Sanders, the athletic Edwards is bigger than either Goodrich or Larrimore, and will get plenty of opportunity to earn a roster spot. Some scouts considered him to be a potential first-round pick had he entered the draft following his junior season, but like Goodrich, he fell considerably from that original status.

The remaining two Cowboy picks were spent on explosive Ohio State tailback Michael Wiley (5th round, 144th overall) who the team will attempt to convert into a slot receiver; and diminutive linebacker Orantes Grant (7th round, 219th overall) from Georgia, who Cowboy scouting director Larry Lacewell compares to current Cowboy Randall Godfrey, in that he is "another one of those little bitty linebackers that we've had success with."

The real test of the 2000 Cowboys draft, however, began last year with two separate trades Dallas consummated with the Seattle Seahawks. The Cowboys dealt their first round pick in 2000 and their first round pick in 2001 to Seattle for former All-Pro receiver Joey Galloway after earlier sending their 2000 third-round pick to the Seahawks for speedy receiver James McKnight. The impending retirement of future Hall of Famer Michael Irvin makes the success of the two former Seattle wideouts paramount to the future success of the Cowboys. If they perform well, the 2000 draft will likely be considered a success.

Because the team’s recent string of unfortunate legal troubles has changed the Dallas draft strategy as recently as 1998 (when the Cowboys passed on all-world receiver Randy Moss in favor of sturdy defensive end Greg Ellis), it’s interesting to note that the 2000 draft class has quite a history of its own. Goodrich was arrested for disorderly conduct last September (though the charges were dropped by the end of the year), Edwards has been arrested for both petty theft and harassment, and reports from NFL offices indicate Larrimore tested positive for banned substances at the Indianapolis scouting combine. Cowboy officials are confident, however, that these charges are merely youthful indiscretions, and indicate they are not concerned.

Not satisfied heading into camp with a mere five new players, the Cowboys quickly began signing undrafted free agents, inking more than a dozen in the first three days following the draft. Among the newly-signed Cowboy rookie class were linebacker Corey Atkins from South Carolina, tackle Chad Slaughter of Alcorn State, defensive tackle Keith Jackson of Cheyney State, and two kickers, Jon Hilbert of Louisville and Cedric Ogelsby of South Carolina State.

Mick Doherty is a freelance writer and editor living in Dallas, and works as the Internet Editor for the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau.

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