First Crushes Never End Well

The Cowboys are in town practicing with the Broncos in advance of the teams' preseason game on Saturday. I've got some pretty good Broncos-Cowboys memories -- Terrell Davis' two long first-half touchdown runs in 1998 and Denver's overtime win on Thanksgiving in 2005 come to mind. Like many, my first Denver-Dallas memory is from 1978.

I was in third grade, and like I've said before I was actually a Cowboys fan as a kid. So were most of my buddies. The only thing we loved almost as much as America's Team was our third grade teacher, Mrs. Sheehan.

Once the Super Bowl opponents were set we asked Mrs. Sheehan if she was a Cowboys fan. She assured us she was, and that just made us love her that much more.

Then just a few days before the big game we came back into the classroom from lunch or recess and saw something on Mrs. Sheehan's desk that made us freeze in our tracks -- a bottle of Orange Crush.

You've never seen a more crestfallen bunch of third grade boys in your life. How could Mrs. Sheehan betray us like that? Of course she probably had absolutely no idea, but to us drinking Orange Crush before the Super Bowl was tantamount to sleeping with the enemy.

I don't remember if we ever confronted her about it, but it didn't really matter. The damage had been done. Innocence was lost.

Not as much will be on the line for the two teams Saturday -- a few roster spots is about all. But I'll bet there are third-grade boys in Denver and Dallas who care just as much about the outcome as we did more than 30 years ago.

I hope they're not "crushed" if their team comes up short.