Because while these guys were using all of their strength and natural instincts, the Cowboys' training staff, which quickly became short-handed, needs to be commended as well.
With assistant trainer Greg Gaither left helpless because of his broken leg, it was even more important for guys like Jim Maurer, Britt Brown, Wes Miller and Jeff Noto to rise up and take action. The Cowboys' training staff doesn't need an event like this to be applauded. They've long been recognized as one of the NFL's best.
But what the staff did last Saturday might have been their finest day ever. Brown was in the middle of guys like Chris Hall and Joe DeCamillis and wasn't far at all from Gaither and Rich Behm. In fact, it was Brown who aided Behm until the paramedics finally arrived.
In a moment like that, who knows what you're thinking? Personally, I kept wondering when I would wake up. But imagine someone like Brown, who could've easily wasted his thoughts on wondering why he was the one attending to the injuries and not the other way around. Yet, there was no time for that.
Even though the ambulances and emergency teams arrived within minutes, just realize how long that actually is. Sure, it might take five minutes to get to the scene, but it takes only about five seconds for a building to come crashing down.
When the EMT's got there, all that was basically needed at that point were the stretchers to get those guys out of there.
And more than just the trainers, there were guys like equipment staff assistant Steve Mangus, assistant secondary coach Brett Maxie and the two videographers of practice - Sam Cromley and Steve Gagliardino - that were both 40-feet in the air and somehow managed to survive the crash landing. All of those guys were out there helping others . . . before they later went to the hospital for things such as stitches, head checks and everything else.
I'm sure there are too many other heroes to count. I know I left out some people and I apologize now.
Now, you can easily ask the question: wouldn't we have all reacted like this?
Yeah, probably so. I would imagine that any team's rookie class would've done the same thing. Any training staff would've been diving under tarps and metal beams to try and find anyone in danger. Sure, that's probably the response of most people in that situation.
But I'll never know about any other people in a hypothetical situation. I just know about the ones in the real-life situation that I witnessed.
A few months from now, when these young players take the field, most of you won't really remember what happened on May 2. It'll be back to McGee's right arm, and Mickens' quick feet and David Buehler's booming right leg.
But they'll always have a special place for me.
I'll close this out with arguably my favorite line that someone said to me all week.
"You know, a lot of people have criticized our draft, because they said it was a special teams draft," one staff member said. "You know what? They were right.
"They were right, because out there . . . that was definitely a special team."
Truer words have never been spoken.
