For a two year span, there wasn't a more fun runningback to watch in the NFL than Marion Barber. He always ran like a guy who would be willing to stiff arm his own grandmother in order to eke out an extra yard. In the early days, Dallas would only unleash him on the goaline and in the 4th quarter. In his prime, it was fair to call him the Mariano Rivera of runningbacks. When the opposing defenses were worn out, he would beat the living crap out of him. Sadly, anyone with any knowledge of past history knew that Barber wouldn't hold up long term running like that. Despite the obvious signs, Jerry Jones gave Barber a seven year, $45 million contract after the 2007 season. After a hot start to the 2008 season, Marion injured his ankle in a Sunday night game at Green Bay (a game that Dallas pummeled the Packers in Lambeau to improve to 3-0). Barber was never the same after that injury, and neither were the Dallas Cowboys the rest of that season (they finished 6-7, ending the season with a humiliating 41-0 loss at Philadelphia).
It would be easy for anyone to point to the last three seasons and say that Barber was a dissapointment, but I'll beg to differ. Jerry Jones should've known better than to pay him starters money, and to have Jason Garrett hand the ball off to him 25 times a game. Sometimes it's important to know how much a player is capable of handling (kind of like pitch counts in baseball, although I would argue that pitchers are babied too much, while runningbacks are often abused).
To conclude this impromptu rant, I'd like to thank Marion Barber for his time with the Dallas Cowboys. You were one of my favorite players to watch during the '00s. Hell, I even paid real American dollars to purchase your jersey back in 2007. It was a good run.
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