The 2009 Dallas Cowboys season was the 50th anniversary for the team in the National Football League. It was the team's first season playing at Cowboys Stadium. Their victory over the Oakland Raiders on November 26 extended their Thanksgivingwinning streak to four in a row and also ended a three-game losing streak to the Raiders. They also ended the Saints' bid for a perfect season after a 13–0 start with a 24–17 victory on December 19, 2009. The Cowboys punched their ticket to the playoffs on December 27 after beating the Washington Redskins 17–0. On January 3, 2010, the Cowboys clinched their division with a win over the Philadelphia Eagles, 24–0. In the wild-card round of the playoffs, the Cowboys once again defeated the Eagles, 34–14, to score their first playoff win since 1996 and finish the season sweep of all three games played against Philadelphia. They lost 34-3 to the Minnesota Vikings in the divisional round of the playoffs, effectively ending their season.
Offseason
The 2009 NFL draft was one of the worst in the history of the Dallas Cowboys, with many experts comparing it unfavorably to the 1995 "backup draft", by calling it the "special teams draft". Entering the season, the team considered their special teams a glaring weakness, so they hired a new coach (Joe DeCamillis) and focused on drafting players who could contribute immediately on this unit. The Cowboys started the day without a first-round draft choice (part of the price to acquire Roy Williams) and then traded out of the second round after they couldn't draft center Max Unger, reaching a total of 12 picks, which was their most selections since the 1992 NFL draft. The eventual result was that the team couldn't find a starter in the group and most of the players drafted were waived by the 2010 season.[1]
On May 2, 2009 during the rookie mini-camp, the Cowboys air-supported roof practice field (a tent-like structure) collapsed during a storm that turned into a microburst. At the time of the incident, there were around 70 people inside (team personnel, coaches, rookie players and media), leaving 12 people injured. The most serious injuries were suffered by scouting assistant Rich Behm, who was left paralyzed from the waist down after his spine was severed, DeCamillis, the special teams coach, fractured one of his cervical vertebrae and Greg Gaither, the assistant athletic trainer, sustained a fracture to the tibia and fibula in his right leg.[2] The facility was completely destroyed and was never rebuilt. After the incident fallout, Summit Structures, its parent company Cover-All Building Systems and the consulting firm JCI (helped design reinforcements) all filed for bankruptcy after serious structural flaws were found with the construction and manufacturing of the facility.
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