Boomer Esiason's Comments Out of Line

On Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys won an overtime thriller against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but that wasn’t the talk of the town after the game ended.

It wasn’t that Tony Romo shredded the Steelers defense with 341 passing yards and two touchdowns.  It wasn’t the tear that Dez Bryant has been on after recording his sixth touchdown in as many games.

No, the masses wanted to know why nose tackle Josh Brent was on the sidelines.  Brent, if you recall, is facing intoxication manslaughter charges from a one-car accident on Dec. 8 that resulted in the death of practice squad linebacker Jerry Brown Jr.

Many people were outraged that Brent was seen out there with the team after being placed on the reserve/non-football illness list.

Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones said the team was trying to support Brent through this hardship and said the team was complying with Brown’s mother Stacey Jackson, who urged the Cowboys to support Brent.

Upon being spotted by the media on Sunday, Brent left the game in the third quarter.  His main critic was CBS analyst Boomer Esiason, who slammed the Cowboys for the incident.

“At halftime, I was like everybody else, I was miffed that he was on the sideline,” Esiason said.  “I think that they made a serious error, and I thought it was disgraceful that he was on the sideline yesterday for the Dallas Cowboys.”

Since when is it customary to abandon someone when they’re going through possibly the hardest time of their life?

Did he have a tremendous lapse in judgment the night Brown was killed?

Absolutely.

Is it worth completely shutting him out and telling him he’s no longer welcomed?

I don’t think so.

What if he had gone to a more extreme measure and taken his life after having to deal with the guilt, and the constant probing from the media?

What then?

The Cowboys could have handled the situation better, and I understand that.  What I don’t understand is the backlash from the team trying to help one of their own through one of, if not, the hardest thing he’ll ever live through.

Jesus Flores is a Dallas Cowboys writer for www.RantSports.com Follow him on Twitter @SSgtFlo1