FRISCO, Texas -- Maybe the first sign of trouble for the Dallas Cowboys came in training camp.
On a beautiful, cloudless late-August day in Oxnard, California, a fire started in a player's hotel room as the team got ready for an afternoon walk-through. The room and the player's belongings were destroyed.
"It's the beauty of the National Football League. When you think you've seen it all, sometimes things like this happen," coach Mike McCarthy said a day later. "It's a very unfortunate situation. Thankful no one was hurt."
In the three months since, as the Cowboys' season has deteriorated into a 3-6 record going into Monday's game against the Houston Texans (8:15 p.