Everything or Nothing: Marion Barber Injury Update – Tashard Choice May Start

(Week 15 Update, Sunday morning: Marion Barber’s status for the Giants game is still up in the air.  According to a report I just read on ProFootballTalk.com, John Clayton from ESPN is reporting that if Barber does indeed play he will not have a significant role.  Monitor this one up to the kickoff of the early games, or up until tonight if you own Tashard Choice as well.)

Allow me the indulgence of a little bit of foreshadowing: prepare to get goosebumps. Trust me.

Now, a quick injury update on Dallas Cowboys running back Marion Barber as we head into this weekend’s titanic matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 14, a huge week for many fantasy football owners as well. According to the Dallas Morning News, as well as 1310 The Ticket in Dallas, Marion Barber is currently a dreaded “game-time decision.”

(Update 12/6, 5:00 PM: The game-time decision has been made. Marion Barber did not accompany the Cowboys to Pittsburgh. Tashard Choice will start.)

Other than “Dr. James Andrews” is there a worse phrase to hear in relation to one of your fantasy football players than “game-time decision?” Well, perhaps “playing Pittsburgh’s defense,” but we’ll get to that in a second.

Here is the quote from Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips referring to the Marion Barber injury:

“We were assuming that Marion would play, but it’s a little more doubtful right now, so we’ll see [today],” coach Wade Phillips said.

Marion Barber is suffering from an injury to his toe, and according to the Morning News the Cowboys training staff is trying to find the right kind of shoe to give him support that may allow him to take the field Sunday. For now, they are not committing one way or the other, and the really frustrating part for fantasy owners is that it is a 4:00 game. If the decision drags past 12:00, setting rosters could be tricky.

Here’s something that is not tricky, however: don’t play running backs, or any offensive players for that matter, against the Steelers Defense. Why? They are first in the league in rushing yards allowed, passing yards allowed, total yards allowed, and scoring defense. That’s domination. As a Browns fan it pains me to give the Steelers props like that, but they deserve it. Their defense has been outstanding.

Who would fill in for Marion Barber if he is unable to go? The first choice would obviously be Wade Phillips, in a Jerome Bettis-type battering ram role; but Phillips is what you may call “portly” and has lost some of the speed and explosiveness that once defined him as a…okay, never mind. With Felix Jones out for the season, rookie Tashard Choice would be the choice to fill in for Marion Barber.

For the season, Tashard Choice has carried the ball 30 times at a 4.9 yard per carry clip. Not too shabby in limited action. He was a very productive runner in college and I know, living in Dallas, that the people down here are really excited about his potential. He is smaller, and has much more an Emmitt Smith-style than the punishing style of Marion Barber, but Choice has always produced when given the chance. If Barber is out for any extended period of time, Tashard Choice could be a solid #2 RB or flex player.

Plus, and here comes the goosbumps part I alluded to earlier, Tashard Choice gave one of the most passionate and inspiring pre-game speeches by a player that I have ever heard while at Georgia Tech. Many of you may have seen this video before, some of you may not. We bring you the goods either way:

I was thinking about just ending this post right there with that video, but now I’ve decided that I’M GONNA WRITE, ‘TILL I CAN’T WRITE NO MO’! I’M GONNA GET UP — AND WRITE AGAIN!

Tashard Choice became my new personal hero the first time I saw that speech. He rocks, and if Marion Barber is out this weekend I hope Choice has a good game against Pittsburgh. I realize that Pittsburgh’s D is outstanding, but would you really question Tashard Choice’s ability to get the job done? Watch that video again and tell me you wouldn’t start him.

That’s what I thought. Everything or nothing.

Work be damned, I’m wrapping this up now so I can go watch Remember the Titans and Hoosiers.

(Update: After I posted this item, I emailed Florio over at PFT to give him the Barber update — which he probably knew anyway — and to remind him about the Tashard Choice speech. At 1:00 later that afternoon, this story was posted on PFT. They didn’t link to us, or mention us, and maybe they had been planning the story and the inclusion of the Choice video anyway, but we’ll take it as a little homage to MSF. Hey, we’re just a newbie on the block trying to gain some credibility in the blogging world, and don’t do any primary source reporting like they do. And Lord knows I’ve gotten enough story ideas from them, and linked out to them a lot, so if we helped alert them to this and that led to more people seeing Tashard Choice’s awesome speech, we’ll take some pride in that. If our tip meant nothing, we’ll just chalk it up to coincidence and keep plugging away trying to grow our little site here. For what it’s worth, they posted about the same story today, updating Barber’s status, and actually embedded the video this time. If you’re an NFL fan, this is one of the best sites out there. After you opt-in to our RSS feed below (if you so choose), make sure to subscribe to theirs as well. You will be a much more informed NFL fan.)

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