Interesting tidbits in this 1991 NFL Draft recap:
It started with "Oh, Canada" and it proceeded to "Oh, brother." By the end of the longest day, the rest of the National Football League was saying this: "Oh, are the Dallas Cowboys finished yet?" In a dizzying, fire-sale display of NFL draft-day dealing, the Cowboys claimed Sunday afternoon as their own. From the outset, it seemed that almost every selection had Dallas ramifications in one way or the other.
The Cowboy Shuffle, which started with University of Miami defensive tackle Russell Maryland as the first selection, was the highlight to one of the most unusual draft days in memory, a day so unusual that the Toronto Argonauts made the first selection.
Ismail had thrown a kink into the day's proceedings hours before they began. Early Sunday morning he signed a four-year contract with the Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.
That knocked the Cowboys for an initial loop or did it?
Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson said that Dallas had made the trade for the No. 1 pick for the purpose of getting Maryland, not Ismail. Had Dallas taken Ismail, he said, it would have been to trade him _ possibly to Atlanta for the No. 3 pick plus change _ and then take Maryland.
"We 100 percent traded up to get Russell Maryland," Johnson said. "We had every intention of doing what we had to do to get Russell. I was afraid we might lose him, and I heard teams were trying to move to the second spot to take him. I had a chance in 100 to lose him; I didn't want to risk it. I didn't want to be feeling sick on Sunday night. We needed to bolster our run defense, and we did."
When Ismail took the money and ran, the Cowboys decided not to risk a trade. Ismail's defection not only affected Dallas, but every team in the draft. Already, this group of players had been called the weakest in years; his departure further watered down things and shook the pecking order that ensued. As a result, the first round lasted 4 hours and 55 minutes, breaking the old record by 39 minutes.
It was the start of a day of scrambling for the Cowboys, who made several adjustments on the run. They had targeted Southern Cal tackle Pat Harlow with their No. 12 selection, but he went one selection earlier to New England. That meant Dallas instead took Tennessee's Alvin Harper, their top-rated wide receiver.
After that, the Cowboys began to move backward. They bypassed Florida linebacker Huey Richardson to move back from No. 14 to No. 17, then moved back to No. 20 and took defensive end Kelvin Pritchett. They dealt Pritchett to Detroit so they could get into the second round and take Michigan State linebacker Dixon Edwards, a player that Johnson said his team wanted all along.
By the end of the day, the Cowboys had parlayed three No. 1 draft picks into defensive tackle Maryland, wide receiver Harper, linebacker Edwards, a third-round pick, two fourths and a fifth.
"Everyone understands now why we kept trading down," Johnson said. "We had identified Dixon Edwards as a player we would like. We felt he would really fit into our scheme of defense, and we felt he would go somewhere in the second round. We kept trading and kept trading. Once we got a second-round pick, we felt Dixon should fall to there."
In all, six consecutive defensive players went before Tampa Bay _ declining a Dallas trade offer _ took Tennessee tackle Charles McRae.
It started with "Oh, Canada" and it proceeded to "Oh, brother." By the end of the longest day, the rest of the National Football League was saying this: "Oh, are the Dallas Cowboys finished...
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