Undefeated Cowboys 'Hype is Real!' - ESPN Analyst Pat McAfee

"This is the year! I think this is the year where they have the chance to make it. And now finally, this Dallas Cowboys team is worth all the hype that they have been receiving for the last two decades.” - ESPN's Pat McAfee.

FRISCO - All too infrequently, ESPN rolls out in front of a camera a "personality'' who's job description is all about Dallas Cowboys "hype.'' That often means there's a certain level of hypocrisy to their very presentation, assuming it's a critical one ... because the Cowboys "hype'' is frequently the result of ESPN doing the "hyping'' ...

Followed by ESPN tearing down the "overhyped'' Cowboys.

But maybe Pat McAfee - who is staying he believes "this is the year'' via "First Take'' - has a different angle and a different agenda.

McCarthy, McAfee and Dak on Cowboys

McAfee, long-heralded as an intelligent and witty presence when he played in the NFL, this week said that Dallas coach "Mike McCarthy ... is in his bag. ... It looks like it's 2011 with Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers where he would go on to win the Super Bowl ... The plays are coming in efficiently and CeeDee Lamb seems to be always open. Tony Pollard is always going to do his thing, the tight ends are doing it. I think this year is going to be different for Dak Prescott.”

The Cowboys at 2-0 merit all of the praise that is coming their way. At the same time, McCarthy is leading the charge to make sure his players, in preparing this week for the lowly and winless Arizona Cardinals, don't cross the "fine line'' that separates "confidence from complacency.''

That line can get blurred when a team starts believing the hype. But McAfee? For all of his showmanship, he is also a serious-minded analyst of what he sees. So when he says to co-host Stephen A. Smith (who is definitively not a serious-minded analyst of what he sees), “This is the year, Shannon. I think this is the year where they have the chance to make it. And now finally, this Dallas Cowboys team is worth all the hype that they have been receiving for the last two decades.” ...?

It's not about McAfee wanting to join the ESPN hype train. It's about McAfee trying to tell his sincere football truth - a welcome addition to the "Worldwide Leader.''