"There's nothing wrong with wanting revenge. It's a perfectly natural impulse. It's also tricky. There's an expiration date with these things.

Let's say you have a beef with someone bigger and tougher, and that someone deals you a beating in public - not once or twice, but three times. After you mend and get stronger and prepare to settle things, you might go looking for the aforementioned foe.

But what if, by the time you find your bully, he's already on life support, badly beaten and breathing through a tube? Sure, you could smother him with a pillow, but where's the satisfaction in turning payback into a mercy killing?

The Cowboys smacked the Birds around last year in the regular season and the playoffs. This season, the 'Boys are 4-8 and were forced to fire the incompetent bungler who masqueraded as their head coach. But they're supposedly "playing better." You probably heard that a lot lately - that the Cowboys are "playing better."

That particular phrase was repeated quite a bit by the media and the Eagles this week. That's because the Cowboys are supposed to be Philly's primary rival and the Eagles are supposed to want revenge. That, and curb stomping someone who's already been tenderized isn't as gratifying and is generally frowned upon in polite society.

For those and other reasons, people have made this Cowboys game sound like a bigger, tougher affair than it probably is. That's what happens around here when it's Dallas week. The hype increases even when there's no real justification for it."