This one is the second in my brief series and takes a bit of a backseat to the first because at least this time I know what happened...but still it was VERY avoidable and I was extremely dissapointed at how this went down and it affected our franchise for years in many ways...
 
In the 1992 NFL Draft, fresh off of their Super Bowl Victory the Dallas Cowboys selected who they thought was going to be their WR of the future in the 2nd round - Jimmy Smith out of Jackson State in MIssissippi.  Smith was 6-1, 213 lbs with exceptional ability and was going to be the their WR behind Alvin Harper and Micheal Irvin and someone the Cowboys hoped to groom as a future starter.
 
After missing much of the 1992 season with a broken leg, early in 1993 he underwent an emergency appendectomy which led to a severe infection and was nearly fatal. In the aftermath, a dispute broke out between Smith and Jerry Jones, who claimed that, since the condition wasn't football related, the Cowboys should not have to pay Smith for the 1993 season. Smith spent all of 1993 on the injured reserve list.
 
Before the 1994 season, Smith was cut by the Cowboys. He was subsequently signed by the Philadelphia Eagles but was cut before the 1994 season began. He was signed by the then expansion Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995. In 1996 he became the dominant WR on the Jaguars team that made it (very surprisingly) all the way to the AFC championship game.
 
To give you an idea of how good Jimmy Smith was - when he retired in 2006 he was 7th in NFL history in catches and 11th in history in yards. He went to 5 Pro Bowls from 1997 to 2001.
 
The what if ramifications of the Smith story are staggering.  Dallas struggled for years to find a 3rd WR behind Harper and Irvin - Kelvin Martin was adequate but not much more than that. In the 1994 NFC Championship game, one wonders if we lose to San Francisco if Irvin alone does not have to carry the WR corps.  If Aikman had one more weapon the defense was worried about that season and through the rest of the 90s...who knows how many Super Bowls we win?
 
Also, when Michael Irvin gets hurt in 1999 do we even need to go on this desparate search for a weapon for Aikman and trade two first round picks for Joey Galloway?  As Tim mentioned in a previous article - that decision was stupid then and still is.  Without losing our first round picks in 2000 and 2001 (which by the way Seattle used for Shaun Alexander and Koren Robinson) do we go into the nosedive of 5-11 seasons that took years for us to dig out?
 
How long does Troy Aikman extend his career by having a reliable WR to throw to once Irvin retires...
 
All of this because Jones was worried about whether a life-threatening injury was "football related" or not? 
 
The moral of the story is - if you think someone has 2nd round talent and has not done anything on the football field to contradict that make sure they get the chance to show you at some point even if it costs you an injury settlement.  You might think you are being smart and saving some money but you could be costing yourself millions in lost revenue via future playoff and Super Bowl proceeds and not having to pay people like Joey Galloway, Rocket Ismail and all the rest...