Cowboys Must Protect 'Marion the Barbarian'

It'd be easy to criticize the Dallas Cowboys for making Marion Barber the highest-paid running back in franchise history.

But there's one reason—above all else—that justifies owner Jerry Jones last week bestowing the starting job, the seven-year commitment and the $45 million unto Made Marion. Barber's attitude is the most intimidating asset in a Cowboys' runner since Tony Dorsett's speed.

Come on, I'll show you.

That's him over there in the corner of the team's Valley Ranch facility. He's sitting in his locker in blue spandex tights under his blue shorts, sleeveless gray T-shirt and a black bandanna straining to harness his dreadlocks, like Samson keeping his empowering mane in a bun long enough to spare innocent passers by.

As we carefully approach, you can sense the intensity and feel the energy, and it ain't all positive. Barber also wears a menacing scowl, looking more like a man about to check six pieces of luggage on American Airlines than one who just signed his name to a guaranteed $16 million.

Don't even jokingly ask to borrow a $1, lest he pulls out his bloated wallet and bitch slaps you. You just know his wallet, like Samuel L. Jackson's in Pulp Fiction, is emblazoned with "Bad Mother Fucker."

Because of his fresh fame, fortune and forefront on the team, Cowboys' public relations director Rich Dalrymple has persuaded Barber to address the media after the first official Wednesday workout of the season. As much as he hates opposing tacklers invading his personal space, he's even more claustrophobic and cranky when surrounded by cameras, notepads and nuisances.

Nuisance: "So, how does it feel to have all that money and a starting job?"

Barber: "Next question, please."

Same nuisance: "What, Jerry Jones isn't giving you $16 million to be a backup, is he?"

Barber: "Next question, please."

Different nuisance: "We know you don't like the media, but will it be that bad having us around?"

Barber: "It's bad, man. I'm sweating bullets."

Who knew? His kryptonite is sound bytes.

To be fair, Barber isn't all short and no sweet. During his 20-minute session, he mixes in a disarming "Just messin' with ya" and even a hint of a grin. Toward the end, I wasn't sure if he was channeling legendary mediaphobe Leon Lett or merely perfecting the art of being charmingly surly.

Then, it happens. Just when we think Marion might melt into the Librarian or perhaps the Vegetarian, abruptly he re-surfaces as the Barbarian.

Nuisance: "What do you think of the NFL's new rule named after you? The one that makes it illegal to deliver a stiff-arm to a tackler's facemask."

Barber: "What about to the throat?"

Yahtzee!

Without so much as blinking, much less pausing, Barber exhibits the primal crudity that makes him the NFL's toughest, scariest runner. Legislate an opponent's face into a safe haven and he immediately thinks trachea. It's a cold-blooded killer instinct the Dallas Mavericks would die for: the kind of characteristic you can't teach, and, honestly, might consider un-teaching if he did anything except impale safeties for a living.

"There aren't many players in the league as nasty as Marion, much less running backs," Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips says after the workout. "He's just got that attitude. When he does his thing our whole team responds."

Adds quarterback Tony Romo, "He gives us our energy."

Barber isn't the quickest or biggest or fastest, but no one produces more punishing, pulsating runs. He led the NFL last year in broken tackles, including about 10 on that indelible end-zone escape against the New England Patriots.

The dilemma facing the Cowboys is somehow bridling Barber's savage style without totally dulling his edge.

"I won't change. I can't," Barber says. "I'm not going to forget the approach that got me here. I'll be the same player."

Problem is, he just can't be the same. Not as the starter.

He's always been a part-timer, from his days splitting carries with Patriots' star Laurence Maroney at the University of Minnesota to his stint in Dallas backing up Julius Jones. A fourth-round pick in 2005, Barber has done more with less than any NFL back, especially Jones.

After making last year's Pro Bowl as a backup, Barber was finally promoted on the eve of the Cowboys' playoff game and, this off-season, Jones was allowed to leave via free agency.

Now, for the first time since Wayzata (Minn.) High School, Barber is the man. The Cowboys spent first- (Felix Jones) and third-round draft picks (Tashard Choice) on running backs last month, but it's merely supplemental insurance. Clearly, they are now counting on Barber to do more with more—to bludgeon defenses for four quarters of 16, or, ideally, 19 games.

But you'd have to be dumber than the guy who needs a label on his beer to tell him when it's cold, not to recognize this strategy as being as risky as it is radical.