MINNEAPOLIS — Officially, Cooper Rush only found out he was starting at quarterback against the Minnesota Vikings a few minutes before the entire world found out.
I caught Rush as he made his way to the field Sunday afternoon, to begin his own warm-up. And I asked him what he thought about tonight, and whether he'd be the guy.
"I don't know," Rush said, "I guess we'll see how his warm-up goes."
He, of course, is Dak Prescott. The Cowboys MVP-candidate starting quarterback, who spent the entire bye week battling a calf strain suffered on his most recent MVP-caliber play -- the game-winning touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb, in overtime against the Patriots two weeks prior.
But after a half hour of chord work and mock dropbacks, Prescott, team trainer Britt Brown, and head coach Mike McCarthy made the joint decision that it was wisest to sit down the $160 million quarterback, and let Rush take the reigns of a football team on a five-game winning streak.
But while Rush didn't officially know until less than two hours before kickoff, he had a feeling. So he invited his family to come watch.
"I had a pretty good feeling, based on where he was all week," Rush said after the game. "Obviously I knew there was a chance, so my brothers flew in, my parents got here, my wife flew up with the baby."
The Rush family was ready to watch Cooper play in meaningful action for the first time since he was at Central Michigan.
It wasn't a dazzling start, though. Rush had an ugly pick in the opening moments of the second quarter, when he threw late, behind, and high over the middle to Dalton Schultz, and had his pass tipped and intercepted. And the Cowboys offense sputtered to just three points in the first half, as the first start of Rush's career looked exactly thus.
But all it took was one throw to find some confidence.
"I saw the red seas part, and you're just thinking 'get in there Ced, get in there Ced!'", Rush recounted, thinking back on his 73-yard touchdown pass to Cedrick Wilson in the 3rd quarter. "And he got in there. I didn't know if I put it out there too much, but I've got a pretty good rapport with him, and it was right on stride, and he made it all the way."
The longest pass for the Cowboys since 2018 tied the game, and sent a jolt of life through the Cowboys sideline that Rush could lead them to victory. And then he delivered on the promise of that throw, with a better one to win the game.
The Cowboys called a run-pass option, and head coach Mike McCarthy even said the numbers may have lent Dallas to run, based on the pre-snap read. But Rush, buoyed by the confidence he'd built through the night, saw differently. And delivered.
"I saw single-high safety," Rush said. "One-on-one with [Amari] Cooper. Yeah, we're throwing that."
He did. And he put it right on the money, perfectly positioned, for Cooper to make the game-winning touchdown catch, and give the Cowboys a sixth consecutive victory.
After the game, the man Rush replaced, came barreling through the tunnel to celebrate with his backup. Prescott bounded around the corner, and embraced Rush with a hug.
"Yeah, it was obviously special," Rush said. "We've been together for a long time. A lot of games where it's been the other way around - he's making plays at the end, and I get to watch those. So it was fun for me to go do it, and have his full support."
"You look at two guys you want to show examples and symbols of good teammates?" McCarthy said. "Look at Cooper Rush and Dak Prescott. I mean, that's a great picture of it."
Afterward, Rush got a chance to celebrate a career defining moment with the family who had flown in for the game.
"It was pretty special," he said. "My support system has been unbelievable. My whole life. That's the reason I'm here."
Already, the national pundits have started in about how Rush's performance can change his career, and potentially set him up for consideration for future starting jobs elsewhere around the league. And that's a possibility -- the chances of such a thing certainly increase after a performance like Rush had on Sunday night.
But even if Rush never starts another game in his career, he'll always have Sunday night, when he completed 24 of 40 passes, for 325 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner with 51 seconds to play, with his family in attendance, soaking in the moment right along with him.
