IRVING, Texas – DeMarco Murray has looked at the play in which he broke his left hand last week against the Philadelphia Eagles and he is still not sure how it happened.

“It kind of stung for a minute, then went away,” the Dallas Cowboys running back said. “I kind of went over to the sideline and felt a little clicking and asked [head athletic trainer Jim Maurer] about it and he kind of knew right away what happened.”

That clicking Murray felt was a broken fourth metacarpal, the long bone that runs across the top of his hand. On Monday night Murray had surgery on his hand that included a plate and eight screws. On Sunday he expects to play against the Indianapolis Colts.

In the regular world, that is not normal. Not even close to normal. Yet in the football world, it is met with a shrug as if it is no big deal. Even Murray downplayed what he is doing.

“People deal with injuries all the time, so you’ve got to be able to fight through the pain,” Murray said.

Tony Romo played with two transverse process fractures in his back and has required pain-killing injections or pills to work through that and torn rib cartilage. Jason Witten played the 2012 season opener with a partially torn spleen. Dez Bryant passed on season-ending surgery for a broken finger late in 2012. Two games later, he caught nine passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns. Orlando Scandrick played with a finger so shattered that reconstructive surgery did not fix it.

“It’s stuck,” Scandrick said. “It never got back. I mean it was just something [that] over time I learned how to deal with it.”

Other Cowboys have played through injuries not even known or talked about. They will wait until after the season to have surgeries on shoulders or knees that are cranky but not so bad – in their minds, anyway – to knock them out of a game.

Why do they do what they do? What is the pull of the game? What is it about that rush from that opening kick that keeps them doing what they do?

“I mean, your focus is so on the short term and now the adrenaline that goes along with it,” Witten said. “I’m the player rep, so I've got to be careful with what I say, but, yeah, this is awesome man, to be in this opportunity and a lot of us waited a long time to get here. 'Whatever it takes' is a good mindset to have. It’s just you put all this work to get to this moment in December to be in the hunt and here you are. I think you want to give yourself every chance to play.”

Romo missed just one game with his back fractures. Standing at a podium after practice in London last month, he talked about why he wanted to play so badly.

“I’m a football player; this is what I do for my life's work,” Romo said then. “It's important to me. I care about playing and competing and helping this football team win … You're only afforded so many opportunities at that, so you want to take advantage of that when you have that opportunity. If you love the game, you'll always try and get on the field.”

There is a healthy selfishness to why they play through injury. Their careers are short. There is something about being there for your teammates even when you are not at your best that brings a loyalty not seen in other walks of life. When players retire, the first thing they mention they miss most is the camaraderie -- not the game and not necessarily even the money.

Before the word ‘regret’ can be finished, Scandrick says no.

“My job is on the line every day,” Scandrick said. “The job of the scouts and people around here is to find someone better than me, that’s cheaper than me.”

Chicago Bears safety Chris Conte said earlier this week he would rather experience the NFL even if it cuts short his life span. He later clarified that his comments were not related to concussions.

“Just the associated risk with football and accepting the fact that life expectancy of someone who has played in the NFL is shorter than the average person," he told ESPNChicago.com. "And I'm fine with trading that risk for the opportunity to play football since it's something I have always wanted to do and a dream come true.”

There is a line players won’t cross: head injuries.

“I’m not messing with my head,” Scandrick said. “I got kids.”

But they’ll risk just about anything else. The pain might not last forever, thanks to modern medicine, but the memories will.

The Cowboys are 10-4 and in first place in the NFC East. If they win two more games, they guarantee themselves a playoff spot for the first time since 2009. There are only so many times a player has to achieve Super Bowl glory.

That’s why Murray wants to play less than a week having surgery and why the others play through pain.

“I love playing,” Witten said. “And I love playing with the guys you’re in the locker room with. Just an awesome deal that we have this opportunity. There’s a sign out there that says it’s a privilege, not a right, to play and coach for the Dallas Cowboys. I think that’s the way kinda this team has gone about it since April, when nobody thought we could do anything.”