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Christmas Comes Early for Dallas Cowboys Fans
Published: October 11, 2009
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Jones and Phillips, Inc. knows how to combat the annual Christmas collapse of America’s (former) Team.
Collapse early.
That’s right! Why give false hope to the silver and blue faithful? Why wait until December to collapse and either miss the playoffs or barely make the post-season and then take an early exit? No waiting. No anticipation. No wringing of the hands, wondering which present contains the white elephant.
With the lapses in concentration, misfires, penalties, and generally clueless execution that has become the hallmark of a Wade Phillips coached team, the Cowboys have stumbled out of the gate. The stellar coaching staff has successfully made the league’s best defender ineffective. They have taken the quarterback whose play-making ability can sometimes border on the miraculous and made him a happy-feet, timid, hesitant, misfiring shell of himself.
They have set new standards for mental lapses, penalties, and bonehead on-field decisions.
All of this because they love you.
They don’t want you to have to wait until Christmas or after to learn what is in that silver and blue package under the tree.
Go ahead. Open it. No surprise. No anticipation. Just a big, miserable white elephant taking a steaming dump on your HD TV.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
PS: If all of this finally results in the end of the Wade “Whiner Boy” Phillips era in Dallas, then it is, after all, a very merry Christmas.
PSS: This article written in the third quarter of the game vs. the Chiefs. Whatever the outcome, the veracity of the article remains intact.
Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com
Bob Hayes Is in the Hall of Fame (And It’s About Damn Time!)
Published: August 9, 2009
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He was a world famous athlete before he joined the Dallas Cowboys. Already a world record holder in the 100 meter dash and the owner of an Olympic gold medal, “Bullet” Bob Hayes was known as the the fastest man in the world.
In 2009, he remains the only man to ever earn an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring.
Bob Hayes changed the game of football. He was fast, sure, but as former Cowboys master scout Gil Brandt pointed out, he was not a track man who tried his hand at football; he was a football player who excelled on the track field.
Bob Hayes impacted the game of football immensely. In a day when the run was dominant in the NFL, Hayes averaged twenty yards per reception. He scored a touchdown every five times he touched the football. Eighteen times, Bob Hayes scored touchdowns of fifty yards or more. Even though he retired in 1974, and has been succeeded by wide receiver greats like Drew Pearson and Michael Irvin, Hayes still holds the Dallas Cowboys’ record with 71 career touchdown receptions.
It’s a shame of monstrous proportions that Bob Hayes was posthumously enshrined in pro football’s greatest fraternity. Hall of Fame voters, though they may never admit it aloud, held his post-career legal problems against him. He did some hard time for drug trafficking, and that was all the excuse the anti-Cowboys faction in the northeast needed to rob him of the honor he has long deserved.
The NFL Hall of Fame is supposed to consider the on-the-field contributions of players—that, and nothing else. If they had done that with Bob Hayes, he would have been in Canton to personally accept the honor and see his bust where it belonged.
Of course, the same Hall of Fame voters ignored the drug problems of New York Giants’ great Lawrence Taylor, and enshrined him as quickly as possible.
He deserved the honor. So did Hayes.
Both men changed the way the game was played. Taylor redefined the position of linebacker, especially as it related to rushing the quarterback, and Hayes is credited with prompting the implementation of the bump-and-run defense because of his blazing speed.
While Cowboys fans everywhere understand that this is a time for celebration, we are also reminded of the backlash from being fans of a team that plays in Dallas and counts three major east coast media markets as its chief rivals.
The evidence is too great to ignore the bias that kept players like Hayes and Rayfield Wright out of the Hall of Fame for so long…and continues to deny players like Cliff Harris and Drew Pearson their place among the all-time greats of the NFL.
It’s telling that Bob Hayes is only the eleventh Dallas Cowboy to be enshrined in Canton…especially when you consider the great teams the Cowboys fielded in the late ’60s, the ’70s, the early ’80s, and the early to mid ’90s.
Bob Hayes’ biography on the official site of the NFL Hall of Fame includes the following paragraph:
Hayes demonstrated time and again that he possessed tremendous football skills and instincts that helped him to develop into a terrific NFL wide receiver. Still, his world class speed was a major factor in his and the Cowboys offensive successes. “Bullet Bob” terrorized defensive backs and demanded the kind of deep double coverage rarely seen in the NFL at that time. It is often said that the bump and run defense was developed in an attempt to slow down the former Florida A&M running back.
Kind of makes you want to ask the voters, “Did you just now figure that out? Or did you know it all along and vote him down anyway? Why did it take the old-timer’s voters to finally get “Bullet” Bob the recognition he deserves?”
They were only about thirty years late. “Better late than never” just doesn’t seem quite good enough.
Top 10 Dallas Cowboys Of All-Time: A Rebuttal
Published: August 7, 2009
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The NFL Network recently offered an episode in its Top 10 series in which they named their top 10 Dallas Cowboys of all time. While the names on their list are all undeniably great, they used flawed logic in their selections. I intend to set the record straight by giving you the real top ten Cowboys of all time.
First, the NFL Network’s Top 10:
- Tom Landry
- Roger Staubach
- Michael Irvin
- Bob Lilly
- Emmitt Smith
- Troy Aikman
- Tony Dorsett
- Randy White
- Don Meredith
- Drew Pearson
The biggest flaw in the Network’s approach was their allowing a non-player on the list. Tom Landry certainly ought to be considered the number one greatest Cowboy of all time on any list that included players and coaches.
If you include coaches, then you have to consider Jimmy Johnson. Moreover, if you include coaches, then what about front office personnel and ownership? Clint Murchison, Tex Schramm and Gil Brandt might have something to say about any list that was not restricted to players.
For that reason, in my estimation, the lists ought to be kept separate. Make one for players and another for non-players. I, therefore, present for your approval the top ten players to ever wear the Star on their helmet.
As with any good list, I will start at the bottom and work my way to the top.
10. Drew Pearson
Drew has yet to be honored with membership in the ring of honor, let alone the NFL Hall of Fame. Still, without his production and contribution, the ’70s Cowboys would never have made five Super Bowl appearances in ten years.
9. Mel Renfro
The greatest defensive back in team history, Renfro earned 10 Pro Bowl honors in his first 10 years in the NFL. As a rookie, he led the team with seven interceptions and led the league in punt and kickoff return average. Mel is a member of the NFL Hall of Fame and the Ring of Honor.
8. Michael Irvin
He was one of the triplets of the ’90s, and the spiritual leader of that team. His off-the-field antics aside, Irvin was recognized by teammates and opponents alike as the hardest-working, most fiercely competitive member of one of the greatest teams in NFL history.
7. Lee Roy Jordan
For fourteen years, Jordan was a fan favorite. He was supposed to be too small and too slow to play middle linebacker. He proved he was neither. Jordan was named to five Pro Bowls and was also named All-Pro once. He remains perhaps the greatest linebacker in team history (although DeMarcus Ware may have something to say about that some day).
6. Tony Dorsett
It pains me not to put Dorsett higher. He is one of my all-time favorite football players. He was pure poetry in motion.
When he arrived at the University of Pittsburgh they had gone 0-11. His senior year, they were 11-0 and National Champions. When his college days were done, he was the all-time leading rusher in the NCAA and remained such until Ricky Williams finally surpassed him twenty years later.
Until the Herschell Walker trade, the trade with the Seahawks for the draft pick that would become Tony Dorsett was the greatest draft day coup in team history. Dorsett would go on to win Offensive Rookie of the Year. He gained nearly 13,000 yards in his career and anchored the running game for two Super Bowl teams.
5. Randy White
Dubbed the “Manster”—half man, half monster—Randy White remains one of the greatest defensive linemen in NFL history. He was named to nine consecutive Pro Bowls and was selected All-Pro each of those nine seasons (1977-85). He was NFL Defensive Lineman of the Year in 1978 and was co-MVP of Super Bowl XII. If not for number two on this list, I would have Randy ranked higher and name him the greatest defensive player in team history.
4. Emmitt Smith
Emmitt was too slow to be a great halfback. Everybody knew that.
Everybody, of course, but Emmitt himself. He set his eyes on a huge prize and pursued it relentlessly until he had achieved it. That prize was the revered all-time rushing record, held at the time by the great Walter Payton. By the time he retired, Emmitt was the NFL’s all-time leading rusher and had been one of the key components of the football machine that claimed, for the first time in league history, three Super Bowls in four years.
That said, he remains my second-favorite Dallas runner. I would take Tony any day. However, with Emmitt’s mind-boggling, odds-defying accomplishments, he deserves this number four spot.
3. Troy Aikman
The first overall pick in the 1989 draft, Troy spent his rookie season playing a human pinata. He got the stuffing kicked out of him as he languished on the worst team in franchise history. The Cowboys only won one game that year. That could have been disastrous. Such experiences often are to young quarterbacks.
But Troy had “it.” He had that intangible quality that makes a man a leader, a winner.
He would guide his team to four consecutive NFC title games and three Super Bowl victories in that four-year span…and would only be a seven-year veteran when it was done. He made five straight Pro Bowls and six overall. He was All-Pro three times. He resurrected the franchise from the grave known as the late-’80s.
2. Bob Lilly
The Cowboys first-ever draft pick remains the best first-round pick they have ever made. Bob Lilly was recognized by many as the greatest defensive lineman of his generation. The official website of the Pro Football Hall of Fame says this about Lilly:
For…14 seasons, his play on defense was so outstanding that he became popularly known as “Mr. Cowboy.” Bob starred as a defensive end in 1961 but then moved to a defensive tackle spot in his third season with even more sensational results. As a tackle, Lilly was a first-team All-NFL choice every year from 1964 through 1969, then again in 1971, and 1972. The only years he missed first-team honors was his final two seasons in the league and in 1970 when he was a second-team choice.
Equally effective as both a pass rusher and a rushing defender, Lilly continually battled double-team and even triple-team opposition but he rarely was delayed in his pursuit of the ball carrier. Quick, agile and coordinated, he even scored four touchdowns in his career. One came on a 17-yard interception return in 1964 while the other three came on fumble recoveries. Altogether, he returned 18 fumbles for 109 yards.
Lilly would easily have been number one, if not for…
1. Roger Staubach
I came into full football consciousness in the 1970s. It was a great time to be a Dallas Cowboys fan. They made five Super Bowls in a ten year span. The team was stacked with men who played the game at the highest possible level. Great names like Dorsett, Garrison, White, Renfro, Pugh, Jordan, Martin, and Jones patrolled the gridiron with ferocity and a deep-seated dedication to excellence. It was the era of the DoomsDay and DoomsDay II defenses. It was the time of the Dirty Dozen rookies. It was glorious. But above them all, leading men into battle like the soldier and warrior he had always been was Roger Staubach.
Every Dallas Cowboy fan of that era knew that, regardless the score, if Roger “Dodger” “Captain America” Staubach was on the field, our team was never out of it. He was the king of the comeback. The greater the pressure, the better he played. Again, I let the HoF website speak:
Roger Staubach joined the Dallas Cowboys as a 27-year-old rookie in 1969 and didn’t win the regular quarterbacking job from until his third season in 1971. But for the nine seasons he was in command of the potent Cowboys attack, the Dallas played in six NFC championship games, winning four of them, and also scored victories in Super Bowls VI and XII.
The 6-3, 200-pound Staubach wound up his career after the 1979 season with an 83.4 passing rating, the best mark by an NFL passer up to that time. His career chart shows 1,685 completions in 2,958 passing attempts, which were good for 22,700 yards and 153 touchdowns.
Making Staubach particularly dangerous was his ability to scramble out of trouble – his 410 career rushes netted him 2,264 yards for a 5.5-yard average and 20 touchdowns. He led the NFL in passing four times. He was also an All-NFC choice five times and selected to play in six Pro Bowls.
So many great players have worn that star on their helmet, it seems almost a shame to even make a list like this. But, hey, as David Letterman knows, everyone loves a list.
This is one of mine. There will be others. In fact, I have determined to offer my Top Ten Top Ten Lists.
Stay tuned…
