Dallas Cowboys Fans Need to Enjoy The Team
Jun 1st, 2013 at 7:00 am by Mike Burke
It seems like every day I hear new comments about who is biased against or hates the Dallas Cowboys. I’ve noted recently that I hear more negative commentary about them from the media who report on the team and the fans of the team than I do from fans of other teams. I commented to a friend recently that I read more negative about the Cowboys from him than I have ever seen from anyone else. He wasn’t too happy with me for that, but I happened to be telling the truth. To equal the bile he spews at the team he professes to love I would have to walk past a fan of another team 20 or more times per day and hear “Dallas sucks” to come close to the negativity he shows. Naturally this made it my fault. How dare I observe this?
It makes me wonder if we’ve simply gone too soft as a culture? The word hate is more prevalent than I have ever seen it, and if you use it in any description of a contemporary issue, it upsets the person you accuse of it. Suddenly you’re hating on them for them hating on the Cowboys. Honestly, it is all a bit confusing to me. However, one thing about hatred of the Dallas isn’t at all new to me. The fact that it exists, and I love it. I have a catch phrase as it pertains to opinions about the Cowboys. I even have that catch phrase on the license plate frame on my truck. That phrase is “Embrace the hatred.”
That’s right, I said embrace it. Revel in it. Enjoy it. Let it put a smile on your face that can’t be wiped off no matter how hard someone rubs. Hell, dance because of it if you’ve got rhythm; or even if you don’t but could give a crap who is watching. The fact that people hate the Cowboys is a great thing. Not a good thing, a great thing. It means they matter.That is one great thing about loving the Dallas Cowboys, they are always relevant to someone. Even if that relevance is that someone hates them. Pardon me quoting Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars saga, but “Good, I can feel your anger.”
In the movie anger was needed to turn someone towards the dark side. If someone out there needs to see the Cowboys as the dark side, I am all for it. One Redskins fan once told me he loved two teams, “The Redskins and whomever was playing the Dallas Cowboys.” I got to tell you, that commentary just thrills the hell out of me. Years ago I ran across a fan of another team who had a tattoo of the Cowboys star logo on fire. He saw this as a diss of the team. I saw it as a Cowboys tattoo using a recurring graphic of flames. I see flames on motorcycles, cars, Harley logos, and all kinds of other things. I never considered it as a diss of those things. People are so amusing in their disgust for the Cowboys.
I think fans ought to enjoy the team they love. To me, if you dislike something to the point it makes you miserable then you need to move on from that. For example, if you’re dating a girl who makes you miserable, go find another girl. I can’t fathom wanting to stay loyal to a shrew or anything that makes you miserable. Does this mean fans should only say good things about the team. hell no. No one could pull that off. Not one single, living, breathing, sentient being. If you tell me that you don’t go nuts over a turnover or a player constantly caught false starting I am going to call you a liar.
We’re all negative about some aspects of the team. For example, I am very concerned about the Offensive Line and right now, I am apprehensive that they simply aren’t good enough to help Tony Romo stay healthy or to open holes for the running game. I don’t think one draft pick was enough to address how awful those guys were last year. I don’t think a pay reduction will mean better production from Doug Free, who frankly was awful last year. I will candidly tell you right now that I already want a RT in the 1st round of next year’s Draft. That happens to fall on my birthday, and I can’t think of a better present. Get me a Guard or two that I can trust as well, and I will move my concerns to something else.
I think it is actually healthy to want the team to get better in some aspect that is lacking. What I don’t find at all healthy or appealing though is to dislike every aspect of the team. From management, to coaching, to players, to tradition, to who the players date. There are fans and media out there who do that, and still profess to love and enjoy the team. I don’t understand that. I don’t think I want to either.
I recently saw some photos from a fashion event that involved some of the ladies whom our players are married to, engaged to, or involved with. I could not believe some of the hateful comments. Especially as it pertained to Miles Austin’s fiance. I realize some people are still hung up over the fact he knocked boots with Kim Kardashian, but dang folks, change the page. I don’t care who the players marry, date, or screw as long as they give the team all they have on game days. I can’t help but wonder if people are truly mad at this new girl, hung up over a girl he dumped years ago, mad at him, or mad at his hamstrings. It seems not so long ago that Miles was a hero because he was better than Roy Williams, who is still disliked even though he is long gone.
It seems like people miss a lot of great opportunities to just enjoy this team. That doesn’t mean you accept mediocrity or any other wild conjecture made to make you feel worse about yourself. It means that football is a game to be enjoyed and no team can be enjoyed quite as much as the Cowboys can be. Part of that enjoyment is because people are so obsessed with them and hating them that it is downright funny.
I remember back in 1989 when the team went 1-15. I was riding my motorcycle and I had on a Herschel Walker jersey. No one could accuse me of being a bandwagon fan right then. The team was awful, Herschel was gone, and so was Tom Landry. I was at an intersection and a guy in a car next to me asked if I got my jersey on sale. I laughed. What a great smack talk line. One of my all time favorites. But perhaps most important to me was that I realized I still genuinely enjoyed my team. I wasn’t ashamed to be a Cowboys fan, nor to wear the jersey of a player I truly enjoyed. This team now has plenty of players we can enjoy, and we’re certainly better than that awful 1-15 team was. If you want to go buy a Kevin Ogletree jersey on sale, I say wear it with pride and just enjoy yourself. You’re a Cowboys fan. That’s the top of the food chain in the NFL.
You see, the fact of the matter is the NFL world still revolves around the Dallas Cowboys. If you think the NFL brass aren’t hoping to see Dallas in the post season almost as much as the fans of the team are you’re kidding yourself. They all know the Cowboys means ratings and ratings means revenue. No other team in the NFL can completely lay hold to that claim. Some come close, but none are equal to the Cowboys. Super Bowl XLVIII is being played in New York at the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Home of the New York Giants and Jets. The largest television market in the entire country. FOX has the broadcast rights to the game. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will probably be the announcers for the game.
If for a minute you think the heads at FOX aren’t hoping for a Dallas Cowboys miracle season Championship run you’re kidding yourself. Yes, there are people who hate the team. Perhaps even the media who report on them and some fans who are sick and tired of Jerry Jones. Don’t ever kid yourself into thinking that this hatred is because they are mediocre. No, the Cowboys are hated because win or lose, they matter in the NFL landscape across many horizons. Embrace it.
