Why The Dallas Cowboys Really Are America’s Team
May 18th, 2013 at 7:00 am by Mike Burke
At some point this season the Dallas Cowboys will lose a football game and it will prompt some idiot behind a camera, microphone, or keyboard who has an audience, to ask if the Dallas Cowboys are still America’s Team. Can we set the record straight once and for all right now? Nicknames are not transferable territory. I don’t hear the media asking if the purple wearing Baltimore Ravens are the new Purple People Eaters. That is still the Minnesota Vikings. I don’t expect the media to note all of the high draft picks on the Detroit Lions Defensive Line and ask if they are the new Fearsome Foursome.
You’ll find that no other sports nickname seems to be thought of as debatable. You’ll also find that no other nickname seems to insult people. I’ve never heard anyone talk about how repulsive cannibalism is when discussing the Purple People Eaters. I’ve never heard anyone discuss how calling the Chicago Bears the Monsters of the Midway scares children who hear the word monsters. I do think one time I remember someone asking if Green Bay, Wisconsin is still Titletown, or if that belongs to Boston given the success of the New England Patriots, Boston Celtics, Boston Red Sox, and Boston Bruins. However, that was an isolated incident, and the immediate conclusion seemed to be that the Green Bay Packers could still lay claim to being Titletown.
So why is it the nickname America’s Team causes such discussion? Quite frankly it is the fact that the Dallas Cowboys are right in the center of the NFL map, the center of attention, and if things are really bigger in Texas then the spotlight certainly shines brighter in Dallas than anywhere else on the NFL map. Putting it in plain language the nickname fits, and it does not fit any other team. Over the years I have heard that the nickname doesn’t work because no one voted on it. The late Bert Sugar even wrote a book about that very topic called, “I Hate the Dallas Cowboys, and Who Elected Them America’s Team Anyway?” My immediate question to Bert and others of that mindset is, “Who voted the Denver Broncos the Orange Crush?” How come no one asks that? Or why the Atlanta Falcons were the Grits Blitz? Where are the recounts demanded on these elections?
They don’t exist. The reason is simple, there was no election to anoint the Cowboys as America’s Team. Let’s set the record straight. The nickname was penned by Bob Ryan of NFL Films as the title of their retrospective of the 1978 Dallas Cowboys. He coined the name due to noticing that no matter what city the Cowboys played in they drew large contingents of fans. He also noted for the Dallas Cowboys Weekly back in 1979 that he had even seen fans in Europe wearing Cowboys apparel.No one elected them to that nickname. They didn’t even politic for it. He bestowed it upon them for a highlight film and it stuck.
So it wasn’t until Roger Staubach’s final season in the NFL that the Cowboys were known as America’s Team. Funny how you can’t convince a lot of people of this fact. For instance, in Bert Sugar’s aforementioned book it is amusing how many contributors to that book talk about wanting to have been drafted by America’s Team, or played against America’s Team. One in particular was Conrad Dobler, for many years a standout Guard with the Cardinals and once considered the dirtiest player in the NFL. Know how many times Conrad Dobler faced America’s team in his entire career? Once, in 1981 as a member of the Buffalo Bills. Unfortunately for many of Bert’s co-authors they had no idea that you can’t dub someone with a nickname and make it retroactive to all time before bestowed.
Yet this is what Dobler and others like Steve Bartkowski have done in that book. They’ve taken the nickname and deemed that the Cowboys always claimed it, and because they were snubbed by the team in the Draft they turned their anger and hatred upon them because of it. A truly fascinating claim by Bartkowski since he was the first overall player taken in his Draft class and Dallas did not own that pick. So how did they pass on him? In fairness he laments that they did not trade up to get him and he wanted to play here. I guess Steve had never heard of Roger Staubach, and had no idea the Cowboys would not be in the market for a Quarterback in 1975 and that the player they chose 2nd, Randy White, was simply a better football player.
The jealousy of players like the aforementioned trio are exactly why the Dallas Cowboys are still America’s team and why the nickname is not transferable. In 2001 the media pondered whether it should be bestowed on the New England Patriots because of 9/11 and the new patriotism in the nation. In 2005 they pondered whether it should be bestowed upon the New Orleans Saints as they fought back from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. In 2008 they pondered whether it should be bestowed upon the Pittsburgh Steelers as they took the lead with their 6th Super Bowl title. Forget the fact that when the Cowboys were proclaimed that nickname the Steelers were already the first and only team in the NFL with 3 Super Bowl titles and it was given in the year they won their 4th.
There is no rhyme or reason as to why a team should be given this nickname and Dallas stripped of it beyond jealousy; or maybe it is pure and simple penis envy. Last year I heard Marshall Faulk proclaim he thought America liked winners, and the obvious slap there was that for a long time the Cowboys have not been. He is not wrong on the part about the Cowboys, but he is wrong on America only liking winners. Marshall would do himself a favor to do a little research. There are five networks that televise NFL games. If you go back for the last 5 years and look up the highest rated games on each network there is a very common theme. That theme is the Dallas Cowboys draw the biggest audiences by far. CBS only gets 2 Cowboys games per year, 1 of those 2 games will almost always be their highest ranked game and the other is in the top 5.
That is the phenomenon that Bob Ryan noted when he penned the moniker. Think about how even teams in other sports have tried to acquire it and have failed. If you do a Google search for America’s Team, what result is going to come back to you? The vast majority of the hits are going to be about one team, the Dallas Cowboys. Any other team mentioned it will be as a theory of should they get to claim the nickname. Almost as if the nickname has more prestige than the Super Bowl. It doesn’t, but that is exactly the way some act about it.
For one minute I want you to imagine that you are on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Your lifelines are gone. It is the question for one million dollars. “What Sports Team Is Known As America’s Team?” A. The Pittsburgh Steelers. B. The New England Patriots. C. The New Orleans Saints. D. The Dallas Cowboys. For one million dollars, what is your answer? Insert any other team from any other sport in A, B, or C. What is your answer?
It isn’t the team in the Nation’s Capital. It isn’t the team in America’s biggest city. It isn’t the current champion. It isn’t the team rallying around a tragedy. It is a team in blue and silver with a great big star on the side of their helmets. Have they won championships lately? Are they even relevant yet in discussions about potential champions in 2013? The answer to both of those questions is no. So their popularity is why they have the nickname?
In a word, yes. The Dallas Cowboys are the most loved and the most hated team in the entire NFL, just like America is the most loved and hated nation in the entire world. Think about it this way, there are 27 countries on the two continents of North and South America. Which one is known as America? The United States baby. Why? Because we are the biggest, baddest, and the best. America means the best there is. That is why the nickname has so much prestige to so many.
Now, don’t get me wrong. A lot of people hate the nickname. They will tell you they don’t want it for their team. Oh, the hell they don’t. Why else would they be mixed up about how the Cowboys got it, and who should have it? They are supposed to hate the nickname. That makes it greater.
I’m neither a fan of, nor a detractor of Howard Stern. He really just doesn’t interest me. But I give him immense credit for something he said one time that was so perfect it was genius. He said that his loyal fans listen to at least 2 hours of his 3 hour radio show daily. He then went on to say that his most ardent detractors listen to at least 3 hours of his 3 hour radio show. Do you get the point? Their hatred makes him even more relevant. They are feeding the very thing they claim to hate. Like him, or hate him, Stern nailed it with that observation.
No one hates a doormat. In my entire life I honestly don’t remember anyone saying their most hated team is the Detroit Lions. The reason is simple. The Lions have never been relevant. I know a lot of people right now who hate the Patriots and their acerbic Head Coach, Bill Belichick. I don’t remember anyone hating the Patriots prior to 2001 and their incredible decade of dominance.
That’s a phenomenon we have in America. We build something up, so we can really enjoy tearing it down. Music stars are a perfect example of this. Michael Jackson went from the youngest brother to a demi-God, to the butt of more jokes than a comedian can recite in one stand up act, to a sadly closed chapter at his death that moved him back to the legend who moon walked across a stage and dropped jaws around the world. Dallas got built up as the greatest, and now people are going to tear them down. That’s why the discussions pop up every year about whether they are still America’s team or not.
Only an idiot would think they aren’t. Why do you think the very first sentence of this article was about this happening after a Dallas loss? Because after a win, it isn’t a question worth asking. There’s no shock or anger value. I mean seriously, it would take someone with a very serious anti-Cowboys agenda to ask that if they are say 5-0. No, they ask it when emotions are high after a loss and then they pick their sad, pathetic new pretender to the throne, and like every other time, they get shot down for the stupid idea. So why doesn’t that tactic cease?
It sells. The Dallas Cowboys sell. They are sexy. It isn’t just the cheerleaders who make it that way, the entire package is all twisted steel and sex appeal. Almost every team has cheerleaders, and have for decades. Some of them are drop dead gorgeous. Yet it is the Cowboys cheerleaders who are on CMT and called America’s Sweethearts. If someone wants to tell me they aren’t attracted to our cheerleaders I am going to presume they simply don’t like beautiful women. I’ve seen women on other teams who are as beautiful or even more beautiful, yet they don’t get the press. It sells.
Tex Schramm was the greatest genius in football History. First of all he picked colors for the team that drew the eye. Blue, silver, and white are a classic combination. Then he picked a logo which people can identify with. From an early age we see kids drawing 5 sided stars. I still remember the first time I saw that star and was struck. It is a simple logo, with far reaching appeal. How far? As far away as the real ones. Next he chose a mascot name that people could identify with.
Think about it folks, in the 1960′s and 1970′s what TV Shows dominated the airwaves? Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The High Chaparral, The Virginian, The Rifleman, and others were popular too. Who was the biggest star in Hollywood movies at the time? The Duke, John Wayne, who ironically was iconic for his pro America war movies and his pro good guy cowboy movies. We grew up thinking of cowboys as the good guys, as men of honor. How often have we heard the phrase about the worth of a man’s handshake? It was about cowboys and that lifestyle of honor.
I venture to say virtually every young boy at one time or another played cowboys. Silver pistols with white grips, a star on the vest as a badge and a cowboy hat. I don’t have a clue how many rolls of red caps I shot as a kid as I fired my six shooters. We still honor cowboys today in a lot of ways. They’re still seen largely as a segment of society that is about moral values, honesty, integrity and hard work. I don’t know too many people who think it’s an easy life to be up before the rooster milking cows and doing the things a cowboy does. I know a lot of people who when they retire they want to do so nearer to farm and ranch country where they can be around horses and hard working people.
I have a good memory. I honestly don’t remember ever pretending to be an eagle, a lion, or a bear. I sort of remember a plastic viking helmet and I am sure I played pirate a time or two. I may have even pretended to be a giant. I am pretty sure I even pretended to be an Indian chief or brave. It was nothing like being a cowboy. Heck, cowboys even have their own music genre. Tell me all about the genre of sausage packers music.
For some people loving the Dallas Cowboys is simply a natural fit. Their mascot name represents a lifestyle most of us can respect. Their logo represents so many dreams. We’ve all hopefully gazed at the stars on a dark night and wondered. That sense of wonder is powerful. That’s why the Cowboys are so popular. They’re right in the middle of the NFL map and like it or not they are the straw that stirs the drink. Does anyone think the network hosting the Super Bowl this year isn’t secretly praying the Cowboys are there from the NFC?
Don’t be silly, of course they are. Even over the larger market Jets and Giants. They sell. That is why NBC has flexed more Cowboys games late in the season than all of the other teams. If Dallas is in it, they want to show it. They sell. A million dollars on the line. Who is known as America’s Team? The only team who ever has had that right is the Dallas Cowboys. The rest are mere pretenders to a nickname they cannot have. That is why the Dallas Cowboys really are America’s Team. You don’t have to like that nickname. It won’t bother me if you don’t. It doesn’t bother me if you hate the team I love. It doesn’t bother me at all. Like I always say, embrace the hatred.