The Dallas Football Cowboys Part 1 (a perspective from a fan born after the glory years)
The Dallas Football Cowboys (listen to this banger if you never have), ah where to even begin. I think first and foremost I need to explain to you my history with the Dallas Football Cowboys.
Some Context to my Obsession
I was born and raised in North Dallas right off the always bustling Midway Road. As a result of the place of my birth football has always been a large part of my life and something I have always been surrounded by. One of my earliest core memories is my first time being allowed to stay up past my bedtime to watch the end of a sporting event.
That sporting event happened to be the 2005 BCS championship game between THE Texas Longhorns and the then powerhouse USC Trojans.
If you are a Texan reading this then you know exactly what happened in that game. If you aren’t I will give you a bit of context.
The Longhorns had the greatest college football quarterback in history (in my opinion), Vince Young. After a tight game, the Longhorns found themselves lined up 5 yards from the endzone with 19 seconds remaining. Now, when I tell you that every single person in the stadium or at home knew exactly what was about to happen you may not believe me, but, you will simply have to trust me on this when I say, everyone knew. And to no one’s surprise, that exact thing happened. The Longhorns snapped the ball to Vince Young and he proceeded to shimmy his way through the defense and down the sideline and into the endzone. Resulting in a Longhorn national championship victory.
This game remains and may forever remain as my basis for understanding what true unhindered victory meant. The elation I felt while celebrating with my family was something I have not since experienced. (I was close in 2011 with the Rangers, fuck you, David Freese).
Early Years of my Cowboy Fandom
Now with some context behind my football enjoyment, I would like to take you down a less brightly lit path. The struggle of being a cowboy fan since the year of my birth 1998.
Prior to my existence, the Cowboys experienced a decade of utter domination with the big three of Emmit Smith, Troy Aikman, and Michael Irvin. A trio that dominated the 90s and brought home three Super Bowls to the loyal Cowboys nation in Dallas. The last of which came in 1996.
I was born at the back end of a good thing. By the time my football consciousness had come into effect, the power trio that had once rocked the NFL world was long gone. Emmit Smith was wearing red for the Cardinals, Troy Aikman might have already begun broadcasting and Michael Irvin was nowhere to be seen in my world.
So, the first quarterback I can clearly remember is Drew Bledsoe, who held the reigns of the then abysmal offense of the Dallas Cowboys from 2005 to 2006. Now, I must be honest in saying that I can barely remember what Drew Bledsoe looks like let alone how he played on the field, but I can tell you with confidence that it wasn’t pretty.
Because of the Cowboy's utter irrelevance at that crucial time in my growing up, I quickly tossed the not-so-great home team to the side and began to search for a team I could get behind. I went through the same phases many young football fans go through, liking the colors or helmets a team had and basing my fandom on fickle things like that. I went through three teams during that time that I can remember clearly. The first was the Chiefs, the second was the Titans, and the final team was the Bengals. None of these stuck however as they had been chosen for surface-level reasons, no true fandom had been built up inside of me.
A True Fandom Rises
I will keep this story as brief as I can, as I think in honesty it probably deserves its own article.
My first favorite NFL team was the New Orleans Saints with Drew Bress and Reggie Bush. I fell into this fandom in 2006 when the New Orleans Saints played their first game back at the Super Dome following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. I watched that game from the pre-game festivities to the last whistle. What really got me though was the entrance of the Saints. A choir had been selected to sing “The Saints Go Marching In” and I had never seen such a display of passion and pure fandom than in that moment, to this day I have never experienced or seen anything like it.
From that moment on I finally had a team I could latch onto for what I deemed to be a good reason. This team is inspiring its city and its fans are truly passionate. I was hooked.
The Cowboys During this Period
While my Saint’s fandom roared within me, the Cowboys had made some serious changes and began to enter a new era. This era was the Tony Romo era. Now, I would be disingenuous to tell you that I was truly a fan of the Cowboys throughout this period. I was a “fan” and paid attention to how the Cowboys did but did not make it a point to watch every game as I did with the Saints.
My feelings about Tony Romo have always been mixed and again could take up an entire article, so I will summarize my feelings about him here. I realize that he was a good quarterback and that many of the losses and shortcomings of those teams cannot be solely attributed to him, but damn was that time period frustrating.
The media at the time, as they still do today, always seemed to have some misplaced belief that the team could finally put it all together and make a serious run at another championship.
To me, this constant media bombardment about how close we had been always turned me off the team. I just could never see what the media heads at the time were seeing. As I have aged I realize now more than ever that anything that says “Dallas Football Cowboys” on it will always generate views and clicks, so I am sure most of it was just normal sports talk bullshit. However, it greatly discouraged me from truly becoming a fan of the Cowboys.
I felt like many at the time, that Tony could never and would never get us over the hump. Now if you think I lay all the blame at Tony’s feet for those years of personal misery you are quite wrong.
The true culprit in my opinion is Mr. 20% third down efficiency Jason Garrett. When I tell you I have never watched anything more frustrating than the Cowboys under Jason Garret I am saying that to you with an incredible amount of vigor behind it. Watching the team fail constantly to do the seemingly obvious thing was so incredibly frustrating that it was difficult to ever pay the Cowboys any serious attention.
I will admit that as the years went by and the late Romo and Garret era was in full swing I began to pay much closer attention to the Cowboys and slowly began to slip into Cowboy fandom. Despite this, I can still say wholeheartedly that I knew nothing good would ever come with Coach Garrett. His aura, his press conferences, and his results on the field were clear writings on the wall for me.
Just remember with me for a moment, third and three in any game ever played by the Cowboys under Garret. What do you think the play call was?
A. Slant Route beyond the first down marker
B. Any route beyond the first down marker
C. A screen pass to a running back in the backfield 4 more yards away from the first down marker
If you answered C. You are correct. It happened at least in my memory every single goddamn time. Impossible to be a fan of that in my eyes. I still was a fan, but Jesus Christ those are some of my darkest sports memories.
As a result of this era and the constant failure that filled the history books at that time, it became incredibly difficult to ever put faith in the Cowboys again. Yet, as many Cowboys fans do, when that new year comes around, a feeling of hope always sneaks in. Only to result in the same bullshit that occurred the year before. Can you tell those years were a misery for me and many fans like me?
The 214 Era Arrives
Now, you may think reading this that I was not a fan of the Cowboys before the 214 era arrived in town. I can’t convince you otherwise and you’ve read my scathing review of that period in the previous section, but I can tell you that towards the back end of Jason Garrett’s tenor I had completely dropped the Saints and had all my eggs in the Cowboys basket. That is why I had been subjected so consistently to the horrors that were Jason Garrett’s Cowboy teams.
Towards the end of the Jason “I can’t convert third downs or even make a solid attempt at it” Garret’s tenure, something began to happen to our longtime quarterback Mr. Romo. The injury bug began. Romo broke his finger, his collarbone, and whatever else that dude messed up at the end. It became such that every time poor Tony got hit the entire city of Dallas held its breath to see if the guy could get up under his own power.
Now you might think that this encouraged the genius player analysts that the Cowboys employed at the time such as Jerry Jones and Jason Garret to begin to seriously consider drafting a quarterback for the future. Bah! Of course, not silly Cowboy fan, why would we need that? We have a quarterback, and we are only one step away (just like the last ten years) from the sweet taste of ultimate victory in the Super Bowl.
So, in 2016 when the draft time came the Cowboys made the bizarre choice of selecting Ezekiel Elliot, the hurtling phenom running back from Ohio State. Now, if you are not very familiar with modern NFL draft theory you may not think anything of this maneuver. In 1990 no one would’ve batted an eye at a decision like this. But that was in 1990. In 2016 it was a pretty big surprise to most to see a running back go off the board that early. Why? Because it’s a passing league and has been for quite some time. The running back position had changed quickly and its value was far less than it had been in the 90s.
Personally, at the time I wasn’t surprised, Jerry had conditioned the Cowboys fans to expect the unexpected and who knows maybe Zeke really was the generational talent the Cowboys believed him to be. (Sounds like a Lebron lying quote, I know).
That was only the first round of the 2016 NFL draft though, so we still had rounds and rounds to try and decipher which players on the board could best assist the Cowboys. I still remember where I was when I heard that the ‘Boys had drafted Dak Prescott. I was with my friends in East Dallas, who for some odd reason had a connection to the Mississippi State Bulldogs and they informed me of the late-round pick.
Now, you may not believe me but even then, this pick piqued my interest. Dak Prescott was no slouch in college, he had managed to bring the Mississippi State Bulldogs all the way to rank 1 in the college standings during his time with the school. He had been in the conversation for the Heisman that year and was a very impressive player all around.
The years following the meteoric rise to rank 1 were far less successful and as such Dak’s value dropped significantly. This played perfectly int the Cowboys hands and they managed to make the pick in the 4th round. At the time of the pick, it was assumed that we had secured a solid backup for the aging and injury-prone Tony Romo, not much more was thought about the move beyond that.
As fate would have it, the injury-prone Romo would injure himself early in the pre-season and a young Dak would perform extremely well in his absence. Following the injury, Dak took the starting job and would end up never giving it back. By the time Romo was healthy, it had become very apparent that a new quarterback was in town, one that wouldn’t break his pinky every third play (I am sorry Romo, you truly don’t deserve my jabs).
And thus, the 214 era began. With Dak rocking number 4 and Zeke wearing 21, the area code for Dallas (214) could now be seen lining up in the backfield every play.
For me, this was a turning point in my cowboy fandom. Sure, Garrett was still around then, but our offense had completely changed. New faces to cheer for and a new much more exciting to watch young offense. I was finally a full-blown Cowboy fan.
The lead-up to the 2022 Cowboys
Now, since the changing of the guard the Cowboys have very much continued in a similar pattern.
The pattern is, the season begins and the entire town and all the media are excited at the prospective roster the Cowboys are rolling out. It looks good, we have good players and seem to have a great opportunity to make a solid run at things. During this era especially though it has seemed to bear more fruit than ever before. With constant good seasons coming from the boys. The idea that we may very well be close each year is seemingly more true than ever. Is this Cowboy’s fan delusion finally settling in me? Probably.
The two years prior to 2022, however, have been difficult ones. A Dak season-ending injury and an unfortunate playoff matchup against the perfectly built enemy 49ers. The 9ers one hurt a lot more, the team seemed to be on a roll but could not at all put it together in that playoff game.
But alas, with the arrival of new head coach Mike McCarthy and the promotion of Kellen Moore to offensive coordinator things appeared to be on the up and up. The Cowboys had transformed from the most frustratingly conservative team in football to a very aggressive one. Something I personally loved to see. How could you justify playing conservatively with a gunslinger quarterback, a speedster bull running back, and a jet for a wide receiver in Ceedee Lamb? Garrett had, but thankfully McCarthy changed that culture and began to utilize his weapons in far more beneficial ways.
On top of this, the 2020 defense had been historically terrible, pathetic even. Following the 2020 season, the Cowboys decided to hire disgraced coach Dan Quinn, ex-Super Bowl losing head coach for the Atlanta Falcons (28-3, if you know you know) as their defensive coordinator for the 2021 season. What followed was one of the most incredible turnarounds I have ever seen. In a single season, the Cowboys completely changed their defensive identity. Thanks to Dan Quinn the Cowboy’s defensive player evaluations seemed to change overnight, the players who had somehow maintained jobs on the old terrible defense were cycled out and replaced with talent that could work in Dan Quinn’s new system.
In just two seasons the Cowboys have gone from having one of the worst defenses in the history of the National Football League, to having what I would argue is the best and most intimidating defense in the NFL today.
Who are some of the faces we can accredit these changes to?
Micah Parsons, Linebacker, #11.
When Micah was drafted I would be remised to not tell you that I was utterly devastated by the decision to not trade out from the 12th position in the draft. My reasoning? I truly believed that the Cowboys needed help in the secondary, I wanted a generational safety or a lockdown corner. Not another linebacker. I had seen the script too often, Cowboys don’t get who they are presumed to really want, and they decide to take a linebacker, and it really doesn’t ever work out for them.
Our best linebacker in my memory prior to Micah was Sean Lee, a long-ago draft pick. The other failed linebackers at the time were Jaylon Smith (second-round pick) and Leighton Vander Esch (first-round pick) who had both been plagued with injuries and just overall were not performing up to their draft position.
So on draft day, I was devastated to hear that after Patrick Surtain had been taken before us and that we had decided to send it on a Penn State prospect. A guy who had gotten in trouble at Penn State and did not play his last year in college due to Covid.
He was a guy who hadn’t played football in a year and someone I had heard very little about prior to the draft. I assumed then, that we had just taken Leighton Vander Esch 2 and we would soon be scratching our heads at why the hell we had blown our pick on this guy named Micah.
Well, I have not been more incorrect about something in my entire life perhaps.
From the moment Micah put on his star emblemed helmet his impact has been immeasurable. The dude is the definition of the word “stud”. He quite literally does it all. He is one of the most prolific pass rushers in the game and has been since his arrival two years ago. This is unbelievably impressive, for a rookie to come in and dominate the pass rush game the way he did has not been seen before in my memory. Sure, good rookie pass rushers have existed, but to this extent and while playing linebacker, no it hadn’t been seen before.
On top of all this Micah plays linebacker, which means it is not his duty on every play to lineup for the pass rush, he must play coverage and plug gaps in the middle of the field on nonrushing plays, basically he must play linebacker too. Well, he may very well be the best at this as well, his speed is electric and he covers the entire field with ease. I have often watched the ball go to the total opposite side of Micah and still see number 11 flying in to make the tackle across the field.
Micah Parsons is the type of player you have to game plan for. That’s how disruptive he is. You have to plan for how you are going to limit his impact against you each and every week. All this does is make it difficult for the opponent to plan for the rest of your defense and forces the opponent to apply extra resources to stop a single game wrecker. In my lifetime the cowboys have had some very impressive defensive players, Demarcus Ware, and Sean Lee, but neither of them in my opinion had nearly the effect that Micah has brought.
Trevon Diggs, Cornerback, #7:
On top of this the emergence of one named Trevon Diggs as one of the premier ball hawk cornerbacks in our league has transformed the Dallas defense from a soft plushy toy into a weapon of mass destruction. Trevon is often criticized for his coverage; I couldn’t care less about that. I love the way he cheats for interceptions; takeaways are game-changing. Granted an 80-yard touchdown over his head also is, but I can take the occasional misplay if you can produce 14 interceptions between two seasons.
With these two players setting the tone the 2022 Cowboys defense has continued its transformation story. And this year, in my opinion, we have one of the most prolific and dangerous defenses in the league. Our ability to wear down offenses over the course of the game and maintain shocking energy late into ball games has allowed the Cowboys to utterly demolish teams.
The recent Colt game comes to mind as a highlight of the season for the Cowboy's defense. That game was pure domination by the defense in the second half. The worn-down Colts could do nothing but eat sacks and throw interceptions. A glorious sight for any Cowboys enjoyer.
With that I will finish this article here, unfinished as we haven’t even begun to touch upon the Cowboys offense and the things that have occurred this year. I am not sure what I will title this, but I am sure it will not be able to encompass everything I have written here.
In the next edition of Cowboys Talk Article (Better name to come)
· Expect a true review of the 2022 season from my perspective
· An offensive breakdown, and more defensive talk as well
· And my hopes for the continuation of this good season
Thank you for reading and having me back as your editor in chief and writer extraordinaire.
- Cole B Hirschhorn