The Pro Bowl is just days away, and for the first time since I was a starry-eyed kid, I am actually into it.
Let’s face it: while the NFL stands alone among the major American professional sports organizations in matters of marketing, branding, and quality control, it lags far behind the others when it comes to packaging and selling its annual all-star game. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 95% [?]
“Early in the third quarter, the Giants had their backs to the wall, just as they had all season. They were an established NFL power in America’s greatest city, with a lineup of star athletes expected to dominate the league for years to come…”
So writes Mark Bowden, author of The Best Game Ever. With an eye for detail and a flair for stating the dramatic in a sufficiently understated way so as to make it more dramatic, Bowden weaves the story of the game many still say is the greatest ever played.
From My Library
The 1958 NFL championship game at Yankee Stadium between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts was a game for the ages. It would be the first nationally televised NFL championship game. It would pit, as Bowden aptly points out, the league’s stingiest defense (the Giants) against the league’s most powerful offense (the Colts). It would become the first NFL game to go to sudden death overtime…and it would officially awaken the consciousness of a nation to the sport that had long labored under the long shadow of major league baseball. Today, no sport is more widely followed by American sports fans. No league is more wildly successful and lucrative.
This was not the case in 1958.
In 1958, the great postwar boom was still in full stride, but some new and discordant notes had sounded…Just over the horizon was a decade of restless social, political, and cultural upheaval, but none of that was obvious yet. Americans had never been more affluent, and had never had more leisure. And pro football, which was about to catch hold, would just shoulder on through all this coming change, growing ever more popular and ever more rich.
The names involved in this championship game alone make it singular. Baltimore players sported name like John Unitas, Raymond Berry, Alan Ameche, Art Donovan, Lenny Moore, “Big Daddy” Lipscomb, and Gino Marchetti. The Giants fielded giants, as well. Their players included Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, Rosey Grier, and Pat Summerall. The Colts were led by now legendary coach Weeb Ewbank, who would become the only man to win both the NFL and AFL championships as a head coach. Flanking Giants’ head coach Jim Lee Howell were offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi and defensive coordinator Tom Landry.
It was the greatest concentration of football talent ever assembled for a single game. On the field and roaming the sidelines, including Giants owners Wellington and Jack Mara, were seventeen future members of the NFL Hall of Fame.
The game itself was a masterpiece, but the stories surrounding the game were also the stuff of legend. From the wit and humor of the gregarious Art Donovan to the meticulous – obsessive, even – work habits of Raymond Berry and John Unitas, Bowden opens the curtains to the behind-the-scenes action and drama leading up to, surrounding, and following the great game.
The chapter on Raymond Berry depicts the story of achievement in the face of odds and athletic accomplishment despite physical limitations, the likes of which would never be written as a work of fiction because it would be considered entirely too fanciful. Writes Bowden:
The story of Raymond Berry is more than the story of an overlooked, talent-deprived young athlete who by dint of sheer effort, will, and dedication turns himself into a star. There are players who fit that description on every team…His personality and his obsessions changed not only his own life, but those of his teammates and the Colts’ organization, and ultimately the history of pro football.
The other stories and back stories are equally important and receive attention from Bowden’s keen eye and sharp pen. He doesn’t overlook the influence of the father of modern football, Paul Brown, on the game. He doesn’t miss the unlikely way the Colts got hold of the man who would become forever the gold standard for pro quarterbacks, John Unitas. He highlights the genius of Lombardi and Landry. He reveals the chess game that played out on the field between the defensive guru Landry, his star linebacker Sam Huff, and Unitas.
Adding to the book’s appeal are odd insertions of the stories of random fans who were watching the game. People whose names may have never appeared in a published work before and may never after give color and clarity to the meaning and magnitude of this game. Consider Ed Chaney, Jr…
At Henry Mack’s pub on Ritchie Highway in Glen Burnie, Maryland, Ed Chaney, Jr., one of about three dozen Colts’ fans watching on TV, called his boss at a nearby service station to say he would be late for work. The boss fired him. Chaney hung up happily and ordered another beer.
We may debate which is the greatest pro football game ever played, as my Dad would say, until the cows come home. But any honest debate, even a half century after the fact, must include the 1958 NFL championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants. For people like me who were born after the fact – I would not enter the world until 1961 and would not develop a fully functional pro football consciousness until about 1970 – this book brings to life the game that changed the game forever, and the men who made it what it was.
The Best Game Ever may not be the greatest sports book ever. But for a true fan of the NFL, for a fan who wants to look beneath the glitz and glamor of today’s game and understand its roots, this book is a must read.
And it’s a good read, which makes it all the better.
All quotations for this article are taken from the book: The Best Game Ever by Mark Bowden ©2008 by Mark BowdenPopularity: 4% [?]
The NFL Network recently offered an episode in its Top 10 series in which they named their top ten 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:
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. But 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 (drum roll) 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 ten Pro Bowl honors in his first ten 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, gain nearly 13,000 yards in his career and anchor 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 but Emmitt, who 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.
Captain America
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…
For the next 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.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Stephen Jones has suggested that Cowboys’ management may need to do what Cowboys’ fans have often dreamed of doing: put his daddy, Jerry Jones, in a straitjacket. Stephen, of course, was joking about how hard it would be for Jones the Elder to sit still and stay put until the number fifty-one pick in today’s draft.
Shake It, Jerry!
Since his awkward leap onto the NFL’s center stage in 1989, no owner or General Manager has done more wheeling and dealing, or made more draft day splashes than Jerry Jones. He has made 51 draft day trades in those twenty years. People who know Jones best know that it will be torture for him to bide his time and bite his tongue and…wait his turn.
Todd Archer of the Dallas Morning News allows that Jerry has extra incentive to do just that this year. He writes:
If there was one thing that seemed certain at Thursday’s news conference at the team’s new stadium in Arlington, it was the Cowboys’ preference to stay out of the first round.
Salary-cap restraints will make it difficult for teams to work out contracts for top picks because of the uncertainty surrounding the collective bargaining agreement. Jones said that was one of the reasons he made the deal with Detroit last season, when the Cowboys traded their first-, third- and sixth-round picks this year for wide receiver Roy Williams and a seventh-round pick in 2010.
Perhaps it will be enough for the wildcatter to shake things up beginning in round two, using the eleven picks he has in his pocket. He may well stay out of the first round, but smart money says he won’t just wait his turn every time thereafter.
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Miles To Go?
Jerry Jones has insisted that the primary reason he gave T.O. the boot was to make room for the Cowboys’ young receivers to flourish. The one name he has mentioned as a plausible replacement for Owens, especially as a deep threat, is Miles Austin.
Today, the Dallas Morning News is reporting that the New York Jets are showing interest in Austin, who is a restricted free agent…
According to sources, the Jets have scheduled to meet with Austin, a restricted free agent, Thursday and Friday.
The Cowboys gave Austin a $1.545 million tender offer that would require a team to give up a second-round pick as compensation if the Cowboys did not match. The restricted free-agent signing period ends on April 17. Four restricted free agents have signed offer sheets this off-season, but their teams matched the offers.
The Jets may well force Jerry to put his money where his mouth is. Is the undrafted, untested speedster really more valuable than what you may find with a second round pick…or the leverage having those consecutive picks might give you? Expect Jones to pay whatever the fiddler requires. He has made a commitment to finding out just what Austin can be and do.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Jerry Jones likes to make a splash. With the impending opening of his new stadium in Arlington, Texas, the Cowboys’
Bigger is Better
owner will do just that.
One of the most impressive features of the Jones Mahal is the world record-setting scoreboard, which stretches from twenty yard-line to twenty yard-line. Andrea Ahles of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Stephen Jones told the University of Texas at Arlington Business Week audience:
“It cost $40 million to build Texas Stadium. At the new Arlington stadium, the scoreboards alone cost more than $40 million.”
Once the scoreboard is installed and operable, Mitsubishi intends to apply to the Guiness’ Book of World Records to have it listed as the world’s largest. In her report, Ahles reveals the following data concerning the scoreboard/replay screen:
As a Cowboys fan, I say that all of that is well and good. This is Texas, and we always like to do things bigger. My biggest concern, however, is to know that we will see seventy-one foot tall Cowboys scoring more TDs than their giant opponents on those screens.
Texas Stadium was unique, original, and a marvel in its day, too. The thing that made that place special, however, was that it housed one of the NFL’s greatest teams, a team that made eight Super Bowl appearances, won five rings, set a record for consecutive winning seasons, and was labeled by NFL films as “America’s Team.”
If the Cowboys lay an egg this year the way they did last year, it will be a world record-sized egg. The Jones family just raised the stakes on their own success. If they fail to deliver a winner, they will turn their dream into a giant nightmare, reminiscent of those grainy old Japanese Godzilla flicks.
Jerry and company ought to know that around here a Mitsubishi triumph is far less impressive than a Lombardi Trophy.
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What is more important to a team than a franchise quarterback? Not much.
Where are the Arizona Cardinals of a year ago without the reemergence of Kurt Warner? Who wins the Super Bowl if the Steelers don’t have the steady hand of Big Ben Roethlisberger on the wheel? Subtract the Roger Staubachs, Terry Bradshaws, Joe Montanas, Troy Aikmans, and Tom Bradys of the world from their respective teams and who were the teams of the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s?
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Who has the most potential to become a franchise quarterback?
Total Voters: 21
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Sure, a few teams have won championships with caretakers at the helm. Typically, those teams (see Bucs, Ravens) had suffocating defenses. Also, typically, they were one-and-done champions. The repeat offenders, the perennial championship teams all seem to have this common thread: a franchise QB.
Each franchise quarterback has his own special reason he stands apart from the pack. He may be an Elway type, draw it up in the dirt, scramble around, make a ridiculous pass to win the game. Or, he may be “Cool Hand Luke” Aikman, with a cannon for an arm and a steel beam for a spine. He may be Captain Comeback, never-say-die Staubach or pinpoint precision, perfect-passing Brady (or Montana). Whatever he is, he is the guy you want leading your team into battle.
Chicago hasn’t had such a guy since, well, since…you can’t say McMahon. So, they trade away the family farm to get Cutler and most of the critics say they got the better end of the bargain. So says the New York Post:
The Bears showed they’re serious about contending in the NFC after missing the playoffs the past two years, and in Cutler, they finally have a top-tier passer after a decades-long search.
“Time will tell if he’s going to be a franchise player,” general manager Jerry Angelo said. “We’re certainly hoping that’s the case.
But what we do know is we got a winning quarterback and we feel very good about that.”
The Bears are getting a Pro Bowl quarterback who threw for 4,526 yards, 25 touchdowns with 18 interceptions, yet got traded after a major blowup with management and new coach Josh McDaniels. Cutler wasn’t happy when Mike Shanahan got fired or when his position coach, Jeremy Bates, left for Southern California.
But this is a Cowboys’ blog. The overwhelming evidence of the importance of a franchise quarterback to the longterm – and consistent – success of a team begs the question: is Tony Romo that kind of guy?
The answer: I don’t know. Neither do you. Neither does Jerry Jones or Wade Phillips or the nearest fortune teller. But we will know the answer to this burning question soon enough. The table has been set for him. The dirty dishes (read, T.O.) have been cleared away, and now he gets to play with a tea set that doesn’t include a dude as mad as a march hare. If Tony is who the Cowboys think he is, this is his time. He must deliver now.
When you look around the league at the state of the quarterback position on most teams, you have to like the Cowboys’ chances. I echo Tim Cowlishaw’s sentiments (he of the Dallas Morning News):
You don’t get rid of Pro Bowl quarterbacks in the NFL.
You especially don’t get rid of young Pro Bowl quarterbacks in the NFL.
Romo has many critics, detractors, nay-sayers, and I have had a thing or two to say about some of his devil-may-care posturing when the media has turned up the heat on him…
But all you have to do is relive the Anthony Wright, Quincy Carter, Ryan Leaf, Chad Hutchinson, Clint Stoerner, Vinny Testaverde, Drew Bledsoe years to understand why the only way to go is give your quality quarterback whatever he desires once you have one. (Again, Cowlishaw)
So, where would you rather be this morning? Dallas? Or, Denver? And I ain’t talking the weather, here.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Roger Goodell followed up news about a bad idea, namely taking the traditional Thanksgiving Day games away from the Cowboys and Lions and spreading them around, with news of an idea whose time has come. Fox News reports that Goodell has confirmed that one of the major items discussed at the Owners’ meetings is the expansion of the NFL regular season from 16 games to 17 or 18 games.
“We are looking at a variety of formats for restructuring,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the conclusion of the meetings. “Our goal is to improve the quality of what we’re doing.”
That is as much about decreasing the number of preseason games, which Goodell acknowledged are not quality games, as adding to the regular season. The latter, of course, is a way “to grow the game,” according to Goodell, as well as create additional revenue.
Few things are a bigger waste of a fan’s time than those final two weeks of preseason football. I can only think of MLB games any time prior to September, any NBA regular season game, all NHL regular season games and cottage cheese. Moreover, being the violent sport that it is, playing four or five preseason games only increases the probability that a few teams will start – and, sometimes, even conclude – their season without the services of a key player due to unnecessary injury.
We will cross our fingers and wait expectantly for the good news that the deed is done.
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