Cowboys back; still won't repeat

October 5, 1993
Originally published by The Daily Collegian (Fresno State)

Dallas, Dallas, Dallas. Everybody wants to get a hold on the Cowboys these days. They became the most talked about team in the NFL last year and many people thought they would be to the 1990s what the 49ers were to the 80s and Pittsburgh was to the 70s.

Now that the Cowboys have been in the post-Super Bowl slump that strikes all great teams, I’m saying "I told you so."

Some people think that I, along with many others, was leaning heavily toward Dallas when this season started. Then running back Emmitt Smith didn’t show up until the damage was done. The Cowboys went 0-2 against Washington and Buffalo while Smith was still holding out.

Then the Dallas rooters claimed that I was jumping off the Cowboys when they hit the losing streak.

And then--what a shock--just two days after I spoke a piece of my mind, Smith has a new contract and shows up. The Cowboys stage a turnaround to "improve" to 2-2.

I guess now, in the words of several esteemed Dallas fans, I am supposed to change my mind and jump back on the Cowboys wagon sometime soon.

But still I say: no repeat.

Even if the Cowboys were to somehow reclaim the magic from 1992 (which won’t happen) and go 14-2, they still would not be the same championship team a year ago.

To win a Super Bowl takes painstakingly hard work, talent, determination, and coaching with maybe a little luck thrown in. To win it for the second straight year would take all those ingredients and one more: razor-thin tunnel vision.

For Dallas to have internal problems now, with the Smith chapter endured, would almost certainly destroy any hopes they have of going back-to-back. The pursuit of motivation (or lack thereof) that they displayed in their first two weeks will certainly derail them.

And the lack of motivation they have shown will no doubt keep them from a second Super season. The one criteria has eliminated them, and that is their drive to succeed. Turbulence in the front office and off-the-field controversy makes winning impossible in this day and age.

Washington treated their Cowboys contest like it was Super Bowl 27.5. Buffalo went into Dallas a week later and marked "Super Bowl 28" on their game plans. And it goes on and on. That will be the goal of every Dallas opponent this season: derail the champion.

A lot of teams would like no better opponent to kick around this year than the Cowboys, when you note their history as being a cocky team that expects to win even when it is no longer realistic. The Redskins are Dallas’ main rivals and the Bills just got hammered last year in the Super Bowl. Again, motivation, which Dallas has lost.

Those two teams have set the tone for the others on Dallas’ schedule: The Cowboys are still and elite championship team but they are not unbeatable. They can be had.

I would like to point out one other thing: Where were all the Cowboy rooters back in 1989? Someone I knew used to wear a Cowboys jacket to school every day. Midway through the losing streak, he burned it ceremoniously.

Now I say the Cowboys are a great team, but it strikes me as funny that I have seen Dallas fans pop out of the woodwork for the first time in 15 years. Central California is supposed to be home to the 49ers, Raiders, Rams and Chargers. When did the Cowboys announce their move out to sunny Calif? Did I miss something?

I believe in true loyalty to a team no matter what. I don’t know about the rest of you but only one team has won my heart: the Raiders. And, God knows, I’ve been just about ready to give up on them. But I remain true to the Silver and Black, through thick and mostly thin these days.

That’s something all the newly made Cowboy followers should take note. Let’s see what happens now that their backs are to the wall, but I won’t change my opinion regardless. No one else should, either.