Star shines again in Dallas

September 30, 1998
Originally published by The State Hornet (Sacramento State)

Lock the doors, hide the jewelry, and bar the windows. The 'Boys are back.

It's like they never left.

The Dallas Cowboys, the team everyone has forsaken and predicted would fall into an abyss, are suddenly back in contending status after winning two of their first three games convincingly.

Dallas' only loss was to Super Bowl champion Denver. After losing Troy Aikman to injury for at least the next month, the Cowboys didn't appear to skip a beat, crushing the New York Giants in a Monday Night showdown, 31-7.

That win put the Cowboys back atop the spot where they think should be a given--the top of the standings in the NFC East.

While racking up numerous injuries, the Cowboys have nonetheless managed to retain their focus and keep to on the field matters, something that was sorely missing under the Barry Switzer regime.

Even though Switzer coached Dallas to a win in Super Bowl XXX, the team was hit hard with dissension, suspensions and off-the-field controversy.

Since that Super Bowl win over the Steelers, wide receiver Michael Irvin was caught with cocaine and two women (neither of whom was his wife) and Leon Lett was kicked off the team for a year because of substance abuse, among other things. This nutty bunch was one-third fading dynasty, two- thirds circus.

Owner Jerry Jones had had enough. He sent Switzer packing and decided to bring in someone else.

That someone was Chan Gailey, who had served as an assistant with Pittsburgh and Denver. He let it be known he wouldn't stand for any foolishness on or off the field. He also demanded that his players play with passion and pride, which is something the Cowboys didn't do last year.

A season ago, they were a listless, apathetic bunch that didn't have a whole lot of emotion. They looked like a collection of fat lipid cells waiting to be digested.
Gailey says he wants to reach the success the Cowboys had earlier this decade and especially in the Roger Staubach era, when they became America's Team.

The Cowboys have appeared in a record eight Super Bowls and won five of them, tied with the 49ers for the most. They had long had appeal worldwide as the league's most popular team.

Now the swagger is back.

Yeah, they got spanked by Denver in week two, but the Broncos were (a) playing at home and (b) Aikman was knocked out of the game with a collarbone injury. The Cowboys wouldn't know they belonged for sure until the spanking of the Giants.

Can they rebound, win the division and get to the playoffs again? Or is it all a bunch of hot air? The Cowboys, after all, aren't getting any younger.

But they will smoke the Raiders come Sunday. Sorry, Silver and Black faithful. Ye of much faith will be badly disappointed as Oakland will find a way to crumble and lose again.

That's too bad, when you look at it.

The league won't admit it, but they need bad boy teams that everybody loves to hate, like the Cowboys and Raiders, to be near the top every year to make it interesting. It's no fun watching pretty-boy teams like the Forty-Whiners, the precious Packers and Jaguars, and the politically correct, shiny-faced Broncos and Chiefs.

In my book, nice guys finish last.

If I have to go through another year of buck-toothed John Elway or any of these other freaks winning a Super Bowl, I'm gonna throw up.

Just once, I wanna see the league go old school. Get rid of artificial turf, stop these ridiculous fines for hitting quarterbacks too hard, and let the players play all out. Let's see some more blood and guts and less corporate schmucking.