Maikeru-sama
12-21-2004, 10:31 AM
Posted on Mon, Dec. 20, 2004
ROOTING FOR THE AWAY TEAM
Cowboys fans who live and work in other NFL cities are often ridiculed -- especially when their team loses.
By David Thomas
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
How would you like to be Johnny Odom this morning?
Odom, a 48-year-old bank services processor, became a Cowboys fan at 15 when Cowboys cornerback Herb Adderley spoke at his school's sports banquet.
His office sports a Cowboys helmet, a stuffed Cowboys football, a Cowboys mini-football on a tee, a Troy Aikman picture in a Cowboys frame and a trophy stand with an encased Emmitt Smith card. Odom sits his Cowboys coffee mug on his Cowboys coaster, which sits next to his Cowboys mouse pad. Every day, he changes the background on his computer monitor to feature a different Cowboys player.
And he lives in Philadelphia. Odom, born and raised in Eagles land, is a Cowboys fan in hostile territory.
The Cowboys wouldn't be America's Team if they didn't have fans in every nook and cranny of America. It's not that the Cowboys are the only team with fans everywhere. But with the Cowboys' five Super Bowl championships and their fans' tendency to count those championships aloud, a Cowboys fan in another team's territory sticks out like a thumb with a Super Bowl ring on it.
"I think everyone hates the Cowboys," said Cowboys fan Jack Mees, whose New Jersey home is 10 minutes from the New York Giants' stadium. "It's a big difference compared with fans of other teams. I have a friend who's a Lions fan, and nobody really cares."
Odom says there are a handful of Cowboys fans in his office, "but I'm the loudest of the bunch."
So he knows that when he reaches work this morning, his cubicle will be decorated with green and white balloons, streamers and confetti, along with all types of Eagles logos.
Can you feel Odom's pain?
"I'd run over my mother-in-law -- she's very dear to me -- with a bus," he said, "if the Cowboys can restore order to the division by pounding the Eagles regularly as in the past."
Philadelphia
In the City of Brotherly Love and Cowboy Hatred, Johnny Odom can't even find sanctuary in his church.
Odom knows his phone "will ring all through the night" with calls from Eagles-supporting family and friends when the Cowboys lose to the Eagles. He expects teasing from co-workers when he returns to the office. But the ribbing doesn't take a rest on the Sabbath.
"I even take grief at church," Odom said. "Last year when the Eagles defeated the Cowboys, I returned to church the very next Sunday. My pastor announced to the entire congregation that he had a gift for me. I proudly walked up before everyone to receive my gift, only to be handed a box of band-aids covered with the Eagles' logo.
"But it doesn't matter to me because, like the true cowboys of the old west, I'm gonna die with my boots on."
Of course, with the Cowboys having lost nine of the past 10 meetings with Philadelphia, it has become the football equivalent of a slow, painful death.
When the Eagles defeated the Cowboys in November, newspaper clippings of Terrell Owens posing in the Cowboys' end zone greeted Odom at his office. Co-workers paraded around his desk, flapping their arms as though they had Eagles' wings.
"Then to top it all off," Odom said, "my pastor called the house while I was out and in leaving his message he cracks, 'C'mon, brother, you can answer the phone,' as if I was screening my calls."
Odom didn't expect a Cowboys victory Sunday, but he had grand plans for this morning just in case. He'll have to save those for another season.
"If the Cowboys win on Sunday," he said last week, "the area around my desk will resemble a ghost town. I'll have a better chance of seeing tumbleweed. Eagles fans have the tendency to avoid me like the plague after they lose to Dallas."
But when the Eagles win?
"It's lethal," he said. "At work, at home and at church."
New Jersey
Jack Mees loves the Cowboys so much that he has purchased Giants season tickets for the past 15 years. That's the only way to ensure a seat for the Cowboys' annual visit to the Meadowlands.
Mees pulls out the ticket to the Cowboys game, then sells the rest at face value.
"It's the only game that matters," he said. "I'd rather stay home and watch the Cowboys on TV than go to the stadium for a meaningless Giants game."
Mees, 36, grew up in New Jersey as a Cowboys fan, influenced by older brother Charlie's rooting for the Cowboys.
With his collection of Cowboys jerseys, T-shirts and hats, and the Super Bowl plaques and Cowboys banner in his office, friends and co-workers all know Mees is a Cowboys fan.
"Even if they haven't seen me for 10 years," Mees said, "they ask me about the Cowboys."
Mees likes to make road trips to watch the Cowboys, attending games in New Orleans, Baltimore, Buffalo, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Mees and brother Charlie came to the Cowboys-Saints game last weekend for belated birthday celebrations. It seemed the perfect gifts for brothers who not only share their love of the Cowboys but also the same birthday.
It was Mees' first time in Texas Stadium since having his picture made with Crazy Ray at a game in 1991, and it was his big brother's first visit.
"It felt great to go to a game where the majority of the people were Cowboys fans," Mees said. "I'm so used to being one of a handful at Cowboys away games."
The next day, the brothers toured the stadium, visited the locker room, walked through the tunnel and had their picture taken together on the star at midfield.
"Just being able to see and feel the history when you walk into Texas Stadium," Mees said, "makes it all worthwhile."
St. Louis
Where to begin with Dan Niebruegge? Consider that the 27-year-old:
• Wears Cowboys clothing about 75 percent of the time, including one of his 12 Cowboys jerseys to work at least once every other week and some type of Cowboys shirt at least three days a week.
• Has an authentic Cowboys helmet and a mini-helmet "proudly displayed" in his living room.
• Names his fantasy football teams "Doomsday."
• Asked his wife, Lauren, to choose navy blue and silver as their wedding colors when they married last year. She went with Cowboys colors, telling her bridesmaids, "At least he's not a Packers fan."
• Had a replica of the Texas Stadium field for his groom's cake.
• Attended a Redskins-Cowboys game at Texas Stadium on their honeymoon, before heading to Hawaii. He spent $200 on Cowboys souvenirs in six hours at Texas Stadium and $30 on souvenirs over six days in Hawaii.
• Wears his Drew Pearson jersey every time he watches a Cowboys-Vikings game on television with his father-in-law, a big Vikings fan. "We argue about that Hail Mary every time it comes up," he said.
• Plans to name his first son Drew. And, although the couple is not expecting, they've already purchased Cowboys clothing for Drew, including a new batch they picked up last weekend at the Cowboys Pro Shop while in town for the Saints game.
"I live and breathe Dallas Cowboys football," Niebruegge said.
Niebruegge grew up in the St. Louis area and lives in nearby Columbia, Ill. After the Cardinals had left St. Louis and before the Rams moved in, Niebruegge began rooting for the Cowboys because "I love football and Dallas was the most nationally covered team."
When the Rams arrived, Niebruegge stayed with the Cowboys.
"I can't stand the Rams," he said. "They are on the same hate level as the Redskins, Eagles and Giants."
It's not surprising then that Niebruegge said he catches "plenty of grief for being a Cowboys fan."
"I feel that if I didn't display my passion for the Cowboys as much as I do, that I wouldn't catch as much grief," he said. "But what fun would that be?"
Seattle
Dean Giles was born in Fort Worth and raised a Cowboys fan "from Day One."
He left Texas when he joined the Army in 1989. He has lived among Chiefs fans in Kansas, Rams and Raiders fans in Southern California and fans of every team while in the military. Last year, he moved to Everett, Wash., where he is surrounded by Seahawks fans. Everywhere he has lived, he has taken the Cowboys with him.
A big silver and blue sign in his home office declares the spot as "Cowboys Country" in the heart of Seahawks Country.
"The Seattle fans are pretty respectful and have never given me much grief," he said, "except for Emmitt breaking the rushing record against them."
Stationed in the Pacific Northwest, the Seahawks are far from being a Cowboys rival. Giles likes the Seahawks, even placing a Seahawks antenna ball on his car. But everything else is Cowboys.
You can imagine Giles' excitement when he learned the Cowboys would be playing in Seattle this season. It had been so long since he had attended a Cowboys game that he struggled to remember the year. "Back in Dallas," he said. "Probably '87. Maybe."
Since then, the closest he came to seeing the Cowboys was in 2003 when the Cardinals visited Seattle. For his birthday, he got tickets and took his then 4-year-old daughter -- wrapped in a Cowboys blanket -- to watch Emmitt Smith. "He's still a Cowboy in my heart," Giles said.
But this season, he finally watched his team again. A client who likes the Steelers, of all teams, invited Giles to the Monday night game two weeks ago.
"I hadn't seen the Cowboys play live since the mid-'80s, so it was a special treat to be able to see them again," he said. "It made it even more special that it was a Monday Night Football game."
Giles sat in one of Qwest Field's upper sections, surrounded by Seahawks fans.
"I did get a good amount of ribbing -- and gave plenty as well -- from the 'Hawks fans during the game," he said.
After 15 years of living outside of Texas, Giles is used to it. In that time, he has learned how to respond.
"I always just reply," Giles said, " 'Five rings, baby!' "
Nashville
Ryan Trammel drives an SUV with a Cowboys license plate in the front. Every day, the 28-year-old lawyer drives into Nashville from Lebanon, Tenn., leaves his vehicle in the parking lot of Adelphia Coliseum -- home of the Tennessee Titans -- and catches a shuttle to work.
"What I would really love to do," he said, "is have my motorcycle helmet painted to match the Cowboys' helmet to wear when I ride, but I haven't done that yet."
Trammel grew up a Cowboys fan, following the lead of his father, who never lived outside of Tennessee and became a Cowboys fan in the late 1960s and early '70s.
"He and I have always been big Cowboys fans and watched games together since I was born," Trammel said. "We took a yearly trip to Texas Stadium from 1992 -- Monday night Redskins opener -- through 1996 -- horrible loss to the Eagles."
Nashville is one of the NFL's newer cities and an area with an abundance of transplanted residents. That makes Nashville sort of an NFL melting pot.
"By and large, people that were fans of other teams became Titans fans," Trammel said, "especially after the Music City Miracle."
As a result, the Titans have what Trammel called "a little more friendly fan base" than what Cowboys fans in other NFL cities face.
Still, Trammel says he hears plenty about being a Cowboys fan.
"They can't understand why I can't dump the Cowboys and root for the Titans," he said. "What they don't understand is I've always been a Cowboys fan and thus made an emotional investment in the team."
Trammel heard a lot after the Titans made the Super Bowl in 2000, then again that year after the Cowboys' 31-0 loss on Christmas Day in Nashville.
"Some of my family members who are Titans season ticket holders like to ask me what happened to the Cowboys after a loss," he said. "But that has subsided this season because the Titans are struggling.
"I would say it's like most any other place with the Cowboys -- you either love them or hate them."
LINK (http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/football/nfl/dallas_cowboys/10458767.htm)
ROOTING FOR THE AWAY TEAM
Cowboys fans who live and work in other NFL cities are often ridiculed -- especially when their team loses.
By David Thomas
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
How would you like to be Johnny Odom this morning?
Odom, a 48-year-old bank services processor, became a Cowboys fan at 15 when Cowboys cornerback Herb Adderley spoke at his school's sports banquet.
His office sports a Cowboys helmet, a stuffed Cowboys football, a Cowboys mini-football on a tee, a Troy Aikman picture in a Cowboys frame and a trophy stand with an encased Emmitt Smith card. Odom sits his Cowboys coffee mug on his Cowboys coaster, which sits next to his Cowboys mouse pad. Every day, he changes the background on his computer monitor to feature a different Cowboys player.
And he lives in Philadelphia. Odom, born and raised in Eagles land, is a Cowboys fan in hostile territory.
The Cowboys wouldn't be America's Team if they didn't have fans in every nook and cranny of America. It's not that the Cowboys are the only team with fans everywhere. But with the Cowboys' five Super Bowl championships and their fans' tendency to count those championships aloud, a Cowboys fan in another team's territory sticks out like a thumb with a Super Bowl ring on it.
"I think everyone hates the Cowboys," said Cowboys fan Jack Mees, whose New Jersey home is 10 minutes from the New York Giants' stadium. "It's a big difference compared with fans of other teams. I have a friend who's a Lions fan, and nobody really cares."
Odom says there are a handful of Cowboys fans in his office, "but I'm the loudest of the bunch."
So he knows that when he reaches work this morning, his cubicle will be decorated with green and white balloons, streamers and confetti, along with all types of Eagles logos.
Can you feel Odom's pain?
"I'd run over my mother-in-law -- she's very dear to me -- with a bus," he said, "if the Cowboys can restore order to the division by pounding the Eagles regularly as in the past."
Philadelphia
In the City of Brotherly Love and Cowboy Hatred, Johnny Odom can't even find sanctuary in his church.
Odom knows his phone "will ring all through the night" with calls from Eagles-supporting family and friends when the Cowboys lose to the Eagles. He expects teasing from co-workers when he returns to the office. But the ribbing doesn't take a rest on the Sabbath.
"I even take grief at church," Odom said. "Last year when the Eagles defeated the Cowboys, I returned to church the very next Sunday. My pastor announced to the entire congregation that he had a gift for me. I proudly walked up before everyone to receive my gift, only to be handed a box of band-aids covered with the Eagles' logo.
"But it doesn't matter to me because, like the true cowboys of the old west, I'm gonna die with my boots on."
Of course, with the Cowboys having lost nine of the past 10 meetings with Philadelphia, it has become the football equivalent of a slow, painful death.
When the Eagles defeated the Cowboys in November, newspaper clippings of Terrell Owens posing in the Cowboys' end zone greeted Odom at his office. Co-workers paraded around his desk, flapping their arms as though they had Eagles' wings.
"Then to top it all off," Odom said, "my pastor called the house while I was out and in leaving his message he cracks, 'C'mon, brother, you can answer the phone,' as if I was screening my calls."
Odom didn't expect a Cowboys victory Sunday, but he had grand plans for this morning just in case. He'll have to save those for another season.
"If the Cowboys win on Sunday," he said last week, "the area around my desk will resemble a ghost town. I'll have a better chance of seeing tumbleweed. Eagles fans have the tendency to avoid me like the plague after they lose to Dallas."
But when the Eagles win?
"It's lethal," he said. "At work, at home and at church."
New Jersey
Jack Mees loves the Cowboys so much that he has purchased Giants season tickets for the past 15 years. That's the only way to ensure a seat for the Cowboys' annual visit to the Meadowlands.
Mees pulls out the ticket to the Cowboys game, then sells the rest at face value.
"It's the only game that matters," he said. "I'd rather stay home and watch the Cowboys on TV than go to the stadium for a meaningless Giants game."
Mees, 36, grew up in New Jersey as a Cowboys fan, influenced by older brother Charlie's rooting for the Cowboys.
With his collection of Cowboys jerseys, T-shirts and hats, and the Super Bowl plaques and Cowboys banner in his office, friends and co-workers all know Mees is a Cowboys fan.
"Even if they haven't seen me for 10 years," Mees said, "they ask me about the Cowboys."
Mees likes to make road trips to watch the Cowboys, attending games in New Orleans, Baltimore, Buffalo, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Mees and brother Charlie came to the Cowboys-Saints game last weekend for belated birthday celebrations. It seemed the perfect gifts for brothers who not only share their love of the Cowboys but also the same birthday.
It was Mees' first time in Texas Stadium since having his picture made with Crazy Ray at a game in 1991, and it was his big brother's first visit.
"It felt great to go to a game where the majority of the people were Cowboys fans," Mees said. "I'm so used to being one of a handful at Cowboys away games."
The next day, the brothers toured the stadium, visited the locker room, walked through the tunnel and had their picture taken together on the star at midfield.
"Just being able to see and feel the history when you walk into Texas Stadium," Mees said, "makes it all worthwhile."
St. Louis
Where to begin with Dan Niebruegge? Consider that the 27-year-old:
• Wears Cowboys clothing about 75 percent of the time, including one of his 12 Cowboys jerseys to work at least once every other week and some type of Cowboys shirt at least three days a week.
• Has an authentic Cowboys helmet and a mini-helmet "proudly displayed" in his living room.
• Names his fantasy football teams "Doomsday."
• Asked his wife, Lauren, to choose navy blue and silver as their wedding colors when they married last year. She went with Cowboys colors, telling her bridesmaids, "At least he's not a Packers fan."
• Had a replica of the Texas Stadium field for his groom's cake.
• Attended a Redskins-Cowboys game at Texas Stadium on their honeymoon, before heading to Hawaii. He spent $200 on Cowboys souvenirs in six hours at Texas Stadium and $30 on souvenirs over six days in Hawaii.
• Wears his Drew Pearson jersey every time he watches a Cowboys-Vikings game on television with his father-in-law, a big Vikings fan. "We argue about that Hail Mary every time it comes up," he said.
• Plans to name his first son Drew. And, although the couple is not expecting, they've already purchased Cowboys clothing for Drew, including a new batch they picked up last weekend at the Cowboys Pro Shop while in town for the Saints game.
"I live and breathe Dallas Cowboys football," Niebruegge said.
Niebruegge grew up in the St. Louis area and lives in nearby Columbia, Ill. After the Cardinals had left St. Louis and before the Rams moved in, Niebruegge began rooting for the Cowboys because "I love football and Dallas was the most nationally covered team."
When the Rams arrived, Niebruegge stayed with the Cowboys.
"I can't stand the Rams," he said. "They are on the same hate level as the Redskins, Eagles and Giants."
It's not surprising then that Niebruegge said he catches "plenty of grief for being a Cowboys fan."
"I feel that if I didn't display my passion for the Cowboys as much as I do, that I wouldn't catch as much grief," he said. "But what fun would that be?"
Seattle
Dean Giles was born in Fort Worth and raised a Cowboys fan "from Day One."
He left Texas when he joined the Army in 1989. He has lived among Chiefs fans in Kansas, Rams and Raiders fans in Southern California and fans of every team while in the military. Last year, he moved to Everett, Wash., where he is surrounded by Seahawks fans. Everywhere he has lived, he has taken the Cowboys with him.
A big silver and blue sign in his home office declares the spot as "Cowboys Country" in the heart of Seahawks Country.
"The Seattle fans are pretty respectful and have never given me much grief," he said, "except for Emmitt breaking the rushing record against them."
Stationed in the Pacific Northwest, the Seahawks are far from being a Cowboys rival. Giles likes the Seahawks, even placing a Seahawks antenna ball on his car. But everything else is Cowboys.
You can imagine Giles' excitement when he learned the Cowboys would be playing in Seattle this season. It had been so long since he had attended a Cowboys game that he struggled to remember the year. "Back in Dallas," he said. "Probably '87. Maybe."
Since then, the closest he came to seeing the Cowboys was in 2003 when the Cardinals visited Seattle. For his birthday, he got tickets and took his then 4-year-old daughter -- wrapped in a Cowboys blanket -- to watch Emmitt Smith. "He's still a Cowboy in my heart," Giles said.
But this season, he finally watched his team again. A client who likes the Steelers, of all teams, invited Giles to the Monday night game two weeks ago.
"I hadn't seen the Cowboys play live since the mid-'80s, so it was a special treat to be able to see them again," he said. "It made it even more special that it was a Monday Night Football game."
Giles sat in one of Qwest Field's upper sections, surrounded by Seahawks fans.
"I did get a good amount of ribbing -- and gave plenty as well -- from the 'Hawks fans during the game," he said.
After 15 years of living outside of Texas, Giles is used to it. In that time, he has learned how to respond.
"I always just reply," Giles said, " 'Five rings, baby!' "
Nashville
Ryan Trammel drives an SUV with a Cowboys license plate in the front. Every day, the 28-year-old lawyer drives into Nashville from Lebanon, Tenn., leaves his vehicle in the parking lot of Adelphia Coliseum -- home of the Tennessee Titans -- and catches a shuttle to work.
"What I would really love to do," he said, "is have my motorcycle helmet painted to match the Cowboys' helmet to wear when I ride, but I haven't done that yet."
Trammel grew up a Cowboys fan, following the lead of his father, who never lived outside of Tennessee and became a Cowboys fan in the late 1960s and early '70s.
"He and I have always been big Cowboys fans and watched games together since I was born," Trammel said. "We took a yearly trip to Texas Stadium from 1992 -- Monday night Redskins opener -- through 1996 -- horrible loss to the Eagles."
Nashville is one of the NFL's newer cities and an area with an abundance of transplanted residents. That makes Nashville sort of an NFL melting pot.
"By and large, people that were fans of other teams became Titans fans," Trammel said, "especially after the Music City Miracle."
As a result, the Titans have what Trammel called "a little more friendly fan base" than what Cowboys fans in other NFL cities face.
Still, Trammel says he hears plenty about being a Cowboys fan.
"They can't understand why I can't dump the Cowboys and root for the Titans," he said. "What they don't understand is I've always been a Cowboys fan and thus made an emotional investment in the team."
Trammel heard a lot after the Titans made the Super Bowl in 2000, then again that year after the Cowboys' 31-0 loss on Christmas Day in Nashville.
"Some of my family members who are Titans season ticket holders like to ask me what happened to the Cowboys after a loss," he said. "But that has subsided this season because the Titans are struggling.
"I would say it's like most any other place with the Cowboys -- you either love them or hate them."
LINK (http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/football/nfl/dallas_cowboys/10458767.htm)