I don't even remember why I became a Cowboys fan but I've been one since I can remember. I think it was in 1964 when they drafted Bob Hayes and Roger Staubach. I was a Staubach fan when he was in college. Who wasn't a Bob Hayes fan when he was an Olympian?
My dad was a Cowboys fan too even though we lived in NY and NJ. I recall how much he hated the Giants. LOL. Like father, like son! But my dad was always a fan of Tom Landry, maybe because they were both WW II vets? He took me to a Giants-Eagles preseason game played at Princeton Stadium just so he could root against the Giants. I was about about 10 or 11 I think. We were sitting in the end zone bleacher seats. I had a near death experience that game when I stupidly attempted to catch an extra point kick. It was coming right at me but as I was about to catch it it seemed like the entire bleachers jumped on top of me! I wound up stuffed under the seats. Eagles fans did not care that I was a little kid.
But I have to be honest, the NFL under Roger Goodell is not that same. The game has drifted away from the fans for a while. I know they have to make money, but at the rate they are going they are going to lose fans. Look at baseball, tennis, boxing, the Olympics, and basketball. All have seen declines in popularity over the last few decades. It can happen to football too. For an extreme example, look at the PBA and professional bowling. Bowling enjoyed immense popularity in the the 1960s. Now it barely televised, the PBA has resorted to gimmickry, and top tournament prizes are a few thousand dollars. Bowling was recently, and I think it still is, the #1 sport of participation by Americans. But no one wants to watch professional bowlers bowl for money anymore.
