How The Cowboys Became "Americas Team"

Doomsday101 said:

True, love the Cowboys or hate the Cowboys people will tune in to watch them play.

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and so do the haters.

Bobhaze said:

You beat me to it Coach! Well said. Tex Schramm is the man MOST RESPONSIBLE for the successful brand that is the Dallas Cowboys. The strength of the brand Tex built is largely responsible for allowing Jerry Jones to “play GM”, get mediocre results, and somehow keep the fan base. If this brand had not been so strong, Jerry would have probably had to change.

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If he hadn't hired Johnson and let him run the football side of it, I think he would have had to sell the team. Think about, he fires Landry, the stabilizer for many fans, and the only thing that saved his butt was that turnaround. And if he'd have kept Landry, I don;t see him trading Walker to springboard that turnaround.

Booger owes Jimmy Johnson for making his team relevant again in football and he knows it and doesn't like admitting that to himself so he continues in his quest to rise above Johnson but he never will. If his team wins it all under Garrett, he's still not going to get the credit he needs and if he hires another coach, even less of a chance. He's already made a mistake, he hired McClay and things got better.

Doomsday101 said:

True, love the Cowboys or hate the Cowboys people will tune in to watch them play.

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I can't prove it but I have no doubt that the Dallas Cowboys have more exclusive viewers/fans than any team in any sport. Meaning, they aren't really NFL fans and don't watch all the games but they will watch a Cowboys game. The only team to rival that was the Jordon led Bulls but they actually won something, 6 something's.

cowboyec said:

and so do the haters.

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That is what I said, love or hate the Cowboys people tune in. Clearly the haters view them to see Dallas lose but none the less they tune in and networks love it.

Diehardblues said:

Booooooooooooo

Tom Landry warned this popularity label to make a buck would place targets on our backs. He was right and argued strongly against it to Tex who was just as big a Pimp as Jerry. Fortunately at that time success on the field still drove revenue so he let Tom make football decisions and Tex built the brand.

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As a Cowboy fan since 1971, I've never liked the "America's Team" moniker. The titles I care about are NFC East Champs, NFC Champs, and Super Bowl Champs. In Roger Staubach's autobiography, he also says he didn't like the "America's Team" thing.

CouchCoach said:

If he hadn't hired Johnson and let him run the football side of it, I think he would have had to sell the team. Think about, he fires Landry, the stabilizer for many fans, and the only thing that saved his butt was that turnaround. And if he'd have kept Landry, I don;t see him trading Walker to springboard that turnaround.

Booger owes Jimmy Johnson for making his team relevant again in football and he knows it and doesn't like admitting that to himself so he continues in his quest to rise above Johnson but he never will. If his team wins it all under Garrett, he's still not going to get the credit he needs and if he hires another coach, even less of a chance. He's already made a mistake, he hired McClay and things got better.

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Yes Jimmy and his partner Larry Lacewell whom Jimmy hired as his personnel man, Same Lacewell Jerry took heat over. Jerry his hired others like Jeff Ireland, Tom Ciskowski and McCray. Each has had their shares of hits and misses. Only common is Jerry takes the hit on any player who fails

Bobhaze said:

You beat me to it Coach! Well said. Tex Schramm is the man MOST RESPONSIBLE for the successful brand that is the Dallas Cowboys. The strength of the brand Tex built is largely responsible for allowing Jerry Jones to “play GM”, get mediocre results, and somehow keep the fan base. If this brand had not been so strong, Jerry would have probably had to change.

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even though Tex Schramm managed to under mine, under cut and cheat every Cowboys player on the team out of much deserved value salaried contract. albeit the '71 America Football documentary per NFL Network (narrated by Duane Thomas, Roger Staubach, and Bob Lilly) per Staubach, they did have agents back then so it was a matter of trusting Tex
to be fair in getting players fair value contract - and they got screwed big time.

But the flip side is how he did engineer and help the marketing expertise of Tex Schramm. he was highly responsible and highly successful at marketing and promoting the Cowboys and was a heavy part in growing this Cowboys America's Team phenom, even during a few bad seasons.

And don't forget the shrewd trades such as Tony Dorsett and acquisition of
bringing Bullett Bob Hayes into the fold.
No other NFL team thought of this super sonic Olympic speedster, even though he
actually had an football background.

CouchCoach said:

If he hadn't hired Johnson and let him run the football side of it, I think he would have had to sell the team. Think about, he fires Landry, the stabilizer for many fans, and the only thing that saved his butt was that turnaround. And if he'd have kept Landry, I don;t see him trading Walker to springboard that turnaround.

Booger owes Jimmy Johnson for making his team relevant again in football and he knows it and doesn't like admitting that to himself so he continues in his quest to rise above Johnson but he never will. If his team wins it all under Garrett, he's still not going to get the credit he needs and if he hires another coach, even less of a chance. He's already made a mistake, he hired McClay and things got better.

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Absolute Truth. And sadly, Jerry will never admit this in a million years. He has benefited a ton more than he will ever admit from things he had zero to do with.

Whyjerry said:

Yawn. Fans like to tell themselves this team is special. It's not. Sure it is still a premium "brand" but the Pats have long eclipsed Dallas as America's Team. Green Bay as well.

The Cowboys are like an aging Hollywood Starlet with too much botox.

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You, like a lot of others, have no clue what America's Team means and I don't have the patience to explain it to you.

Reverend Conehead said:

As a Cowboy fan since 1971, I've never liked the "America's Team" moniker. The titles I care about are NFC East Champs, NFC Champs, and Super Bowl Champs. In Roger Staubach's autobiography, he also says he didn't like the "America's Team" thing.

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But he was Captain America!!!

Boyzmamacita said:

You, like a lot of others, have no clue what America's Team means and I don't have the patience to explain it to you.

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It meant more than just popularity. Now that's all it is.

Whyjerry said:

Yawn. Fans like to tell themselves this team is special. It's not. Sure it is still a premium "brand" but the Pats have long eclipsed Dallas as America's Team. Green Bay as well.

The Cowboys are like an aging Hollywood Starlet with too much botox.

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And yet the most viewed games EVERY single year always involve the Dallas Cowboys.

Big_D said:

It meant more than just popularity. Now that's all it is.

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Perhaps. But it was never about who won the latest championship. That's bandwagon bull. The America's Team moniker belongs to the Dallas Cowboys and always will whether y'all like it or not.

Boyzmamacita said:

Perhaps. But it was never about who won the latest championship. That's bandwagon bull. The America's Team moniker belongs to the Dallas Cowboys and always will whether y'all like it or not.

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I don't give a rats *** who it belongs to. Rather see a winning team. So you wouldn't trade the moniker for a few Super Bowls? I'm sure the Pats are real upset about that nickname. People put a lot of stock in a name that essentially means absolutely nothing. The success is what made it. That's the truth. Now it's jersey sales and nielsen ratings.

yimyammer said:

damn, I dont remember this. please tell you have this picture and post it here!

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I do not, it wasn't a pic, it was a shot of him during the broadcast of the second game of the season. As they showed him looking around nervously from that alcove before the game, they talked about the fact there were death threats against him. I got to know the guy that was the Chief of Detectives back during that time and he said they and the Cowboys were taking the threats seriously at the time and there were quite a few cops from the area there in plain clothes. And that was before the dawning of the real world on us, they weren't searching for weapons back then. You imagine trying to keep watch on him with that many people around. He told me something that did make me laugh. He said they were hoping for a Cowboys win and when that wasn't happening, they were all a little twitchy.

Schramm was a smart guy. He told me there wasn't a better friend to area PD's than Schramm, always willing to help them out and hired a lot of them for security and while he never openly asked them, they took care of the players when they shouldn't have been driving or in a place they shouldn't have been, they helped him protect the Star and also helped him hide some bad boy's behavior from Landry. I always chuckled with the image of Landry as the Dad and Schramm as the Mom keeping Dad in the dark about his naughty children.

So, here we are as Cowboys fans, relegated to being happy this team is America's Team and has some stars in broadcasting and is more reality show than football team at times. They earned that title because they played the game well and outshone the team of Titletown in the Ice Bowl, that game was the definition of a true moral victory, made 8 trips to the Big Dance and captured the attention of the public, they were bigger than the game, even in losing, back then.

That's not a title that means anything to me as it did when it was first coined. But back then, substance was over style.

cowboyec said:

no question about the success on the field.
but as for the title America's Team....we NEVER lost that.
hell....everytime our game is in primetime its a ratings monster.
we have never NOT been......
'MERICA'S TEAM

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....and NEVER will.

Whyjerry said:

Yawn. Fans like to tell themselves this team is special. It's not. Sure it is still a premium "brand" but the Pats have long eclipsed Dallas as America's Team. Green Bay as well.

The Cowboys are like an aging Hollywood Starlet with too much botox.

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"Yawn"

daboyzruleperiod said:

....and NEVER will.
"Yawn"

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Yawn? I do a lot of that when I watch the games.

CouchCoach said:

I do not, it wasn't a pic, it was a shot of him during the broadcast of the second game of the season.

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thanks for the great reply.

Do you know which game and which season? Maybe we can find a copy of the broadcast out on the inter webs somewhere and make a nice gif out of this

Doomsday101 said:

That is what I said, love or hate the Cowboys people tune in. Clearly the haters view them to see Dallas lose but none the less they tune in and networks love it.

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and so do the haters.