A Football Life: The Great Wall of Dallas

[BlueStar22]

This line dominated the opposition. That drive in SB 30 showed how dominant they could be on the biggest stage.

I got so crunk watching that part. Man 7 straight runs down their throats! Wow!

 

[Alexander]

I was disturbed we heard more from Gary Busey than Tony Wise.

 

[yimyammer]

Just watched this. Almost shed tears at the end. I love my Cowboys. Then I got angry and frustrated. There is no reason why we can't find a dominating line. Damn Jerry!

Right, there are several but to name a few: the salary cap, free agency and a much more competitive & improved scouting system league wide. If a team was able to assemble a line that was equal to or better than the line we had in the 90's, it would only be a matter of time before they were broken apart due to their salary demands. If the GM put the $$ to keep a line like that together, the rest of the team would be crippled.

I wish they would adjust the salary cap to give the more successful teams (in terms of finances) a % of their gross revenues as additional cap room. This would reward the more successful franchises and perhaps exert pressure on those franchises that don't pull their weight. At least this way, we'd get something out of what Jerry brings to the table.

 

[punit328]

is there anywhere i can watch online? I missed it the other night

 

[big dog cowboy]

my DVR went off does anyone have this ? please PM me , I really wanted to see this, Thanks in advance

Saturday afternoon and evening on NFLN:

2:00 and 8:00 - Top 10 - "Top 10 Dallas Cowboys" - The bright lights of 'Big D' have been home to big talent like Tony Dorsett, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin. NFL's Top 10 reveals the biggest star to don the star with a countdown of the Top 10 Dallas Cowboys.

3:00 - "A Football Life" - Jimmy Johnson - A Football Life examines Jimmy Johnson, the coach who drove his teams to achieve immense success on the field, and the man who now spends his time with family, fishing in the Florida Keys and on television as a football analyst.

4:00 and 9:00 - ''A Football Life" - The Great Wall of Dallas - A Football Life honors perhaps the most dominant offensive line in NFL history, who paved the way for Emmitt Smith and a Dallas dynasty but suffered the pitfalls of fame and fortune along the way.

All times listed are Central time.

 

[punchnjudy]

is there anywhere i can watch online? I missed it the other night

I don't have the nfl network, but you can see about 35 minutes of it here:

http://www.nfl.com/videos/a-football-life

 

[ilovejerry]

Saturday afternoon and evening on NFLN:

2:00 and 8:00 - Top 10 - "Top 10 Dallas Cowboys" - The bright lights of 'Big D' have been home to big talent like Tony Dorsett, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin. NFL's Top 10 reveals the biggest star to don the star with a countdown of the Top 10 Dallas Cowboys.

3:00 - "A Football Life" - Jimmy Johnson - A Football Life examines Jimmy Johnson, the coach who drove his teams to achieve immense success on the field, and the man who now spends his time with family, fishing in the Florida Keys and on television as a football analyst.

4:00 and 9:00 - ''A Football Life" - The Great Wall of Dallas - A Football Life honors perhaps the most dominant offensive line in NFL history, who paved the way for Emmitt Smith and a Dallas dynasty but suffered the pitfalls of fame and fortune along the way.

All times listed are Central time.

But there not showing the after talk with Moose and Nate and Novcek ... Thast what I missed thats what Im dying to see.....ahhhhrhhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrrr

 

[Tabascocat]

Was kind of different seeing Busey on there. What happened to him hanging around the team for the last 17 years or so? Is he the Cowboys number one front runner? When times are bad, he bolts..........................

I have been researching to see if he has hung around other teams since then, so far....I have found zilch!

 

[HanD]

http://www.nfl.com/videos/a-footbal...tball-Life-Backstory-The-Great-Wall-of-Dallas

is this the one?

 

[Chocolate Lab]

I was disturbed we heard more from Gary Busey than Tony Wise.

For real. Why did they give that lunatic such a big part in this?

BTW, the vid is on the DC.com site, broken up into four parts. (I assume that's the entire show, maybe not.)

 

[Roadtrip635]

That was a great episode! So much nasty, this team today needs some of that.
Too bad Waters got injured, he was starting to bring some of that attitude to the OL.

 

[Alexander]

Was kind of different seeing Busey on there. What happened to him hanging around the team for the last 17 years or so? Is he the Cowboys number one front runner? When times are bad, he bolts..........................

I have been researching to see if he has hung around other teams since then, so far....I have found zilch!

You actually took the time to research what that imbecile has been doing? As fried as he is, he is lucky he can cross a street without forgetting where he is and wandering into traffic.

I am actually ashamed they even associated that burned out B-lister with this special.

 

[Alexander]

Right, there are several but to name a few: the salary cap, free agency and a much more competitive & improved scouting system league wide. If a team was able to assemble a line that was equal to or better than the line we had in the 90's, it would only be a matter of time before they were broken apart due to their salary demands. If the GM put the $$ to keep a line like that together, the rest of the team would be crippled.

That line was only truly "intact" for three-four years. That's about the most any line can hold up anyways.

Assembling a top shelf OL will not cost a lot of money if it is built the right way. You have to treat the LT position like a QB. Draft good one and live off the three year rookie deal while you spend the rest of the money elsewhere. Where a team would make a mistake is trying to buy a left tackle.

We have actually been in a good position, but we have wasted another year of Smith's rookie deal drafting project tight ends and the like.

 

[burmafrd]

Right, there are several but to name a few: the salary cap, free agency and a much more competitive & improved scouting system league wide. If a team was able to assemble a line that was equal to or better than the line we had in the 90's, it would only be a matter of time before they were broken apart due to their salary demands. If the GM put the $$ to keep a line like that together, the rest of the team would be crippled.

I wish they would adjust the salary cap to give the more successful teams (in terms of finances) a % of their gross revenues as additional cap room. This would reward the more successful franchises and perhaps exert pressure on those franchises that don't pull their weight. At least this way, we'd get something out of what Jerry brings to the table.

No if you have a system in place and follow a good plan you can do it. Other teams have built very good O lines during these last ten years. And good teams overall.

Our problem with the O line is that Jerruh thought that he could duplicate the 90's O line in the same fashion as it was built. Refusing to understand the difference between a once in a lifetime situation and the reality of the NFL. You could NEVER duplicate what happened in the 90's with the O line. It was a perfect storm of coincidences and happenings.

First you have to decide what kind of blocking system you want. Then you have to decided on just who you want for that system. A narrowly focused group of prospects that fit that system come out every year in the draft and some in FA. Then you steadily build from there over a period of 3-4 years. AND one must remember it is a never ending process. You need to draft somewhere at least 1 OL every single year. Even if it is only a late rd development guy.

 

[Alexander]

First you have to decide what kind of blocking system you want. Then you have to decided on just who you want for that system. A narrowly focused group of prospects that fit that system come out every year in the draft and some in FA. Then you steadily build from there over a period of 3-4 years. AND one must remember it is a never ending process. You need to draft somewhere at least 1 OL every single year. Even if it is only a late rd development guy.

You also need a quality OL coach. Seattle got an excellent one in Tom Cable and that is why they can get by with what they have had.

 

[joseephuss]

That line was only truly "intact" for three-four years. That's about the most any line can hold up anyways.

Assembling a top shelf OL will not cost a lot of money if it is built the right way. You have to treat the LT position like a QB. Draft good one and live off the three year rookie deal while you spend the rest of the money elsewhere. Where a team would make a mistake is trying to buy a left tackle.

We have actually been in a good position, but we have wasted another year of Smith's rookie deal drafting project tight ends and the like.

They did draft a center this year, so they are trying.

 

[sbark]

There were not, apparently, an abundance of RKG's on that all time best OLine of the 90's.............just an observation

 

[burmafrd]

There were not, apparently, an abundance of RKG's on that all time best OLine of the 90's.............just an observation

And there is no way in this current era that most of them would still be in the league at this point; with the much increased scrutiny and internet intrusion into everyones lives, plus things like cell phone cameras, and so on.

not to mention they are tougher about drug testing now.


All in all those guys would not survive more than a season or two in the current NFL.
NOT to mention that a lot of things that they did back then (dirty play, etc) would get them fined out the wazoo today.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

No if you have a system in place and follow a good plan you can do it. Other teams have built very good O lines during these last ten years. And good teams overall.

Our problem with the O line is that Jerruh thought that he could duplicate the 90's O line in the same fashion as it was built. Refusing to understand the difference between a once in a lifetime situation and the reality of the NFL. You could NEVER duplicate what happened in the 90's with the O line. It was a perfect storm of coincidences and happenings.

First you have to decide what kind of blocking system you want. Then you have to decided on just who you want for that system. A narrowly focused group of prospects that fit that system come out every year in the draft and some in FA. Then you steadily build from there over a period of 3-4 years. AND one must remember it is a never ending process. You need to draft somewhere at least 1 OL every single year. Even if it is only a late rd development guy.

I have always said that the success that the Cowboys have had finding UDFAs, (Romo, Ausin, Bowen, Nate, Tuinei, etc.) has been as detrimental to the team as it has been great. It has Jerry thinking that they are smarter and better at finding these UDGA gems, and thereby taking chances on projects in the draft, (Brewster, Arkin, Stanback, Hodges, Jason Williams, etc.). They take chances on these type players, believing that they can always back fill the UDFAs if those players don't pan out. The Cowboys were very lucky to have built that amazing OL the way they did, with cast offs and small school draft choices, That is a once in a lifetime deal, not the way to go in today's NFL.

It would not shock me to see the Cowboys forego drafting DL in next year's draft, because they have had a measure of success finding DL in the scrap heap, (Hayden, Selvie.....), and waste draft choices on RB, WR, and CB.

 

[xwalker]

Right, there are several but to name a few: the salary cap, free agency and a much more competitive & improved scouting system league wide. If a team was able to assemble a line that was equal to or better than the line we had in the 90's, it would only be a matter of time before they were broken apart due to their salary demands. If the GM put the $$ to keep a line like that together, the rest of the team would be crippled.

I wish they would adjust the salary cap to give the more successful teams (in terms of finances) a % of their gross revenues as additional cap room. This would reward the more successful franchises and perhaps exert pressure on those franchises that don't pull their weight. At least this way, we'd get something out of what Jerry brings to the table.

It would be easier to replace 1 player on a great OL with a draft pick than it would be to replace 1 player on a bad OL. For example, if Leary were added to an OL with 4 great players, they would be able to have the Center help him the majority of the time; however, in the current Cowboys situation, despite the fact that Leary had zero experience prior to this year, they have the Center helping the RG the majority of the time. This makes the degree of difficultly much higher for Leary.

If a team had 5 great OLinemen, they would need to replace 1 with a draft pick about every other year in order to have a reasonable salary cap expenditure on the entire OLine. Draft picks are cheap for 4 years (now 5 for 1st round picks).

There are high upside players in the mid-rounds that usually are just not quite ready to play as a rookie. A team should probably draft an OLineman every year somewhere between the 1st and 4th round. In order to maintain a great OL, they should probably focus on high upside players that just need time to develop and are available later due to issues like going to a small school. Erik Wiliams went to Central Ohio State and Larry Allen went to Sanoma State.

I think the Cowboys might be starting to do something similar to what I'm suggesting. Physically, players like Leary, Weems and Parnell had high upside when acquired. Obviously, Frederick and Tyron Smith are high upside players. On the flip side, players like David Arkin, Phil Costa, Kevin Kowalski were not high upside players, IMO.

The problem for the Cowboys this off-season is that they need 1 more Guard that has the ability to step in and start in 2014. They have zero depth at that position and you can't count on a 3rd round draft pick being ready to play as a rookie. IMO, that indicates that they need to get a Guard in the 1st or 2nd round or sign a free agent.