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Interesting take from different points of view
Review: "Facing America's Team: Players Recall the Glory Years of the Dallas Cowboys" by John McFarland (ed.)
McFarland, John (ed.). Facing America's Team: Players Recall the Glory Years of the Dallas Cowboys. New York: Sports Publishing. 2015 228p.
Hardback, 24.99 (list), ISBN 978-1-61321-807-5
According to the dust jacket, eighty "noted Dallas foes" will share their experiences of playing against America's Team! That's a lot to pack into 228 pages. Included are Joe Theisman, Conrad Dobler, "and many others".
I was expecting many short chapters covering each opponent. Instead, the book's sixteen chapters are organized around 24 of the Cowboy's all-time greats, like Bob Lilly, Rayfield Wright, Roger Staubach, Randy White, Tony Dorsett, and the Triplets. The author selected HOFers, ROH enshrinees, and some players from the five Super Bowl champs. All are worthy.
Before I get into the specifics of this book, I should note that the idea of collecting viewpoints of opponents of the Dallas Cowboys and putting in book form is not a new idea. Bert Sugar’s classic, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys: And Who Elected Them America's Team Anyway?" (1983) started it all, and it’s been done a couple of times since, with varying degrees of success.
But on to the title at hand! The four Sections are organized by era: The Foundation, Roger's Team, The Triplets, and Overtime. So basically, the post-Roger and post-Triplet eras are ignored.
For each chapter, the author provides a brief summary of that chapter's Cowboy, and then follows that with recollections of various opponents. The quality of the player recollections is uneven; Harold Jackson's recollections of playing against Lee Roy Jordan, for example, are just a couple of sentences. He basically says "Killer" was a great player.
I think the best section of the book was no 4: Overtime. In it, the author collects miscellaneous quips, anecdotes and stories that are not tied to a specific Cowboy player, but rather are about the Cowboys in general, or are about life in the NFL in general. I won't give away any nuggets, but there are some real gems in the final section.
There are two serious failings with the book: First and the most egregious error: there is no index! When I opened the book and saw how it was arranged, I immediately flipped to the back to find listings by opponent, but there are none. If you want to know what Conrad Dobler thought about playing against the Cowboys, you'll have to flip through the book until you find him. This is a major negative (if you know your Cowboys history, and can go to the appropriate era, that will narrow your search, e.g., I found Dobler in the Bob Lilly chapter).
Second, and a somewhat lesser (although still serious) offense: the author lists no references. I get that much (most?) of the material was gathered by face-to-face interviews, but 100% of it? I doubt it. It would be nice to know which secondary sources (if any) the author relied upon. Isn't that the first thing we are taught when writing a term paper or any length of research?
Finally, a word about the author himself: the dust jacket says McFarland has covered news and sports for the Associated Press, the Dallas Morning News, and other media. But it never says he actually covered the Cowboys. Obviously, you don't have to be a Cowboys beat reporter to write a book about the team. But it helps. Having that daily exposure brings a depth and nuance that can't be replicated by the occasional article writer. That depth and nuance is missing from this book. Maybe that’s why McFarland calls himself an "editor" instead of the "author".
© Copyright Fred Goodwin, August 26, 2015
americas_team@hotmail.com
Review: "Facing America's Team: Players Recall the Glory Years of the Dallas Cowboys" by John McFarland (ed.)
McFarland, John (ed.). Facing America's Team: Players Recall the Glory Years of the Dallas Cowboys. New York: Sports Publishing. 2015 228p.
Hardback, 24.99 (list), ISBN 978-1-61321-807-5
According to the dust jacket, eighty "noted Dallas foes" will share their experiences of playing against America's Team! That's a lot to pack into 228 pages. Included are Joe Theisman, Conrad Dobler, "and many others".
I was expecting many short chapters covering each opponent. Instead, the book's sixteen chapters are organized around 24 of the Cowboy's all-time greats, like Bob Lilly, Rayfield Wright, Roger Staubach, Randy White, Tony Dorsett, and the Triplets. The author selected HOFers, ROH enshrinees, and some players from the five Super Bowl champs. All are worthy.
Before I get into the specifics of this book, I should note that the idea of collecting viewpoints of opponents of the Dallas Cowboys and putting in book form is not a new idea. Bert Sugar’s classic, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys: And Who Elected Them America's Team Anyway?" (1983) started it all, and it’s been done a couple of times since, with varying degrees of success.
But on to the title at hand! The four Sections are organized by era: The Foundation, Roger's Team, The Triplets, and Overtime. So basically, the post-Roger and post-Triplet eras are ignored.
For each chapter, the author provides a brief summary of that chapter's Cowboy, and then follows that with recollections of various opponents. The quality of the player recollections is uneven; Harold Jackson's recollections of playing against Lee Roy Jordan, for example, are just a couple of sentences. He basically says "Killer" was a great player.
I think the best section of the book was no 4: Overtime. In it, the author collects miscellaneous quips, anecdotes and stories that are not tied to a specific Cowboy player, but rather are about the Cowboys in general, or are about life in the NFL in general. I won't give away any nuggets, but there are some real gems in the final section.
There are two serious failings with the book: First and the most egregious error: there is no index! When I opened the book and saw how it was arranged, I immediately flipped to the back to find listings by opponent, but there are none. If you want to know what Conrad Dobler thought about playing against the Cowboys, you'll have to flip through the book until you find him. This is a major negative (if you know your Cowboys history, and can go to the appropriate era, that will narrow your search, e.g., I found Dobler in the Bob Lilly chapter).
Second, and a somewhat lesser (although still serious) offense: the author lists no references. I get that much (most?) of the material was gathered by face-to-face interviews, but 100% of it? I doubt it. It would be nice to know which secondary sources (if any) the author relied upon. Isn't that the first thing we are taught when writing a term paper or any length of research?
Finally, a word about the author himself: the dust jacket says McFarland has covered news and sports for the Associated Press, the Dallas Morning News, and other media. But it never says he actually covered the Cowboys. Obviously, you don't have to be a Cowboys beat reporter to write a book about the team. But it helps. Having that daily exposure brings a depth and nuance that can't be replicated by the occasional article writer. That depth and nuance is missing from this book. Maybe that’s why McFarland calls himself an "editor" instead of the "author".
© Copyright Fred Goodwin, August 26, 2015
americas_team@hotmail.com