GQ: Troy Aikman, The Last Great Cowboy

[Plankton]

Stumbled across this this morning


http://www.gq.com/story/troy-aikman-cowboys-2017-gq-profile

Two days after his 50th birthday, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman pulls out of a Starbucks in an upscale shopping mall in Dallas’s Highland Park, heads towards today’s Cowboys practice, and talks about his GQ cover shoot from 1993. It was the summer after he’d won his first Super Bowl, and shortly after he suffered the back injury that helped cause him career-ending pain.

“When we were doing the shoot, I couldn’t move,” he says, “I was in back spasms. They propped me up against the wall.”

Aikman’s dressed head-to-toe in black athletic gear, his statuesque 6-foot-4 frame entirely too massive for the driver’s seat of his dark gray Range Rover. On the 23-year-old GQ cover, Aikman wears a boxy, double-breasted suit with a comically big pocket square. You can't see it looking at the photo, but Aikman was in a full sweat because of the pain, nearly 20 miles from where we are now, at the Cowboys’ old practice home in Valley Ranch.

“When I got done, I couldn’t get the clothes off because I was in such bad spasms,” says Aikman, gearing the Range towards the Dallas Cowboys’ new facility in Frisco, Texas.

Troy Aikman sat at his locker after the shoot ended, clothes still on, thinking, ****, I’m going to spend the night in here. He was the reigning Super Bowl MVP at twenty-six; he was the hero that had delivered America’s Team to their first championship in fifteen years; he was, as GQ dubbed him on its cover, “God’s Quarterback.” And he couldn’t get his pants off.

“Every time I see that cover,” Aikman says now, “I think about it.”

Two teammates came in and got him undressed. He would go on to get an MRI and discover he had a herniated disk. Surgery came days later. He’d play eight more years, the last of which would require shots to deal with the debilitating back pain. He’d win two more Super Bowls in the next three seasons. That shoot, in June of 1993, was the beginning and the end of Troy Aikman’s football career.

Dak Prescott was born in July.

 

[big dog cowboy]

He would go on to get an MRI and discover he had a herniated disk. Surgery came days later.

I feared his career was over then. With no internet and not living near Dallas it was hard to get any information. It was awful. Thank goodness he recovered and was able to continue his career.

 

[DandyDon1722]

Aikman was the same kid as virtually every one of us once were. Growing up, playing with the neighborhood kids in the yard, all dreaming of being a professional athlete - and then he actually had the ability to do it and he's gotten all the perks that come with it and good for him.

I wonder if there was a singular moment that it hit him - that he laid his head down on a pillow one night and realized he was better than everybody else, that he had something other kids in high school didn't have.

I was a pretty decent baseball player but my dad would always tell me, as good as you are, there are a hundred other kids better, that's why you have to work harder but I soon realized no matter how hard I worked, I did not have that nano-second hand-eye coordination it takes to hit a 90 mile an hour splitter.

I know he worked hard, but when he worked, he always knew it was paying off and he continued to be better than everybody else.

That's got to be an awesome feeling.

 

[bandfan]

I feared his career was over then. With no internet and not living near Dallas it was hard to get any information. It was awful. Thank goodness he recovered and was able to continue his career.

I often wonder just where did we get out information back then and realize how dependent we were on DMN. That just scares me...

 

[Reverend Conehead]

I often wonder just where did we get out information back then and realize how dependent we were on DMN. That just scares me...

I lived in Northern California in the mid to late 80s and it was a beast to get any Cowboys news. I used to be bombarded with 49ers news and barf and got smidgens of Cowboys news from the Sacramento Bee and from USA today.

 

[LeonDixson]

I lived in Northern California in the mid to late 80s and it was a beast to get any Cowboys news. I used to be bombarded with 49ers news and barf and got smidgens of Cowboys news from the Sacramento Bee and from USA today.

Same here. I lived in the Marysville, Yuba City area and worked in Sacramento. Where did you live?

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Same here. I lived in the Marysville, Yuba City area and worked in Sacramento. Where did you live?

I was in Chico. I remember driving through Marysville and Yuba City. The 49ers were great back then in the 80s and being a Cowboys fan was pure hell there.

 

[MWH1967]

Just a hunch, but in the next coming years there's a good chance there will be multiple Cowboys considered great again.

 

[LeonDixson]

I was in Chico. I remember driving through Marysville and Yuba City. The 49ers were great back then in the 80s and being a Cowboys fan was pure hell there.

Yeah, but we got our revenge. When the Whiners were doing well, I'd see a sea of red and a fair amount of silver and blue too even though we weren't doing so well. However, when the Whiners were not doing so good I'd see hardly any red, but still see lot's of blue.

 

[DenCWBY]

I met Aikman twice when I lived in Dallas. Once in 89 at a eclectic downtown bar after he had just broken his hand against the Giants. He was by himself surrounded by young gorgeous women. The interesting thing was he just looked frustrated and dejected while the women paraded around him. I got up the nerve just to walk up and pat him on the back and to clumsily say something to the effect that it would all be ok. He was very nice and just said thanks and appreciated it.
The second time was a few years later in the summer afternoon, saw him in a small pizza place in north Dallas with a few of his UCLA buddies. They were lighting the place up with pitchers and pie practically the only patrons in the joint. I was in trouble at the moment because I had talked my girl friend into going for pizza without her make up (which she never goes anywhere without) and there was Troy. I don't believe in bothering celebs and if I do I keep it very brief and just thank them for who they are or try saying something encouraging. So again I walk up and asked him to wave at my girl friend(whose now my wife) just to add insult to injury. He turns and gets her attention and tells her in context, "hey Linda, I didn't wear my make up either and it's all good". It was hysterical and his friends all laughed. I told him thanks and my girl friend was pissed and finally came around to laughing about the whole thing.
Troy is a class guy from his roots, to his playing days, to his broadcasting career. One of my favorite professional athletes ever.

 

[JoeKing]

I had the honor of meeting and talking with Troy Aikman while the Cowboys were in Training Camp in Austin TX. I could tell then that he had a future in the broadcast booth. His autograph from that encounter is still one of my most prized Cowboys related possessions. He is truly a good dude.

 

[sbark]

Up here in N.Dak.....used to count the days until the newest issue of the Dallas Cowboys weekly showed up.......

 

[coult44]

I was in Chico. I remember driving through Marysville and Yuba City. The 49ers were great back then in the 80s and being a Cowboys fan was pure hell there.

It's a small world. I was born in Gridley and grew up in Fairfield. Left NorCal for good in 94.

 

[LocimusPrime]

Go Troy!

 

[Roger78]

I live in Wichita Falls and a couple of blocks from where the Cowboys practiced here. My dad got us a special pass to go behind the scenes at training camp. Got to go in the locker room while practice was going on and to the lunch area while the team ate. Met Campo since he was the the coach at the time. Went to the restroom and peed next to Ernie Zampisi at the next urinal. Man he must have had serious prostate problems because he was moaning like crazy while he peed! Anyway the highlight was walking right past Troy as he exited the cafeteria with lunch in a box. I'm 6 feet tall and weigh about 190 lbs and he towered over me. He was much bigger than I expected.

 

[gimmesix]

Just a hunch, but in the next coming years there's a good chance there will be multiple Cowboys considered great again.

We've had a few great ones since Troy, just not enough to put us over the top.

 

[PJTHEDOORS]

Just a hunch, but in the next coming years there's a good chance there will be multiple Cowboys considered great again.

Haven't read article, but going by the last great Cowboy, I'd say Jason Witten.

 

[diefree666]

Haven't read article, but going by the last great Cowboy, I'd say Jason Witten.

Really no one else to choose.

 

[plasticman]

Jimmy Johnson didn't believe in pampering his quarterbacks. They didn't wear red during practice, which indicated that defenders were not allowed to hit them.

Anyway, during Aikman's rookie training camp he's running from defenders looking for a receiver. He throws the ball as he's being hit. The hit was so vicious it knocked him out. Aikman recalls that when he regained conscientiousness Jimmy Johnson was looking down at him laying on the ground. All Jimmy said was, "Good throw".

Troy Aikman was the leader. His value in the eyes of many fans was extremely underrated but his teammates feared him when they screwed up. Leaders find ways of making you give more than what you were originally willing and that was Troy.

Troy was tough as nails, John Wayne with a helmet.