Grandpa, What Was it Like?

[ShortRound]

It really is amazing how long it's been. Sigh. One day.

 

[GMO415]

Great stuff.

They were once a pure act of class on and off the field. That’s way over and doubtful to ever get even close to returning.

I think is the most disappointing aspect for us old heads. Other proud franchises like the Stealers still show that pride.

 

[MS17]

Clint Murchison knew what he didnt know. Jerry knows everything. Just ask him.

Clint Murchison, Jr. was the prototype hands-off owner. Greatness, brilliant. But that era was long ago in a galaxy far, far away compared to the present Cowboys iteration run by Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Ownership is everything, I guess.

 

[plasticman]

Sports especially in the NFL things come in cycles. They’re all deprived of championships. They don’t come around that often for many teams. That’s why I always have to bring up. Yes it sucks 28 years since we’ve been doing NFC championship game. It’s been a long time since win a Super Bowl but the last regime is good as they were and all those playoffs you’re talking about I thought the Super Bowl was the main objective. They literally only won two Super Bowls. Jerry’s comes along and won three Super Bowls. I mean it might suck that we have a drought right now and like you’re talking about the lions in Buffalo and somebody who might win one for the first time or you kidding me. We’re looking for number six that is why this drought it’s not that big a deal it may suck for the generation you’re talking about. your grand children people didn’t experience the good times they’re only experiencing abound bad times but I keep bringing this up 56 years the Kansas City Chiefs that’s how long it was between their championships and now they’re going through another dynasty face the Cowboys have had two dynasty phases in the lifetime and that’s why they’re America’s team but all teams go through droughts if you want to tell your grandson that how great the Chiefs are right now it took them 56 years to get back to the spot they’re in that’s why it comes in cycles

I mean, we’re all ready for another one at minimum we’d like an NFC championship game appearance, but the Dallas Cowboys as long as this droughts been a lot of teams of caught up or past him and Super Bowl appearances in Super Bowl wins there’s literally three teams so tell your grandchildren tell their children lol that there are far worst routes because this is why I noticed the facts are all there in black-and-white the Chiefs the Patriots and the Cowboys are the only three teams since 1989. They have three more championships so as long as this droughts been, somehow, the Cowboys are still found a way to be recognized in historical fashion.

I mean we’re all ready for another one at minimum would like a NFC championship game of parents but the Dallas Cowboys as long as this droughts been not a lot of teams of caught up or pass them in Super Bowl appearances and Super Bowl wins there’s literally three teams so tell your grandchildren tell their children LOL that there are far worse stress because this is why I notice the facts are all there in black-and-white the Chiefs the patriots and the Cowboys are the only three team since 1989 I have three more championships so as long as this droughts been somehow the cowboys are still found a way to be recognize and historical fashion

I get why people are getting impatient and they want more and they’re talking trash but really historically if you look around the 28 years wow it hurts. It’s not the worst. It’s been in the NFL or around other sports and this is the last thing I can tell you can I tell you guys tell your grandchildren go look at the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers yeah those are the other three sports teams that are in the same market. They only have three championships. All three of them together three championships so it all is that Dave existed together. Jerry Jones has more championships by himself in the same time span as all three of those professional sports teams. That is why this is. not as big a deal as people make it out to be I know it hurts. I know we’re impatient, but literally championships do not grow on trees. These come in cycles. They will come back to us one day. I hope they get to experience when I got to experience in the 90s because by the way, my first game was the 1981 NFC championship game where the San Francisco 49ers beat the cowboys with another heartbreaking endgame loss. Yes the 49ers isn’t it ironic that the ones that are killing us right now. I mean the cats, Montana to Dwight Clark, and somehow me being from New York moving to Texas. That was my first ever Cowboys game watching that and somehow I was still enamored. With the silver helmets in the bright star in the seafoam green pants in there was just something about it. My parents hated me and my cousins hate me because I came from New York. I was born in New Jersey and I’m a diehard Cowboys fan. With the silver helmets in the bright star in the seafoam green pants in there was just something about it. My parents hated me and my cousins hate me because I came from New York. I was born in New Jersey and I’m a diehard Cowboys fan.

So yes, my first experience with the Cowboys was a lotta heartbreaking losses in the 80s. They weren’t very good they had to sell. The team did Jerry Jones but my patience paid off and I got to experience when I was 28 years old the resurgence of the second coming of another dynasty for the Dallas Cowboys and it’s probably gonna come back around again.

You are right about cycles. It seems as though my basketball team, the San Antonio Spurs, picked up where the Cowboys left for a while.

They have both been struggling as of late but I have a feeling the Spurs are going to break out in a season or two. In the meantime, perhaps I should pick a baseball team.

Let's see, both Astros and Rangers have won championships lately.....

Wait a minute, I forgot. I don't like baseball.

But seriously, I understand. It's just that I always thought about the Cowboys as being one of those iconic franchises like the Yankees and Lakers. They have down periods but they never really completely vanish from being a championship contender for an extended period of time.

Since the 1940's, the Lakers have played in the final series at least once every decade except the1960's. this means they have appeared at least once in each of the past 5 decades.

Over the past 100 years, the Yankees have appeared in a World Series at least once every decade with the exception of the 2010's.

The iconic teams understand that they are held to a different standard and they accept that and do everything they can to meet that standard. The management at these franchises recognize this is their mission.

The Cowboys could have been there, should have been there and, most likely would have been there if that had also been their uncompromising focus.

Unfortunately, the franchise has been placed in the hands of a spoiled, selfish, 80-year-old little boy who insists on playing by his rules because it is his ball.

 

[rambo2]

You are right about cycles. It seems as though my basketball team, the San Antonio Spurs, picked up where the Cowboys left for a while.

They have both been struggling as of late but I have a feeling the Spurs are going to break out in a season or two. In the meantime, perhaps I should pick a baseball team.

Let's see, both Astros and Rangers have won championships lately.....

Wait a minute, I forgot. I don't like baseball.

But seriously, I understand. It's just that I always thought about the Cowboys as being one of those iconic franchises like the Yankees and Lakers. They have down periods but they never really completely vanish from being a championship contender for an extended period of time.

Since the 1940's, the Lakers have played in the final series at least once every decade except the1960's. this means they have appeared at least once in each of the past 5 decades.

Over the past 100 years, the Yankees have appeared in a World Series at least once every decade with the exception of the 2010's.

The iconic teams understand that they are held to a different standard and they accept that and do everything they can to meet that standard. The management at these franchises recognize this is their mission.

The Cowboys could have been there, should have been there and, most likely would have been there if that had also been their uncompromising focus.

Unfortunately, the franchise has been placed in the hands of a spoiled, selfish, 80-year-old little boy who insists on playing by his rules because it is his ball.

The Spurs are on the verge of being very good.

 

[plasticman]

The Spurs are on the verge of being very good.

It is typically not a word to describe a professional team, but when you look at the Spurs draft history, particularly when they have the first overall pick, they can only be described as "blessed".

 

[rambo2]

It is typically not a word to describe a professional team, but when you look at the Spurs draft history, particularly when they have the first overall pick, they can only be described as "blessed".

They have hit again with Castle.

 

[john van brocklin]

My grandson officially became a Cowboys fan in 2011, Jason Garrett's first season as HC. My grandson was 10 at the time. I don't know how it happened, really. For as long as he could remember at that age, he had witnessed my eventual misery every season. LOL, perhaps it was his way of helping out his poor, sad, grandpa.

His favorite Cowboy of all time is Demarco Murray.

He endured three consecutive seasons of 8-8 so you can understand that, when the Cowboys went 12-4 in 2014, he was ecstatic. The wildcard victory in the playoff against the Lions that postseason was like a SB to him.

Sadly, it still is.

My grandson is 24 now. The day after the Cowboys lost to the Bengals in that horrific fashion, he asked me this question, as if I don't volunteer the information every time we sit down to watch a game together.

Grandpa, what was it like?

What was it like when the Cowboys were fighting for a SB every year? What was it like to expect your team to, not only reach the playoffs, but be one of the last, if not the last, team standing?

What was it like to win a SB?

I knew he wasn't looking for stats or dates, or particular player stories. He already knew them by heart, whether he actually wanted to or not. He was so frustrated with the present circumstances that he just wanted to imagine my experiences at his age.

However, here's the thing....

I never properly respected the accomplishments of those teams during that period of time...,during that era. I took it for granted most of the time.

I mean, I enjoyed them to be sure. I enjoyed watching them, I enjoyed reading about them, I enjoyed bragging about them. I wanted to be one of them.

I had never been on that "other side" of the coin. Ironically, I became a Cowboys fan because I felt sorry for them after they went 5-4 in 1970 and lost to both the Vikings and Cardinals by over a 30 point margin. My luck, they went undefeated after that but lost SB 5. Of course we all know the rest.

I had been a fan for 16 years before I experienced a Cowboys losing season or even a tie season.

During the mid-80's, I felt that it was expected that the Cowboys should have a period of not being a significant team. After all, I certainly got my share of championships and championship games as well as the share of many other fan's teams. It would only be fair for me to endure a period of losing. Big of me, right?

And so I was forced to endure.......5 losing seasons before the Cowboys won 3 of the next 4 Super bowls. Poor me!

Obviously, looking back, I can see that I felt somewhat entitled. Can you really blame me?

During my first 36 seasons as a Dallas Cowboys fan, I experienced 32 postseasons, 45 playoff games, 22 division titles, 14 conference championship games, 8 Super Bowls and 5 NFL championships.

Rather than try to explain what it felt like, I gave him some advice. Enjoy the Now. Appreciate the team, even when they lose. Understand that the more they lose, the more exciting it will be if they build something special.

I can tell you that if the Lions win the Super Bowl, the Motor City party will be on. The parade will be like a Roman triumph. The procession will include Mahomes, Allen or Jackson wheeling by in a wooden cage. Some guy will be sitting on the main float behind Campbell, whispering in his ear, "You are only a man." The city will turn into a giant coliseum.

And if the Cowboys ever become a powerhouse once again? Savor it. Appreciate it. Thoroughly enjoy the moment because that is all it ever is.

Been a fan since 1975 so I appreciate your thoughts.
I guess where I differ, is I know there is no hope for the future as long as Jerry is running the team.
So, I have finally accepted the fact that there will be no post season success until that changes.
It's made me somewhat apathetic towards the team.

 

[windward]

My grandson officially became a Cowboys fan in 2011, Jason Garrett's first season as HC. My grandson was 10 at the time. I don't know how it happened, really. For as long as he could remember at that age, he had witnessed my eventual misery every season. LOL, perhaps it was his way of helping out his poor, sad, grandpa.

His favorite Cowboy of all time is Demarco Murray.

He endured three consecutive seasons of 8-8 so you can understand that, when the Cowboys went 12-4 in 2014, he was ecstatic. The wildcard victory in the playoff against the Lions that postseason was like a SB to him.

Sadly, it still is.

My grandson is 24 now. The day after the Cowboys lost to the Bengals in that horrific fashion, he asked me this question, as if I don't volunteer the information every time we sit down to watch a game together.

Grandpa, what was it like?

What was it like when the Cowboys were fighting for a SB every year? What was it like to expect your team to, not only reach the playoffs, but be one of the last, if not the last, team standing?

What was it like to win a SB?

I knew he wasn't looking for stats or dates, or particular player stories. He already knew them by heart, whether he actually wanted to or not. He was so frustrated with the present circumstances that he just wanted to imagine my experiences at his age.

However, here's the thing....

I never properly respected the accomplishments of those teams during that period of time...,during that era. I took it for granted most of the time.

I mean, I enjoyed them to be sure. I enjoyed watching them, I enjoyed reading about them, I enjoyed bragging about them. I wanted to be one of them.

I had never been on that "other side" of the coin. Ironically, I became a Cowboys fan because I felt sorry for them after they went 5-4 in 1970 and lost to both the Vikings and Cardinals by over a 30 point margin. My luck, they went undefeated after that but lost SB 5. Of course we all know the rest.

I had been a fan for 16 years before I experienced a Cowboys losing season or even a tie season.

During the mid-80's, I felt that it was expected that the Cowboys should have a period of not being a significant team. After all, I certainly got my share of championships and championship games as well as the share of many other fan's teams. It would only be fair for me to endure a period of losing. Big of me, right?

And so I was forced to endure.......5 losing seasons before the Cowboys won 3 of the next 4 Super bowls. Poor me!

Obviously, looking back, I can see that I felt somewhat entitled. Can you really blame me?

During my first 36 seasons as a Dallas Cowboys fan, I experienced 32 postseasons, 45 playoff games, 22 division titles, 14 conference championship games, 8 Super Bowls and 5 NFL championships.

Rather than try to explain what it felt like, I gave him some advice. Enjoy the Now. Appreciate the team, even when they lose. Understand that the more they lose, the more exciting it will be if they build something special.

I can tell you that if the Lions win the Super Bowl, the Motor City party will be on. The parade will be like a Roman triumph. The procession will include Mahomes, Allen or Jackson wheeling by in a wooden cage. Some guy will be sitting on the main float behind Campbell, whispering in his ear, "You are only a man." The city will turn into a giant coliseum.

And if the Cowboys ever become a powerhouse once again? Savor it. Appreciate it. Thoroughly enjoy the moment because that is all it ever is.

This is very good advice.

 

[gimmesix]

Anyone 35ish and younger will probably never see this team win a SB. It’s just the way it is, I’ve accepted it.

Life is full of change. None of us knows what 10, 20, 50 years from now will look like. When the players are holograms on the field being controlled by implants in nerd minds, maybe we'll claim the Super Bowl CVIII title we've long deserved on a 90-yard field goal by superleg_5. And we might be there to watch, with Ted Williams, if they ever get that cryogenic freezing thing down.

 

[Blackrain]

My son was born in 1994. He has been a fan since he was very little. He told me if he dies and doesn't go to heaven his biggest fear will be he will go to hell and for his punishment he will have to watch all the Dallas Cowboys losses over and over again for eternity.

Or just a constant loop of the catch and Jackie Smith dropping that ball along with Dez being ruled a no catch against Green Bay

 

[eromeopolk]

My grandson officially became a Cowboys fan in 2011, Jason Garrett's first season as HC. My grandson was 10 at the time. I don't know how it happened, really. For as long as he could remember at that age, he had witnessed my eventual misery every season. LOL, perhaps it was his way of helping out his poor, sad, grandpa.

His favorite Cowboy of all time is Demarco Murray.

He endured three consecutive seasons of 8-8 so you can understand that, when the Cowboys went 12-4 in 2014, he was ecstatic. The wildcard victory in the playoff against the Lions that postseason was like a SB to him.

Sadly, it still is.

My grandson is 24 now. The day after the Cowboys lost to the Bengals in that horrific fashion, he asked me this question, as if I don't volunteer the information every time we sit down to watch a game together.

Grandpa, what was it like?

What was it like when the Cowboys were fighting for a SB every year? What was it like to expect your team to, not only reach the playoffs, but be one of the last, if not the last, team standing?

What was it like to win a SB?

I knew he wasn't looking for stats or dates, or particular player stories. He already knew them by heart, whether he actually wanted to or not. He was so frustrated with the present circumstances that he just wanted to imagine my experiences at his age.

However, here's the thing....

I never properly respected the accomplishments of those teams during that period of time...,during that era. I took it for granted most of the time.

I mean, I enjoyed them to be sure. I enjoyed watching them, I enjoyed reading about them, I enjoyed bragging about them. I wanted to be one of them.

I had never been on that "other side" of the coin. Ironically, I became a Cowboys fan because I felt sorry for them after they went 5-4 in 1970 and lost to both the Vikings and Cardinals by over a 30 point margin. My luck, they went undefeated after that but lost SB 5. Of course we all know the rest.

I had been a fan for 16 years before I experienced a Cowboys losing season or even a tie season.

During the mid-80's, I felt that it was expected that the Cowboys should have a period of not being a significant team. After all, I certainly got my share of championships and championship games as well as the share of many other fan's teams. It would only be fair for me to endure a period of losing. Big of me, right?

And so I was forced to endure.......5 losing seasons before the Cowboys won 3 of the next 4 Super bowls. Poor me!

Obviously, looking back, I can see that I felt somewhat entitled. Can you really blame me?

During my first 36 seasons as a Dallas Cowboys fan, I experienced 32 postseasons, 45 playoff games, 22 division titles, 14 conference championship games, 8 Super Bowls and 5 NFL championships.

Rather than try to explain what it felt like, I gave him some advice. Enjoy the Now. Appreciate the team, even when they lose. Understand that the more they lose, the more exciting it will be if they build something special.

I can tell you that if the Lions win the Super Bowl, the Motor City party will be on. The parade will be like a Roman triumph. The procession will include Mahomes, Allen or Jackson wheeling by in a wooden cage. Some guy will be sitting on the main float behind Campbell, whispering in his ear, "You are only a man." The city will turn into a giant coliseum.

And if the Cowboys ever become a powerhouse once again? Savor it. Appreciate it. Thoroughly enjoy the moment because that is all it ever is.

I grew up a Cowboys fan since 1968 in New Orleans, LA because my Grandfather, being a Dodgers fan, was a fan because of African American players, Father, because the Cowboys always covered the spread, and I because the New Orleans Saints were the Aint's. I saw a team in the Cowboys that had courage and resiliency during the 60's, organizational excellence and winning in the 70's, decay with hope in the 80's, and kick butt swagger in the 90's.

The Dallas Cowboys under Landry, Schramm, and Brandt were all about striving for perfection in winning, consistent in preparation and play, innovative on and off the field, and had the USA in God we Trust thing going with Landry, Staubach, and being America's Team.

The Dallas Cowboys under Johnson, Ackles, and Wooten in the 90's were all about building personnel to dominate, continuing leadership at Head Coach, bringing speed and swagger to the game, and continuing the only consistent standard for Cowboy teams to making the playoffs and winning the Super Bowls just like the 70's through the 80's.

The Cowboys really reflected America in the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. America was in struggle in the early 60's moving to civil rights integration of the late 60's but losing militarily in Vietnam. However America started to get U.S. back together reaching a high patriotism in the late 70's and early 80's. There was decay but hope in the 80's that led to America kick butt swagger in the 90's, personal income doubling, productivity was high, innovation in technology, introduction of the internet, won the Cold War, and our military was kick butt with swagger again in Desert Shield, and Desert Storm making new American Heroes for a 90's generation just like the Cowboys did with Aikman, Irvin, and Emmitt,

Now the Cowboys are just like America striving for self, divided for self, inconsistent in preparation and play, not innovative, and have that Idol worship thing going. So it is still America's Team but for the wrong reasons.

 

[CowboysRule]

First, congratulations on the grandchildren. I bet that's a great feeling.

Second, I was there to witness the 71 and 77 SB victories, so when 92 came around I was rubbing it in to anyone who'd cross my path. I was an annoying SB in my youth. I've tasted those long droughts but the past 30 years have taught me, this franchise will NEVER see another SB in my lifetime. The Jones family only care about the bottom-line- dollars. Winning comes in 3rd or 4th.

Tell your grandson to move on and don't look back.

I know several posters say this and it makes no sense whatsoever. You know what sells merchandise, brings in new fans, and brings old fans out of hibernation? Winning. You have a salary cap every year. You have to spend a certain amount, and we use most of that money. Most of your profit comes from profit sharing and merchandising anyway. It has nothing to do with them being focused on money. It comes down to the team not being good enough. There are 31 other teams out there also trying to win a Super Bowl. Your odds of winning a super bowl any season are super low to begin with. Tie yourself to someone like Dak and they are basically non-existent.

 

[cowboyed]

Anyone 35ish and younger will probably never see this team win a SB. It’s just the way it is, I’ve accepted it.

It can happen. The Chiefs have been on a Super Bowl rampage in recent years. It took the Chiefs 50 years to win another Super Bowl again in 2020 going back to 1970.