Man, The Time Flies

[cbfan55]

28 years ago today, Roger Staubach announced his retirement. I was a skinny sophomore in HS who still dreamed I was him in my back yard like the song says.

Captain America, you're still the best IMO.

Wow, I was about 5 months old

 

[Hostile]

Tell us more, grandpa!

You will find out as you age that the older you get, the better you were.

 

[Biggems]

I cried when Old Yeller died.......

 

[dbair1967]

28 years ago today, Roger Staubach announced his retirement. I was a skinny sophomore in HS who still dreamed I was him in my back yard like the song says.

Captain America, you're still the best IMO.

I was 11 when that happened. Still one of the all time bummer days

I'm convinced we'd have won another super bowl or two had he kept playing. Alot of people dont realize he went out on top of his game. He had an awesome 1979 season

David

 

[HardHittin'Witten]

I was only three at the time, so I don't remember it. I do remember my dad talking about him all the time though.

 

[DallasCowpoke]

I cried when Old Yeller died.......

Old Yeller was MURDERED!!! He didn't have the rabies, he was just down w/ a bad case of postnasal drip.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

Sadly he retired the same year I was born so i never saw him play a single live game. Just have to watch his stuff on re-runs of The Greatest Games and such.

 

[DallasEast]

Ditto on being a 15-year old sophomore. The next two or three days weren't nice at all. It kept hitting me over and over again. Staubach's gone. What are we going to do?

After about a week, I put my all hopes in Danny White's hands. It's the Dallas Cowboys. We ARE the Dallas Cowboys. We will be fine. We will succeed. Our destiny cannot be derailed. It's the Dallas freaking Cowboys!

Little did I know then that the ending of the next three seasons would be the worst experiences in my life as a Dallas Cowboys fan--topped only by the passing of Tom Landry and the Super Bowl XIII defeat (again) at the hands of the uke:.

There were a lot of "What ifs" during that three-year stretch.

What if Staubach hadn't retired?

What if we had homefield advantage in '80 and didn't have to play in that cesspool called Veteran's Stadium?

What if Montana had faced Staubach the following January?

What if Dexter Manley hit Staubach the next January? Could he have shaken off the concussion and played the second half?

After that last January exit, I came to realize that, for a few seconds, I came to hate Staubach for his decision to leave my team when they needed him most. Then I snapped back to reality. It was Roger freaking Staubach. The legend. What the hell was I thinking?

I grew up a lot that day, after that defeat at the hands of the strike-season profitting uke: . It made me more of a Cowboys fan that I had ever been and in a small way I had thank Staubach's decision to retire three years earlier for making me a better fan. Win or lose, it's the Dallas Cowboys and that's all that really matters.

 

[THUMPER]

I was 11 when that happened. Still one of the all time bummer days

I'm convinced we'd have won another super bowl or two had he kept playing. Alot of people dont realize he went out on top of his game. He had an awesome 1979 season

David

Ha! I was 11 (almost) when Meredith retired. I was 21 when Roger hung it up and both days were dark for me as both guys could have kept playing. Dandy Don was only 31 when he retired after the debacle against the Browns in the 1968 playoffs.

I was hoping that Staubach would take over after Don retired but he was just coming out of his naval stint at the start of the 1969 season and hadn't practiced with the team as much as Morton had and Landry felt Craig was the readier of the two. Bad move IMO as it set us back a few years until Roger finally took over.

I believe that if Roger had come in sometime in that 1969 season we would have beaten the Browns in the playoffs and won the SB over the Chiefs (although KC had a great team that year). We also would have beaten the Colts in the 1970 SB if Roger had been the QB. Morton was a great guy but he had a tendency to throw high when he was pressured which resulted in a number of big plays that went the other way in that SB. If Meredith had kept playing another couple of years I believe we would have won in 69 & 70. He was a great QB who got beat up playing on some pretty poor teams.

I had high hopes in 1980 when Danny White stepped in and he really was an excellent QB but he wasn't Roger Staubach. Had Roger kept playing another 3 years, I am convinced that we would have won another couple of SBs.

Most of you are just kids who missed some of the greatest players to ever wear the

 

[DallasEast]

Had Roger kept playing another 3 years, I am convinced that we would have won another couple of SBs.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

Ha! I was 11 (almost) when Meredith retired. I was 20 when Roger hung it up and both days were dark for me as both guys could have kept playing. Dandy Don was only 31 when he retired after the debacle against the Browns in the 1968 playoffs.

I was hoping that Staubach would take over after Don retired but he was just coming out of his naval stint at the start of the 1969 season and hadn't practiced with the team as much as Morton had and Landry felt Craig was the readier of the two. Bad move IMO as it set us back a few years until Roger finally took over.

I believe that if Roger had come in sometime in that 1969 season we would have beaten the Browns in the playoffs and won the SB over the Chiefs (although KC had a great team that year). We also would have beaten the Colts in the 1970 SB if Roger had been the QB. Morton was a great guy but he had a tendency to throw high when he was pressured which resulted in a number of big plays that went the other way in that SB. If Meredith had kept playing another couple of years I believe we would have won in 69 & 70. He was a great QB who got beat up playing on some pretty poor teams.

I had high hopes in 1980 when Danny White stepped in and he really was an excellent QB but he wasn't Roger Staubach. Had Roger kept playing another 3 years, I am convinced that we would have won another couple of SBs.

Most of you are just kids who missed some of the greatest players to ever wear the

yeah I really wish I could have seen Roger, seen White and Tony. All these guys were gone, or at the end of their run by the time I was old enough to remember watching football.

Danny White taking them to three straight NFC Championship games but never being able to quite get them over the hump had to be one of the most disheartening things in the world for him, let alone the Cowboys fans.

 

[jobberone]

I was thirty and in the army. Killed me.

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

Roger and those late seventies teams were all I knew at the time, so I thought it was destiny that White would come in, play lights out and bring Dallas back to the Promised Land. Tony D. was in his prime, as was the Manster so no worries, right? Then came the three straight years of heartbreak, bad drafting and the downward spiral of the late eightees.

 

[justbob]

You will find out as you age that the older you get, the better you were.

Better -smarter and faster ---and almost as good lucking as I am today


I was 25 ish

 

[JJB500]

I had just become a Cowboys' fan 2 years earlier, and I remember thinking how strange it was that the Cowboys didn't make it to the Super Bowl earlier that year in January. They lost to the Rams, and the Steelers won their 2nd consecutive title in Super Bowl 14. I think I'm correct. Fellow 'old timers', correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct!

 

[Dalmations202]

Man, I was 11 when he retired. To this day, in my mind, he is still the best QB ever.

I saw Montana play, but he had the best WR ever playing with him. Roger just never said die, and they were always in the game as long as he was taking the snaps.

Roger was one awesome player, and to all that missed him play, you really did miss something.

 

[rathalarge]

You are correct!

Whew!! Sometimes I need verification!! :laugh2:

 

[Chief]

I was 17 when Roger called it a career.

I was sad then, and even sadder now.

The 1980s were so frustrating and I just didn't see the underachieving and the eventual rock bottom (1989) coming at the time. I did see it coming in the late 1990s, though.

I wish he could have played two more years, but the concussions were piling up, and who knows what affect that would have on his quality of life later on.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

I cried when Old Yeller died.......

that is a bit misleading. Old Yeller was KILLED, shot to death by that heartless farmboy.
I cried too but cheered up when I got me a candy bar before the next movie.

 

[CalCBFan]

I wondered if you were going to remind us of this Hostile. I see you did.

Roger retired the same day my grandmother died, although it was sheer concidence. I was flying to her funeral in VA and had to change planes in Chicago (I was coming from SFO) on the 31st and the Chicago papers had it as their HEADLINE. The articles were all really positive and complimentary. He had just beaten them that season in a comeback if I recall, and they were all about that and showed a lot of respect. But then I think Roger always commands a lot of respect, as we just saw last week in the post about little Luke Staley...