New Book Details Racial Tension On 90's Cowboys

DandyDon1722

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I know as fans we hate seeing this because the team concept of sports almost always transcends this stuff but apparently it ain't gonna be pretty.

The book is called Boys Will Be Boys...The Glory Days & Party Nights of the Dallas Dynasty and it won't be out until September but I heard a short blurb on a local radio show from a writer who got an advanced copy.

It's the usual White House, drugs, party references, along with some Charles Haley and Barry Switzer craziness, but I have to admit it was a little unerving listening to the guy talk about the racial tensions, specifiaclly he mentioned Nate Newton and a nickname that he had for some of the black players that was "anti-white." (didn't say what it was)

I don't have my head in the sand, I've been on college teams, I undertand cliques in the locker room and I can live with players having a get-a-way house for sex....but "if" this existed, it would disappointing.

Maybe my perception is skewed because those guys are retired, some are or will be Hall of Famers and they seem genuinely bonded to each other but If I lived in Dallas I would call Michael's radio show and ask him about it because I could never see him tolerating it.

Probably just another Skip Bayless pretender hack job.
 

DandyDon1722

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CanadianCowboysFan;2144760 said:
Even if true, who cares, they won and that is all that matters.


Yep...at the end of the day the rings are all the same!:starspin
 

rockj7

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I wouldn't mind racial tension on this current cowboy team maybe they will win a playoff game :bang2: :starspin
 

The Panch

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rockj7;2144771 said:
I wouldn't mind racial tension on this current cowboy team maybe they will win a playoff game :bang2: :starspin
True. I dont know these guys and dont consider them my role models so their views dont mean anything to me at all. Plenty people are racist, just keep it undercover.
 

burmafrd

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You would be hard put to find any team in the NFL, or college, that does not have their problems.
 

Big Dakota

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Sports are an extension of this society, and this just in, race is still volatile in America. Personally, I'd take a little race tension on this team if it means a couple rings:eek::
 

NoLuv4Jerry

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i hope you guys are joking...real life supercedes sports...racial tension is NEVER good.....I suspect like with every other segment of America guys hang out with guys that have similar interests....romo, witten and carpenter hang out....the OL, both black and white hang out.....the DBs hang out and they all happen to be black...the WRs hang out and they all happen to be black. That does not mean there is racial tension....and it probably means that the majority of the guys that hang together feel more comfortable hanging with each other and they happen to be of the same race. That does not mean they dislike another race...it means they like the guys they like.

With the Cowboys emerging as a factor in the NFL again, the media coverage of this team is set to go through the roof....the timing of this in relationship to what appears to be a big year....Hard Knocks....the closing of Texas stadium...has not been lost on me...and should not be lost on the rest of you. It is sad that we live in a world where people will pull any card available to them in an effort to make money. The writer, the publishing company, and all the financial backers of this project are to blame.

I've said it before and I will say it again....it is hard enough to make it happen ON the field....but when you play for the Dallas Cowboys you have to deal with almost as many OFF the field challenges. Which is why this team needs stronger leadership and the signing of Zach Thomas will be big in that department. I have said the Dallas media would much rather write sensational, sopa opera, negative stories then to write about the Cowboys winning a Super Bowl. I thought this teams immaturity showed last year in that department. I hope the Cowboy players realize that sadly the media is really not there friend and will thrown any player under the bus to get a hot quote or sizzling story. Which is why the off the field stuff, fair or unfair needs to be reduced. The week before the Giant game all the Cowboys seem to do was deal with coaches interviewing, players vacationing, leaking stories about the secret weapon (terry glenn)....it was ridiulous. Football, especially playoff football is meat and potatoes...no appetizers and caviar....get in a bunker and get ready for the toughest month of your life mentality needs to be adopted. And in this day and age of internet, all sports news channels, blogs and 24X7 NFL coverage...this type of coverage will only grow. Which is why they need to do very little in feeding the beast.
 

sago1

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Actually I remember there was some alleged racial problems, or attempts to project racial problems, but something did surface back in 95. At least one of the players claimed Troy Aikman was a racist cause he throw more passes to his white WR then he did to his black WRs. Since this IMHO was blatantly untrue (I assumed he meant our TE) given all the love Aikman demonstrated for Irvin throughout their career together and since, I dismissed it. But Aikman reportedly was furious and accused Deion Sanders to his face of being the institigator behind this charge. I might also mention that this was about the time there were allegations that Aikman was gay, something that Aikman also vehementaly denied. In fact Aikman also believed that Switzer and one of the coaches close to Switzer (coach went on to become head coach at Oklahoma when he was forced out by Jerry) were behind the smear campaign against him re both the racist & gay comments. Switzer and Aikman weren't getting along; Aikman blamed Switzer's lack of discipline for allowing the craziness to get out of hand/look the other way & supposedly Switzer wanted to discredit Aikman cause he (Switzer) believed he could lose his job because of Aikman's dislike/contempt of him.

I've always believed there was no love lost between Aikman and Sanders the rest of the time Sanders was with the Cowboys because Sanders continued behind the scenes to get his digs into Aikman. Sanders got along great with Emmitt & Michael but not with Aikman. Again, IMHO, Sanders resented not being the biggest star in Dallas, as he had been elsewhere & that was behind his problem with Aikman. I do remember reading just a few years later that Sanders continued his anti-Aikman comments (blaming Aikman for the Cowboys poor play the next few years) to the extent that Michael Irvin finally jumped all over Sanders and completedly defended Aikman.

Frankly I was very glad when Sanders finally wasn't resigned. BTW: Bayless was the writer who in his book alleged racial problems/mentioned Aikman being gay story when book was published in 95 or 96. He didn't get along with Aikman & as a result had problems with the team; something about some runins with rest of the players as a result. I bet Moose could tell a lot more stories about those times. I don't recall any Cowboy player ever mentioning racial problems during those years except the above situation. Don't believe that Charles Haley's book which came out a few years later mentioned any racial problems & he certainly would have IMHO.
 

Monster Heel

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This smacks of sensationalism for the sake of sensationalism centered around the Cowboys with the intent of making an easy buck. That said I'm interested, but I'd certainly take anything said with a grain of salt.
 

Tovya

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I'm certainly not going to say that racial tension is ever a good thing, but it's a little bit overblown really... people look to scream 'crisis' where there isn't one.

On top of that, for anyone who has ever been in a locker room before, you know that what some people would call rude and crude is actually just done in jest. It's all done light heartedly.

We had guys who made comments that would have had the ACLU scrambling for a judge, but none of us ever cared because we knew that on game day that guy had our back. So I wouldn't read too much into it.
 

sago1

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Re the comment that players hang out together and the mention of Witten, Romo & Carpenter. Wanted to point out that Romo is also very close to Newman & they hang out together as occasionally does Romo with TO; indeed Romo & To travelled together to Vegas & then to Hollywood during the bye week of 2007. Heck Romo & Hurd cohosted Inside the Huddle for 2 years together, etc. But I've always heard/read that Romo makes it a point to move around the lockerroom talking rather extensively to everybody including the PS guys. Kind of got the impression he's that kind of guy but also he might see it as a big part of his QB leadership duties to prevent any schisms from forming on the team. Romo has publicly stated he learned an awful lot from Testeverde re how to be a QB & a leader and how to handle himself. Romo mentioned Testaverde taught him how to study game film, eat properly & work very hard physically and particularly to keep his legs in good shape. Wouldn't be surprised if this idea was also something else Romo picked up from Testaverde. Do know Romo supposedly was upset when Testaverde wasn't brought back but Bledsoe was instead brought in. Romo has never been critical of Bledsoe but certainly hasn't given him the praise he gave Testaverde.

I do know that I read that sometime before Parcells actually replaced Bledsoe with Romo in the Giants game in 2006 that several players (many of whom were defensive players) approached Parcells to let him know he'd have their support if/when he replaced Bledsoe with Romo. No way am I saying that Romo was in any way behind that move. In fact I've heard/read just the opposite--that he was a total team player. But I do think in his role as backup QB and the guy who practiced against first string defense, they had a good chance to see over the few years how good he was but also believe they impressed with the kind of leadership he demonstrated.

Not trying to make this thread a Romo thread but more where I see him as moving early in his QB career to prevent problems, including racial problems, from developing. Again, something he learned from Testaverde?? After all, what players (particularly black players) want to play in Dallas if there's a perception racial problems or other problems exist in the lockerroom. BTW: I read somewhere that Tom Brady spends a lot of time in the lockerroom playing dominoes & other stuff to maintain his closeness to the Pat players and not be seen as out of touch with them.
 

BAZ

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There was a thread on here a while ago about some journalists thoughts on working beside Charles Haley for a good few years. He touched on the racism thing in that article.
 

ologan

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DandyDon1722;2144757 said:
I know as fans we hate seeing this because the team concept of sports almost always transcends this stuff but apparently it ain't gonna be pretty.

The book is called Boys Will Be Boys...The Glory Days & Party Nights of the Dallas Dynasty and it won't be out until September but I heard a short blurb on a local radio show from a writer who got an advanced copy.

It's the usual White House, drugs, party references, along with some Charles Haley and Barry Switzer craziness, but I have to admit it was a little unerving listening to the guy talk about the racial tensions, specifiaclly he mentioned Nate Newton and a nickname that he had for some of the black players that was "anti-white." (didn't say what it was)

I don't have my head in the sand, I've been on college teams, I undertand cliques in the locker room and I can live with players having a get-a-way house for sex....but "if" this existed, it would disappointing.

Maybe my perception is skewed because those guys are retired, some are or will be Hall of Famers and they seem genuinely bonded to each other but If I lived in Dallas I would call Michael's radio show and ask him about it because I could never see him tolerating it.

Probably just another Skip Bayless pretender hack job.

I looked and still didn't see who is authoring this book. It's not Bayless,is it?
 

theebs

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umm. mike fisher already wrote about that in 94 in his book stars and strife.

Nate and a handful of others used that nickname and didnt get along with a number of the white players.

the players named the offensive line meeting room "cell Block 6" and newton, cornish and erik williams called themselves the commitee. Newton had hats and shirts made.
 

Chief

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ologan;2144936 said:
I looked and still didn't see who is authoring this book. It's not Bayless,is it?

It's by a guy named Jeff Pearlman. He's a former Sports Illustrated writer who has two baseball books to his credit.
 

Alexander

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This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows their history. I seem to recall John Blake (Switzer's DL coach) having his issues with Aikman, something like that.
 

iceberg

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DandyDon1722;2144757 said:
I know as fans we hate seeing this because the team concept of sports almost always transcends this stuff but apparently it ain't gonna be pretty.

The book is called Boys Will Be Boys...The Glory Days & Party Nights of the Dallas Dynasty and it won't be out until September but I heard a short blurb on a local radio show from a writer who got an advanced copy.

It's the usual White House, drugs, party references, along with some Charles Haley and Barry Switzer craziness, but I have to admit it was a little unerving listening to the guy talk about the racial tensions, specifiaclly he mentioned Nate Newton and a nickname that he had for some of the black players that was "anti-white." (didn't say what it was)

I don't have my head in the sand, I've been on college teams, I undertand cliques in the locker room and I can live with players having a get-a-way house for sex....but "if" this existed, it would disappointing.

Maybe my perception is skewed because those guys are retired, some are or will be Hall of Famers and they seem genuinely bonded to each other but If I lived in Dallas I would call Michael's radio show and ask him about it because I could never see him tolerating it.

Probably just another Skip Bayless pretender hack job.

why would you be disappointed? the whole world is full of racial tension, why should our favorite team be exempt?
 
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