Shake_Tiller
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If there is anything comparable in the Cowboys’ history to the feeling of the 2008 season it might be the 1969 season. After having pushed the Packers – arguably the greatest NFL team to that point – to the brink two straight seasons, Dallas looked like gold. They were young, and they were good. But in 1968 and again in 1969 they lost to the Cleveland Browns, each time decisively.
The 1969 failure was especially painful. Many Cowboys fans had gotten their wish when Don Meredith retired and Craig Morton took the wheel. The veteran defense was rock solid. Dallas rolled to its division title. Then splat.
Next Year’s Champions.
I hear Tony Romo compared to Danny White, but I think a comparison to Meredith is more apt. Two spectacular athletes. Two big play machines. Two happy go lucky personalities. Fans of Meredith saw his laughter and easy going nature as signs of a leader, a guy who could handle pressure and keep a team loose. Critics figured he didn’t much care about football. Romo seems to attract his fans and critics for some of the same reasons. Both can point to physical courage as a hallmark. As quarterback of an expansion team, Meredith took some horrific beatings. He always came back. Romo has played through pain.
The criticism of Meredith I think even Landry shared was that the game simply wasn’t that important to him. The jury is out on Romo.
Still, the late Sixties Cowboys had been a reflection of Meredith. They were young, brash and spectacular. There might never be a more exciting QB/WR tandem than Dandy Don and Bullet Bob.
I always felt Meredith would have led Dallas to a Super Bowl victory or two if he had delayed his retirement, but the fact he retired maybe suggests that he did lack some inner drive, some necessary craving to win it all. He wasn’t much beyond 30 when he walked away from the game and became the best color commentator of any era.
Whatever Meredith lacked, it was pretty clear that Morton wasn’t an improvement – which isn’t to say Morton wasn’t good. He was very good. He wasn’t good enough.
Romo has been tested by fire. For the first time, the past couple of weeks, he’s shown real signs of the stress, of the potential to break. If I were him, I would give Meredith a call. I don’t know what Dandy Don would say, but I don’t think he would sing “Turn Out the Lights.” I think he would probably suggest that maybe, just maybe it wouldn’t hurt to show a little more passion for the game. “Show.” I think Meredith had passion. I think Romo has passion. I don’t think it finds its way to Romo’s demeanor, and that reminds me of Meredith.
So is it possible that the current Cowboys will repeat the feats of that 1969 team, going on to play in the Super Bowl the next year against the Colts, losing a heartbreaker, then to finally kick the door in by beating the Dolphins in what to me is still the most satisfying Cowboys game?
The vintage Cowboys benefited, of course, from the addition of one Roger Staubach. They also saw the development – and the eventual fall – of Duane Thomas. These Cowboys are more likely to thrive, or to fail, on the efforts of the talent already on the team.
Fundamentally, though, the personality of the Cowboys changed from the Meredith years, through the transition years, the failures, and finally to the Staubach era. The flash wasn’t gone. But Dallas became a tougher team. They ran the ball with Thomas and Calvin Hill and Walt Garrison. They beat teams down. Staubach was capable of producing the big strike, but this was a more balanced team.
Maybe more importantly, those Sixties Cowboys were hardened by the disappointments, by the Next Year’s Champions label. There emerged from the mess of 1969 some of the greatest players the game has seen – Lilly and Jordan and Howley and Renfro and Wright… and on and on.
They didn’t crack. Whether the current team will remains to be seen.
The 1969 failure was especially painful. Many Cowboys fans had gotten their wish when Don Meredith retired and Craig Morton took the wheel. The veteran defense was rock solid. Dallas rolled to its division title. Then splat.
Next Year’s Champions.
I hear Tony Romo compared to Danny White, but I think a comparison to Meredith is more apt. Two spectacular athletes. Two big play machines. Two happy go lucky personalities. Fans of Meredith saw his laughter and easy going nature as signs of a leader, a guy who could handle pressure and keep a team loose. Critics figured he didn’t much care about football. Romo seems to attract his fans and critics for some of the same reasons. Both can point to physical courage as a hallmark. As quarterback of an expansion team, Meredith took some horrific beatings. He always came back. Romo has played through pain.
The criticism of Meredith I think even Landry shared was that the game simply wasn’t that important to him. The jury is out on Romo.
Still, the late Sixties Cowboys had been a reflection of Meredith. They were young, brash and spectacular. There might never be a more exciting QB/WR tandem than Dandy Don and Bullet Bob.
I always felt Meredith would have led Dallas to a Super Bowl victory or two if he had delayed his retirement, but the fact he retired maybe suggests that he did lack some inner drive, some necessary craving to win it all. He wasn’t much beyond 30 when he walked away from the game and became the best color commentator of any era.
Whatever Meredith lacked, it was pretty clear that Morton wasn’t an improvement – which isn’t to say Morton wasn’t good. He was very good. He wasn’t good enough.
Romo has been tested by fire. For the first time, the past couple of weeks, he’s shown real signs of the stress, of the potential to break. If I were him, I would give Meredith a call. I don’t know what Dandy Don would say, but I don’t think he would sing “Turn Out the Lights.” I think he would probably suggest that maybe, just maybe it wouldn’t hurt to show a little more passion for the game. “Show.” I think Meredith had passion. I think Romo has passion. I don’t think it finds its way to Romo’s demeanor, and that reminds me of Meredith.
So is it possible that the current Cowboys will repeat the feats of that 1969 team, going on to play in the Super Bowl the next year against the Colts, losing a heartbreaker, then to finally kick the door in by beating the Dolphins in what to me is still the most satisfying Cowboys game?
The vintage Cowboys benefited, of course, from the addition of one Roger Staubach. They also saw the development – and the eventual fall – of Duane Thomas. These Cowboys are more likely to thrive, or to fail, on the efforts of the talent already on the team.
Fundamentally, though, the personality of the Cowboys changed from the Meredith years, through the transition years, the failures, and finally to the Staubach era. The flash wasn’t gone. But Dallas became a tougher team. They ran the ball with Thomas and Calvin Hill and Walt Garrison. They beat teams down. Staubach was capable of producing the big strike, but this was a more balanced team.
Maybe more importantly, those Sixties Cowboys were hardened by the disappointments, by the Next Year’s Champions label. There emerged from the mess of 1969 some of the greatest players the game has seen – Lilly and Jordan and Howley and Renfro and Wright… and on and on.
They didn’t crack. Whether the current team will remains to be seen.