The Cowboys "Mystique"

[CouchCoach]

Mystique: a framework of doctrines, ideas, beliefs, or the like, constructed around a person or object, endowing the person or object with enhanced value or profound meaning.

Those of us around for awhile will remember this term emerging in the late 60's and early 70's and would lead to the term "America's Team" coined by NFL Films.

When the Cowboys came into being, the NFL landscape had been ruled by the Bears, Browns and Packers with blue collar no holds barred football that always included blood and mud on the uniforms. Back then they didn't have the names on the uniforms so it was not uncommon not to be able to identify the players' numbers by the 4Q. It was a pipe fitters dream of a sport.

This mystique began to emerge and no one could explain it. What was this fascination with this team in Texas? This team even had the unflattering football word "finesse" attached to it and another would emerge in the late 60's through 1970, "bridesmaid". Always a bridesmaid and never a bride. Finesse denoted a team more suited to accountants and lawyers than pipe fitters.

I believe in the Cowboys "Mystique", how else can I explain the popularity and must cover by the media of a team that has accomplished so little in the last 25 years but are as popular as when they had a record 20 winning seasons in a row?

I can't tell you what happened but the first time I saw the Cowboys play it was just like the first time I saw my bride to be a full two years before I would even meet her. It was love at first sight and I was a longtime Cardinals fan growing up in Arkansas and they would be co-favorites for 8 years until that game in Green Bay when finesse and mystique would meet mean, tough and ugly in inhuman conditions and lose the game but destroy the word finesse as a label for that team. Pipe fitters that day stood up and took notice.

But the mystique not only stayed with the team but began to even grow more pronounced and football fans across this nation were all forced to choose sides with this team. No indifferent fans here, you hated or loved the Dallas Cowboys. The Yankees of the NFL had arrived.

And I can tell you first hand that neither side could explain why they felt the way they did. I had my East buds even say they loved Tom Landry but hated the Cowboys. Same with Staubach, they liked him but liked seeing him get drilled even more in that uniform. That uniform, part of the mystique?

So, my friends, do not think there is anything wrong with you because you can't shake this team. Ask yourself "why do I keep putting myself through this? I know they're going to lose and I still am a moth to the flame".

Some have their reasons, they were raised a Cowboys fan or followed a favorite college player to the team. I do not have a reason. I deserted my longtime favorite and co-favorite after they lost the biggest game in their history to that point. And I've never looked back.

They are that desire of your heart that does you wrong and you keep coming back for more. You can call her a tramp but no one else better because she is, after all, yours.

Might we use this thread to discuss how we became fans and how much being a fan means to us and share stories of how we became infected with the "Cowboys Mystique"? Particularly you fans in enemy territory because you fascinate me. And just what is this mystique and why only this team?

There are plenty of other threads for us to be angry about but being a fan should bring joy. Frustration? Sure. but rejoice in the fact that you are still there for the desire of your heart. You will not forsake them. Be proud that you are a loyal fan.

 

[Cowboy Brian]

The Dallas Cowboys is a behemoth media asset.

However, a lot of that is because of the teams dominance in the 70's and 90's. As those fans age, the Cowboys will experience a loss of fans I fear.

Yet, all we need to do is win to prevent that.

 

[Starforever]

The Dallas Cowboys, the Reese's peanut butter & pretzel candy bar. Might as well stuff it with pepperoni.

 

[GMO415]

The Cowboys are a shell of what they used to be. This was the same franchise that had 22 years straight of winning seasons.

 

[Section446]

The Cowboys are in the same grouping with teams like Cleveland and Detroit now, nobody is worried about the Cowboys.

 

[DFWJC]

People forget that when Jerry bought the Cowboys they were drowning in massive debt and not in good shape at all financially....losing 1 million per month.
Hate him all we want but he rescued the franchise.

 

[fivetwos]

People forget that when Jerry bought the Cowboys they were drowning in massive debt and not in good shape at all financially....losing 1 million per month.
Hate him all we want but he rescued the franchise.

There's plenty of qualified buyers in the world, 99.99% of them wouldn't hold the franchise hostage due to ego.

 

[fivetwos]

I truly can't stand Jerry Jones.

 

[Winonesoon]

People forget that when Jerry bought the Cowboys they were drowning in massive debt and not in good shape at all financially....losing 1 million per month.
Hate him all we want but he rescued the franchise.

Oh yeah Jerry is a great business man. One of the best there are. GM is what this place needs and its not the Jones! You have had 25.

 

[DFWJC]

There's plenty of qualified buyers in the world, 99.99% of them wouldn't hold the franchise hostage due to ego.

and 99% would not have 3 rings....and especially 3 rings with two head coaches....regardless of who gets the credit.
Just the facts.
You might be right about the hostage thing, but my point still stands as true.

 

[LACowboysFan1]

The Cowboys are a shell of what they used to be. This was the same franchise that had 22 years straight of winning seasons.

20, not 22...

 

[DFWJC]

Oh yeah Jerry is a great business man. One of the best there are. GM is what this place needs and its not the Jones! You have had 25.

He should've given up on being GM years ago.

Truly a great businessman. Saved the Cowboys...literally. The NFL as a whole owes him a debt as he is the main person who propelled the league forward financially.....hence the Hall of Fame.

But even though he has more football experience than almost anyone here, he should not be GM.
Agree

 

[Vtwin]

My football fandom started as a youngster growing up in enemy territory. The vast majority of my parents generation were Giants fans here, a hop and a skip from the Canadian border in northern New England. There was a smattering of Jets fans and no Patriots fans back then. I picked the Cowboys because the Giants vs Cowboys was always broadcast in this area and everyone in the room was a Giants fan. Someone had to root for the "bad guys". I didn't feel any territorial loyalty as NY was so far away it might as well have been in Texas. It didn't hurt that my buddy's older brother was a Cowboys fan too and I admired him a great deal. He had a chopped Harley and was always doing something cool to the eyes of this impressionable young lad so if it was good enough for him it was good enough for me. Interestingly, the fandoms of my peers were all over the place with practically no Giants fans. There was one New England fan, the only one I ever met until they had some success in the mid 80's. (Now you can't throw a rock without hitting one).

I think the mystique for me began not with any attributes of the team but from the hatred towards them from the old people. One could get away with being a fan of most any other team but a Cowboys fan at that time and place was going to have to defend their choice. Pretty quickly though the team provided it's own mystique for all the obvious, at the time, reasons. They also had a bit of an underdog element to me. They were "next year's champions" at that point. I got the book titled that for Christmas the year they lost to the Colts. I probably couldn't have told you who the president was but sure as hell knew who Tom Landry and Captain America were. Me and them were in it together and next year was going to be our year!

And here I am. Hanging on to today's version of the Cowboy's and the NFL while to often questioning myself as to why. Anyone who has ever pulled a stump understands just how hard it can be to uproot something which has roots that run that deep.

 

[Montanalo]

Yesteryear's mystique revolved around "Tex" Schramm, Tom Landry and Gil Brandt and the relentless way they built the Dallas Cowboys. Not to be forgotten were the larger-than-life personas like, Don Meredith, Bob Lilly and Roger Staubach.... and, who could forget the Ice Bowl?

While the modern mystique is grounded in the Jimmy Johnson era and the original triplets, make no mistake, this organization is branded by the Jones family. While they have created a vast and financially successful enterprise, they have failed miserably to recapture (with the exception of the Johnson period) the true mystique of the early Cowboys.

I can't help but feel when the current generation of Baby Boomers cross the Super Bowl Rainbow, America's Team will be no more.

 

[RS12]

Died when Jimmy walked out the door.

 

[Sydla]

The Cowboys are the NFL's version of Notre Dame. Living off success decades ago but haven't done squat since the early to mid 90s. Still thinking of themselves as upper crust, the elite but in reality that facade gets chipped away each year they distance themselves from their glory days.

And I say that as a ND grad.

 

[Winonesoon]

He should've given up on being GM years ago.

Truly a great businessman. Saved the Cowboys...literally. The NFL as a whole owes him a debt as he is the main person who propelled the league forward financially.....hence the Hall of Fame.

But even though he has more football experience than almost anyone here, he should not be GM.
Agree

Yes sir!

 

[ICP]

I have always and will always be a Cowboys fan but..........Mystique?

That's been gone a very long time

 

[Jake]

Mystique: a framework of doctrines, ideas, beliefs, or the like, constructed around a person or object, endowing the person or object with enhanced value or profound meaning.

Those of us around for awhile will remember this term emerging in the late 60's and early 70's and would lead to the term "America's Team" coined by NFL Films.

When the Cowboys came into being, the NFL landscape had been ruled by the Bears, Browns and Packers with blue collar no holds barred football that always included blood and mud on the uniforms. Back then they didn't have the names on the uniforms so it was not uncommon not to be able to identify the players' numbers by the 4Q. It was a pipe fitters dream of a sport.

This mystique began to emerge and no one could explain it. What was this fascination with this team in Texas? This team even had the unflattering football word "finesse" attached to it and another would emerge in the late 60's through 1970, "bridesmaid". Always a bridesmaid and never a bride. Finesse denoted a team more suited to accountants and lawyers than pipe fitters.

I believe in the Cowboys "Mystique", how else can I explain the popularity and must cover by the media of a team that has accomplished so little in the last 25 years but are as popular as when they had a record 20 winning seasons in a row?

I can't tell you what happened but the first time I saw the Cowboys play it was just like the first time I saw my bride to be a full two years before I would even meet her. It was love at first sight and I was a longtime Cardinals fan growing up in Arkansas and they would be co-favorites for 8 years until that game in Green Bay when finesse and mystique would meet mean, tough and ugly in inhuman conditions and lose the game but destroy the word finesse as a label for that team. Pipe fitters that day stood up and took notice.

But the mystique not only stayed with the team but began to even grow more pronounced and football fans across this nation were all forced to choose sides with this team. No indifferent fans here, you hated or loved the Dallas Cowboys. The Yankees of the NFL had arrived.

And I can tell you first hand that neither side could explain why they felt the way they did. I had my East buds even say they loved Tom Landry but hated the Cowboys. Same with Staubach, they liked him but liked seeing him get drilled even more in that uniform. That uniform, part of the mystique?

So, my friends, do not think there is anything wrong with you because you can't shake this team. Ask yourself "why do I keep putting myself through this? I know they're going to lose and I still am a moth to the flame".

Some have their reasons, they were raised a Cowboys fan or followed a favorite college player to the team. I do not have a reason. I deserted my longtime favorite and co-favorite after they lost the biggest game in their history to that point. And I've never looked back.

They are that desire of your heart that does you wrong and you keep coming back for more. You can call her a tramp but no one else better because she is, after all, yours.

Might we use this thread to discuss how we became fans and how much being a fan means to us and share stories of how we became infected with the "Cowboys Mystique"? Particularly you fans in enemy territory because you fascinate me. And just what is this mystique and why only this team?

There are plenty of other threads for us to be angry about but being a fan should bring joy. Frustration? Sure. but rejoice in the fact that you are still there for the desire of your heart. You will not forsake them. Be proud that you are a loyal fan.

The mystique is gone. The Cowboys get attention now largely due to follies, failures, and finding new ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory while an 80 year old man keeps seeking the spotlight.

My loyalty is to those who made me a fan, which was long before Jerry. I'm still here but I feel no loyalty to him and my patience has worn thin. His ego turned a once-proud franchise into a laughingstock.

 

[fivetwos]

and 99% would not have 3 rings....and especially 3 rings with two head coaches....regardless of who gets the credit.
Just the facts.
You might be right about the hostage thing, but my point still stands as true.

Someone bringing up Jerry's three all by himself rings is when I quit.

Sports owners should invest and get out of the way, not subject the loyal fanbase to his wish to play NFL GM.

If I bought a hospital I wouldn't appoint myself chief of surgery and have my whole family in key roles. We aren't qualified.

Just because you bought the place doesn't make it right.

Sure, he can do what he wants, but people like me are going to bash him over it. Continually.

And I've got more news for him....even if he somehow wins before he croaks, 0 for 25 and counting STILL makes him a failure as a "football guy." No one will EVER see him that way.

The ENTIRE world knows Jimmy Johnson put together those championship teams.

We haven't as much as come CLOSE to another because Jerry's ego won't have a strong minded coach around. Only puppets.

Jerry knows what a winning coach looks like, just won't have him around....by design.

Please don't tell me thats a good GM. The other 31 want the best possible coach they can get.