The Cowboys "Mount Rushmore"

[ABQCOWBOY]

was doug williams that good with Tampa? only 2 out of 5 seasons were years where he had more TDs than INTs.

John Lynch or Tony Dungy would've been better choices.

It depends on what you use as a measuring stick. Doug Williams was there during the really, really bad years and if not for Williams, that franchise would have probably been sold or gone under. Doug Williams was a real good QB stuck on possibly the worst team in the History of the NFL and I'm not just talking for a season or two. Pretty much the entire time he was there. I am not sure how old you are but it's very difficult to articulate how bad they really were and how much Doug Williams suffered in Tampa Bay if you didn't actually watch it. He's also very loved in Tampa Bay, even today. I know his stats don't show it but he's a guy who I think probably deserves to be there for them. Of course, that's just my opinion.

 

[JackWagon]

After reading through this thread and seeing all of the past names, great players and coaches, and remembering those unforgettable times, .. I realize all that is left of the Dallas Cowboys that I fell in love with as a boy decades ago is the Blue Star.

Sad.

I also think it is foolish to try and pick just four from our history, .. why?

Cause its fun in the off season ...

 

[Red Dragon]

I also think it is foolish to try and pick just four from our history, .. why?

By that logic, why pick just four Presidents to be on Mount Rushmore?



Sometimes the list has to be kept small.

 

[Manster68]

For me, it is solely based on contributions to the game of football.

So based on that, I go with:

Tom Landry
Tex Schramm
Gil Brandt
Jimmy Johnson

 

[WV Cowboy]

By that logic, why pick just four Presidents to be on Mount Rushmore?

Not even close to being the same.

Mt. Rushmore was four presidents out of like 29 or so, .. and those selections were probably quite obvious.

"The purpose of the memorial is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the United States with colossal statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt."

This is selecting four out of hundreds, and the debate will rage forever as to which four, .. never to be agreed upon by all.

Why, .. what positive, or necessary end does it accomplish?

But don't mind me, .. carry on with your selections.

 

[Nightman]

It amazes me how many people have put Jimmy Johnson on their lists. After all the great players I wouldn't even have him in the Top 10. Not saying you guys are wrong, but I just think his time here was way too short to put on a Mt Rushmore.

Landry
Emmitt
Aikman
Randy White
Staubach
Dorsett
Irvin
Allen
Lily
Woodson
Ware
Romo
Pearson
Witten
Moose
Lett
Stepnoski
EWilliams
Too Tall, Martin, Breuning, Lewis, Waters

 

[Tabascocat]

It amazes me how many people have put Jimmy Johnson on their lists. After all the great players I wouldn't even have him in the Top 10. Not saying you guys are wrong, but I just think his time here was way too short to put on a Mt Rushmore.

Landry
Emmitt
Aikman
Randy White
Staubach
Dorsett
Irvin
Allen
Lily
Woodson
Ware
Romo
Pearson
Witten
Moose
Lett
Stepnoski
EWilliams
Too Tall, Martin, Breuning, Lewis, Waters

Poll football fans across the country about the Cowboys(positives not negatives) over the past 25 years and Jimmy's name will come up more often that not.

There are far too many to narrow down to four, I agree there.

Ask yourself this question...if Jerry never hired Jimmy, do we win three SB's in the 90's? I don't think we do.

 

[Nightman]

Poll football fans across the country about the Cowboys(positives not negatives) over the past 25 years and Jimmy's name will come up more often that not.

There are far too many to narrow down to four, I agree there.

Ask yourself this question...if Jerry never hired Jimmy, do we win three SB's in the 90's? I don't think we do.

In that vein, if Jerry doesn't buy the team, do the Cowboys win 3 Super Bowls in the 90's?

 

[Tabascocat]

In that vein, if Jerry doesn't buy the team, do the Cowboys win 3 Super Bowls in the 90's?

Probably not, but the new/old owner could have possibly hired Jimmy, who knows. Fact of the matter is...those championships were won.

J. Johnson was instrumental in those super-bowls, that can't be disputed. So, there is a good argument that Jimmy would be on this "Rushmore", more so than Jerry himself.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

In that vein, if Jerry doesn't buy the team, do the Cowboys win 3 Super Bowls in the 90's?

Hard to say. Coach Landry already had Irvin on the team and the team had already decided that Troy would be the pick in the next draft so really, all that would have been needed was a RB. Would they have picked Emmitt? I don't know if that would have happened or not but I know this, Coach Landry did know RBs and Gil Brandt was always an SEC guy so who knows? The Walker pick, though he wasn't on the team yet, was made under the Landry regime so there is a possibility that certain things could have happened but there is no way to say that it absolutely would have happened for sure.

 

[03EBZ06]

T. Landry

R. Staubach

B. Lilly

E. Smith

 

[123dme]

Landry

Staubach

Smith

Lilly

 

[Red Dragon]

In that vein, if Jerry doesn't buy the team, do the Cowboys win 3 Super Bowls in the 90's?

If Jerry did not become owner, then I don't think Jimmy would have become coach, and then I don't think the Herschel Walker trade would have happened.......and without that trade, I don't think the 1990s Super Bowl titles would have happened. So, yes, without Jerry I don't think the Cowboys win three Super Bowls in the 90s.

 

[Nightman]

If Jerry did not become owner, then I don't think Jimmy would have become coach, and then I don't think the Herschel Walker trade would have happened.......and without that trade, I don't think the 1990s Super Bowl titles would have happened. So, yes, without Jerry I don't think the Cowboys win three Super Bowls in the 90s.

That's fair. I just think Jimmy gets too much of the credit for the SBs. It was a combination of 3 great draft picks, the Walker trade, Jimmy and his coaches knowing all the draftees well because they recruited most of them and a new owner with the guts to radically change a franchise in decline. After seeing what Jimmy and Jerry accomplished after the split, they were much better together than they will ever be apart.

Premature injuries, the salary cap, free agency, ego and some bad QBs killed the Dallas Dynasty of the 90's, but I don't think Jimmy could've or wanted to stick around to fix things. I wouldn't put Jerry or Jimmy on the Mt Rushmore in Dallas.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I am amazed at how little Tex Schramm is respected by Dallas fans. He was literally one of the Founding Fathers of the Modern NFL.

Tex Schramm, Lamar Hunt and Pete Rozelle basically made the NFL/AFL merger happen. Schramm's background with Rozelle was invaluable to the modern NFL. It literally would not have happened if not for Schramm. The advent of modern Divisions and conference alignment was Schramm. The modern playoff system, the wildcard, instant replay, mic'd up Refs, 30 second play clock, modern scouting that virtually every team now uses is Schramm's idea. The combine, the thing we all talk about endlessly around here was the idea of Tex Schramm. We credit Tom Landry as a cornerstone but it was Schramm who hand picked Coach Landry and it was Schramm who stuck by Coach Landry when Dallas fans wanted to run him out of town. It was Schramm who hired Gil Brandt as well. Can anybody say that without Brandt, the Cowboys would have been the team they became? Heck, even today, the Cowboys are still influenced by Brandt.

The 1958 NFL Championship game is generally recognized as the greatest game ever. A 23-17 OT game between the Cots and the Giants and it was a good game but why is it called the greatest game ever? Because it was the 1st televised game in the history of the sport and that was the beginning of the NFL's rise to the top of the Sporting World. All of this is known but how did it all happen? It happened, in no small part, because Tex Schramm, in 1956, left the Rams (and hired Pete Rozelle as his replacement, the same Rozelle who would later become the 1st NFL Commissioner) to work for CBS. It was there that Schramm learned how to turn Football into a TV product and the result was that 1958 Championship game. TV and the NFL are because of Tex Schramm.

Tex Schramm is one of the Founding Fathers of the Modern NFL yet here, we don't even consider him as a Founding Father of our own team.

That's just amazing to me.

 

[WV Cowboy]

I am amazed at how little Tex Schramm is respected by Dallas fans. He was literally one of the Founding Fathers of the Modern NFL.

Tex Schramm, Lamar Hunt and Pete Rozelle basically made the NFL/AFL merger happen. Schramm's background with Rozelle was invaluable to the modern NFL. It literally would not have happened if not for Schramm. The advent of modern Divisions and conference alignment was Schramm. The modern playoff system, the wildcard, instant replay, mic'd up Refs, 30 second play clock, modern scouting that virtually every team now uses is Schramm's idea. The combine, the thing we all talk about endlessly around here was the idea of Tex Schramm. We credit Tom Landry as a cornerstone but it was Schramm who hand picked Coach Landry and it was Schramm who stuck by Coach Landry when Dallas fans wanted to run him out of town. It was Schramm who hired Gil Brandt as well. Can anybody say that without Brandt, the Cowboys would have been the team they became? Heck, even today, the Cowboys are still influenced by Brandt.

The 1958 NFL Championship game is generally recognized as the greatest game ever. A 23-17 OT game between the Cots and the Giants and it was a good game but why is it called the greatest game ever? Because it was the 1st televised game in the history of the sport and that was the beginning of the NFL's rise to the top of the Sporting World. All of this is known but how did it all happen? It happened, in no small part, because Tex Schramm, in 1956, left the Rams (and hired Pete Rozelle as his replacement, the same Rozelle who would later become the 1st NFL Commissioner) to work for CBS. It was there that Schramm learned how to turn Football into a TV product and the result was that 1958 Championship game. TV and the NFL are because of Tex Schramm.

Tex Schramm is one of the Founding Fathers of the Modern NFL yet here, we don't even consider him as a Founding Father of our own team.

That's just amazing to me.

Maybe not as significant, but I think it was Schramm that put in the wide white sidelines at Texas Stadium, which many many stadiums use today.

As well as the arrows pointing left or right on the 40, 30, 20 and 10 yd lines so fans could tell which side of the 50 the ball was on while watching on TV.

He was a pioneer.

 

[Nightman]

I am amazed at how little Tex Schramm is respected by Dallas fans. He was literally one of the Founding Fathers of the Modern NFL.

Tex Schramm, Lamar Hunt and Pete Rozelle basically made the NFL/AFL merger happen. Schramm's background with Rozelle was invaluable to the modern NFL. It literally would not have happened if not for Schramm. The advent of modern Divisions and conference alignment was Schramm. The modern playoff system, the wildcard, instant replay, mic'd up Refs, 30 second play clock, modern scouting that virtually every team now uses is Schramm's idea. The combine, the thing we all talk about endlessly around here was the idea of Tex Schramm. We credit Tom Landry as a cornerstone but it was Schramm who hand picked Coach Landry and it was Schramm who stuck by Coach Landry when Dallas fans wanted to run him out of town. It was Schramm who hired Gil Brandt as well. Can anybody say that without Brandt, the Cowboys would have been the team they became? Heck, even today, the Cowboys are still influenced by Brandt.

The 1958 NFL Championship game is generally recognized as the greatest game ever. A 23-17 OT game between the Cots and the Giants and it was a good game but why is it called the greatest game ever? Because it was the 1st televised game in the history of the sport and that was the beginning of the NFL's rise to the top of the Sporting World. All of this is known but how did it all happen? It happened, in no small part, because Tex Schramm, in 1956, left the Rams (and hired Pete Rozelle as his replacement, the same Rozelle who would later become the 1st NFL Commissioner) to work for CBS. It was there that Schramm learned how to turn Football into a TV product and the result was that 1958 Championship game. TV and the NFL are because of Tex Schramm.

Tex Schramm is one of the Founding Fathers of the Modern NFL yet here, we don't even consider him as a Founding Father of our own team.

That's just amazing to me.

Great post. I'm guilty of overlooking him as well.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Maybe not as significant, but I think it was Schramm that put in the wide white sidelines at Texas Stadium, which many many stadiums use today.

As well as the arrows pointing left or right on the 40, 30, 20 and 10 yd lines so fans could tell which side of the 50 the ball was on while watching on TV.

He was a pioneer.

Those and countless other lessor known innovations.

Lamar Hunt said of Tex Schramm, that if you tried to write down all of the contributions Tex Schramm made to the NFL, you would run out of ink.

Don Shula once said, about Tex that he believe Tex Schramm had as much or more to do with the success of the NFL as any man ever connected with it.

 

[BAT]

Hard to say. Coach Landry already had Irvin on the team and the team had already decided that Troy would be the pick in the next draft so really, all that would have been needed was a RB. Would they have picked Emmitt? I don't know if that would have happened or not but I know this, Coach Landry did know RBs and Gil Brandt was always an SEC guy so who knows? The Walker pick, though he wasn't on the team yet, was made under the Landry regime so there is a possibility that certain things could have happened but there is no way to say that it absolutely would have happened for sure.

I think people tend to forget how dominant those 90's defenses were. And there is no way that Landry would have abandoned the flex let alone bring in a college defense (4-3 over) that changed the landscape of the NFL. At the time the 3-4 was the most dominant defense.

 

[Longboysfan]

Landry, Staubach are easy choices.

The other two should:

Bob Lilly - Mr. Cowboy
Emmitt - all time leading rusher in NFL history, 3 time SB champion

I would take these 4 in a heart beat.