joseephuss
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http://www.austinmonthly.com/AM/Jul...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Up Front with Dale Dudley: Roger and Me
[URL='http://www.austinmonthly.com/AM/July-2015/Up-Front-with-Dale-Dudley-Roger-and-Me/?utm_content=bufferbf214&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer']Proof a father figure and mentor can be found outside the home—and even on your TV screen
Last year, as the NFL training camps were about to open, I rationalized in these pages my existence as a Dallas Cowboys fan. Watching Cowboys games with my dad as a kid was just about the only leisure activity we shared. In that column, I mentioned my pretend Cowboys football uniform with the number 12 on the back. That was the same number worn by Roger Staubach, who quarterbacked the team from 1971 to ’79. And in that same decade I would go from little boy to adolescent to high school graduate, never realizing until now how much Staubach had helped me survive it all.
A few months ago, I was power-watching A Football Life, which I had recorded from ESPN. Each episode is an hour long bio-graphy of a legendary NFL player. I waited until my house settled down and the kids were headed off to bed before I watched the episode on Staubach. [URL='http://www.austinmonthly.com/AM/July-2015/Up-Front-with-Dale-Dudley-Roger-and-Me/?utm_content=bufferbf214&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer']
I was pretty sure I was just going to be sitting through stuff I knew already. I knew all the stats, had seen all the games and knew his story. Staubach played for Navy and after college went into the service as an officer, delaying his pro football career. He married his childhood sweetheart and was a solid family man. I even knew that his only controversy was trading punches with a backup quarterback named Clint Longley. Staubach was the straight arrow of the NFL. So straight that the term “Hail Mary” for a long pass is credited to him because he said that prayer silently when he threw a bomb to Drew Pearson during a playoff game.
As I watched his episode of A Football Life, I saw the same plays, victories and defeats I had seen on TV as a little boy. I knew a lot of the stats and had seen the plays over and over. And as I watched the grainy films shot decades before high-definition TV, a movie played in my own head. I had a flashback of the little blue Dallas Cowboys jacket with white leather sleeves that my parents bought me to try and soothe the shock of moving from the tiny town of Monahans to Houston.
The next few years would change my life forever, as I suffered various abuses that took me 40 years to even talk about. But I always had Roger and the Cowboys as a positive in my life. Football season and the Cowboys was something that I always looked forward to.[/URL][/URL]
Up Front with Dale Dudley: Roger and Me
[URL='http://www.austinmonthly.com/AM/July-2015/Up-Front-with-Dale-Dudley-Roger-and-Me/?utm_content=bufferbf214&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer']Proof a father figure and mentor can be found outside the home—and even on your TV screen
Last year, as the NFL training camps were about to open, I rationalized in these pages my existence as a Dallas Cowboys fan. Watching Cowboys games with my dad as a kid was just about the only leisure activity we shared. In that column, I mentioned my pretend Cowboys football uniform with the number 12 on the back. That was the same number worn by Roger Staubach, who quarterbacked the team from 1971 to ’79. And in that same decade I would go from little boy to adolescent to high school graduate, never realizing until now how much Staubach had helped me survive it all.
A few months ago, I was power-watching A Football Life, which I had recorded from ESPN. Each episode is an hour long bio-graphy of a legendary NFL player. I waited until my house settled down and the kids were headed off to bed before I watched the episode on Staubach. [URL='http://www.austinmonthly.com/AM/July-2015/Up-Front-with-Dale-Dudley-Roger-and-Me/?utm_content=bufferbf214&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer']
I was pretty sure I was just going to be sitting through stuff I knew already. I knew all the stats, had seen all the games and knew his story. Staubach played for Navy and after college went into the service as an officer, delaying his pro football career. He married his childhood sweetheart and was a solid family man. I even knew that his only controversy was trading punches with a backup quarterback named Clint Longley. Staubach was the straight arrow of the NFL. So straight that the term “Hail Mary” for a long pass is credited to him because he said that prayer silently when he threw a bomb to Drew Pearson during a playoff game.
As I watched his episode of A Football Life, I saw the same plays, victories and defeats I had seen on TV as a little boy. I knew a lot of the stats and had seen the plays over and over. And as I watched the grainy films shot decades before high-definition TV, a movie played in my own head. I had a flashback of the little blue Dallas Cowboys jacket with white leather sleeves that my parents bought me to try and soothe the shock of moving from the tiny town of Monahans to Houston.
The next few years would change my life forever, as I suffered various abuses that took me 40 years to even talk about. But I always had Roger and the Cowboys as a positive in my life. Football season and the Cowboys was something that I always looked forward to.[/URL][/URL]
