Earlier this week, the President of the United States, as is the annual custom, pardoned two turkeys for Thanksgiving.  The names of this year’s lucky birds were “Corn” and “Cob”. 

For National Football League fans, two turkeys nicknamed “Cowboys” and “Football Team” will be served-up to millions of sleepy-eyed bloated fans on Thanksgiving Thursday afternoon in the Texas-sized “Jerry World” football stadium halfway between Big D and Fort Worth. 

The game will pit two NFC East teams with identical 3-7 records in a game which has serious significant playoff implications. 

No, you didn’t misread the last sentence. 

As this crazy pandemic year 2020 keeps providing Americans with other-worldly life experiences, why shouldn’t we expect that the NFC East would feature a massive deadlock featuring all four teams with only three wins apiece after their first ten games?

For the record, the Philadelphia Eagles are technically in the lead with a 3-6-1 record.  Philly actually played for a tie in a home-field overtime game early this season against AFC doormat Cincinnati.  The Bengals are just 2-7-1 as of last weekend.    

The stench of the NFC East is obvious, and, in an odd 2020-kind of way, intriguing, too.

Just a few short years ago, media types were lamenting that the NFL’s rules about player drafts and scheduling were trying to create parity with the goal of lifting-up the lousy teams and forcing last season’s Super Bowl contenders to play a brutal schedule the next year. 

Though the attempt to create parity doesn’t exist across the entire NFL, apparently the four teams of the NFC East really believe in it! 

The New York Giants (the other 3-7 franchise in the division) are on a massive roll as the G-Men have won two (gasp!) games in a row!   It’s hard to believe that a team which was 1-7 just two weeks ago is now only one-half game out of the playoffs isn’t it?

The NFL, in its infinite wisdom, includes each of the divisional winners into the playoff mix.  Regardless of how far below break-even (8-8) the eventual winner of the NFC East finishes, that team will be rewarded with a first-round playoff game after the regular season.

For pro football fans in Dallas, Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, this is still serious business!  The four teams comprising the NFC East have been playing football against each other since 1961. 

While it makes perfect sense for Washington, Philly, and the Big Apple (all within a few hundred miles of Amtrak rails of each other along I-95) to be part of the NFC East, why are the Dallas Cowboys in this division?  Dallas, Texas is a three hour flight west of all three of those East coast cities.  Dallas is geographically closer fit to several other NFL teams – including one just down I-45 South in Houston.

So why is Dallas still playing in the NFC East in the year 2020?     

Going back to the Cowboys’ entrance into the National Football League in 1960 (the same year which saw the fledgling American Football League place a team called the Dallas Texans in the same market), there just weren’t very many NFL franchises located in cities south of the Mason-Dixon line.   

Once Dallas came into the league and, in their second year, placed into the NFL’s Eastern Division,

The late Rodney Dangerfield made a very lucrative career using his series of “I tell ya… I get no respect” jokes.

With this wacky pandemic-affected 2020 college football season winding down, there are a number of college football teams having terrific seasons and, as usual, are being largely ignored by the major sports media.

It happens every year.  When it’s time to announce the Bowl Championship Series (or BCS) Final Four of college football, you can put a Reserved Seat sign out there for at least one SEC school (Alabama and/or Florida), one Big Ten team (Ohio State/Northwestern/Indiana), one team from the ACC (Notre Dame and/or Clemson), and one slot to be determined. 

In the 21-year history of the BCS bowl games beginning on January 1, 1999, the big bad Power 5 conferences (SEC, ACC, Big 10, Big 12, and Pac-12) have dominated appearances in the national championship games. 

Since the BCS began playing a stand-alone national championship game in January, 2007 (won by the Tim Tebow-led Florida Gators), the national championship games have been dominated by the Southeastern Conference.  The SEC has won ten BCS titles during the period with the ACC taking home three national championships, and the Big Ten has just one.  The Big 12 and Pac-12 have been shut-out since January, 2007.    There has only been one non-Power 5 conference team – independent Notre Dame – to have competed for the National Championship during the past 14 seasons. 

In 2020, the road to the final college football game may give a little hope for an outsider team to make an appearance in the BCS Final Four teams. 

It’s a guarantee that the winner of the SEC Championship game will be one of the four teams.  At this writing, Alabama from the SEC West would most likely play East-leader Florida.  If Texas A&M wins out and Bama destroys Florida in the SEC Championship game, the one-loss (to Bama) Aggies are going to be “whooping” for a second spot for an SEC team.  Why would we want to see a rematch of these two teams in 2020?

The same goes for the Atlantic Coast Conference winner.  A likely rematch of Notre Dame and Clemson is looming and will most likely thrust the winner into the college football final four.  The 7-1 Miami Hurricanes lost to Clemson earlier this year and are likely out of contention.

In the Big Ten, Indiana pushed Ohio State to the brink last Saturday during their 42-35 game.  Northwestern’s Rece Davis’ (oops, I mean “Wildcats”)  have surprised everyone with their 4-0 start and is in contention for a Big Ten title game after beating Wisconsin 17-7 last weekend.  Let’s go ahead and award the Big Ten winner the third slot in the four team BCS group.

Which team deserves to be the fourth team in the BCS mix this season?

First, let’s examine the Pac-12.  The league delayed their start by several weeks due to pandemic concerns.  At this time, Oregon is just 3-0 and is somehow ranked #9 already.  The Ducks were fortunate to win a 38-35 game against UCLA last Saturday and have beaten 0-2 Stanford and 1-1 Washington State.  Yawn.  USC is also 3-0 and ranked #19 this week with a 1-point win vs. Arizona State and a 4-point scare at Arizona to start the year.   Colorado is 2-0 with just three games remaining.   The Pac-12’s six-game mini-season simply doesn’t provide enough competitive ...

It seems to happen every fall just about this time.  Around the country, November means that it is once again hunting season! 

No, this story isn’t about hunting.  It’s about coaches. 

Ironically, many coaches find themselves being hunted at this time of year. 

Bird Season – These winged creatures are a favorite of hunters every season.  Though your target can fly high at times, you must remain quiet and patient in order to get a chance to knock them down at lower altitudes. 

In Georgia, the formerly high flying Atlanta Falcons fired Dan Quinn recently.  Yes, he is the same head football coach who took Atlanta to their second Super Bowl back in February, 2017.   After the Falcons laid a monumental egg during a second half meltdown in losing to the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, these Dirty Birds have been circling lower than buzzards ever since.  When the Falcons started the 2020 NFL season going 0-5, the team’s ownership and fan base had seen enough.

KA-BLOOEY!   Though Dan Quinn’s career record in Atlanta was 43-42, he’s now gone.   Since the downing of Coach Quinn, the Falcons have gone 3-1.  Perhaps NOT having a permanent head coach might be the answer!

Turkey Season – Meanwhile in Texas, it’s turkey season!  You can usually spot your target as he will be the person quickly running away from media coverage and dodging unhappy fans.  When your pro team is having a really, really bad season, it’s time to FIRE that turkey.  The sooner, the better!

The city of Houston has nearly 5 million people who spend a great deal of their lives stuck in gridlock and traffic jams next to countless other patience-challenged commuters.  With some drivers needing up to 90 minutes each way to arrive at work or to drive home from their weekday jobs, fans don’t want to continue hearing their favorite sports radio station remind them of just bad the local NFL team has become.

Bill O’Brien arrived in H-town several years ago with a reputation for being the most Bill Belichick-like assistant coach in the New England Patriots’ coaching tree.  Though Bill O’Brien (thankfully) didn’t dazzle fans with a dapper assortment of chic gray Belichick-styled sweatshirts along the sidelines, his generally stoic demeanor at the helm of the Houston Texans often felt as cold as a New England winter.  

O’Brien’s Texans actually made the playoffs in four of his six seasons in Houston (a much better record than that other Texas team located up I-45 N in Dallas).  The Texans play in the AFC South which has been one of the easiest divisions in the NFL for his 6+ seasons in Houston.  With a playoff record of just 2-4, the Texans still haven’t won an AFC Championship or been to a Super Bowl.

When O’Brien’s Texans started the 2020 campaign 0-4 out the chute, it became time to take aim on the head coach.    

KABOOM!   Bill O’Brien finished with a 52-48 record in Houston.  Since his departure, the Texans have gone 1-4.  Some things just never change in Houston.

Gamecock Season – Over in South Carolina, the college flagship University of South Carolina in the state capitol city of Columbia already has the deck stacked against its football program.  The university plays football in the SEC (the toughest conference in the USA), while its upstate neighbor in Clemson has been playing for national championships the past few seasons while benefi...

In one of the most unexciting Sunday finishes at The Masters, Dustin Johnson dusted the field in taking a five stroke victory. In the process, he shot an all-time record low 72-hole score of 20 (what else in the year 2020?) under par.  That’s two shots lower than the prior record low scoring total posted by two pretty good golfers – Tiger Woods (1997) and Jordan Spieth (2015). 

Golf scores continue to get lower while traditional championship venues such as Augusta National Golf Club are being reduced to glorified drive-pitch-and putt competitions. 

Are today’s golfers really better than those who played in by-gone eras or has technology helped to make the game easier than ever before? 

Last week, we examined beefed-up golfers such as Bryson DeChambeau (who, by the way, finished 18 shots behind Dustin Johnson with a 2-under par total for the tournament) who are trying to pummel championship golf courses into submission with prodigious drives and shorter approaches to the greens. 

Dustin Johnson is no slouch off the tee, either.  He ranks #6 this season in driving distance at a whopping 321 yards.  At Augusta National this weekend, DJ hit more greens (83%) than anyone else and was closer to the hole (on average) than anyone else in the field, too.  That added up to a terrific weekend and his first Green Jacket! 

Looking back, I have a hard time believing that golf greats such as Arnold Palmer (whose forearms could match Popeye himself), Jack Nicklaus, and other top golf stars from the 1960’s and 1970’s would not be able to hit today’s golf ball every bit as far and straight as the current crop of PGA professionals.     

Let’s take a closer look at some of the real reasons why golf scores keep getting lower and lower every year.

Is it the fairways?  In 2020, the average PGA Tour golf course fairways are cut just ½ inch off the ground compared to about 1 inch in the 1960’s.  That surely helps the golf ball roll farther once it is on the ground, but the golf ball’s flight accounts for well over 90% of distance off the tee.

Let’s next review the golf clubs.  The metal heads on today’s drivers certainly make it easier for the professional golfers to launch rockets down the fairway.  Recent models of metal woods will allow golfers to adjust the launch angle on the clubface of these drivers.   With a few twists of your special wrench, you can go from an 11 degree clubface launch angle down to 9 degrees (and a lower ball flight).   

The change from persimmon (wooden) driver heads has made a huge difference, too. 

A few years ago, current PGA Tour professional Brandt Snedeker agreed to a little experiment for two consecutive rounds on the Sea Island Plantation course in Hilton Head, SC.  He played one round with his current golf clubs and golf balls.  The next round, he used 1980’s era steel-shafted persimmon woods and irons and an 80’s styled balata golf ball.  On tee shots using the old-school wooden driver, Snedeker’s shots went 25-30 yards shorter on well-struck shots.  For mishit shots, he lost 50 to 60 yards off the tee! 

That brings us to the number one culprit for extra distance on the PGA Tour.  The golf ball itself.

Over time, early golf balls started as a perfectly round sphere.

Bryson DeChambeau has officially entered the minds of professional golf. 

Though I still think of this pleasant young man as a very bright Physics major from SMU, most of professional golf has become obsessed with him, too.  In less than one year, the 27-year old DeChambeau has added 40 pounds of muscle and bulk while gaining 30+ yards of distance on nearly every golf swing.  

Since the 2020 version of The Masters (pandemic-delayed by six months from April) is now being played this weekend in Augusta, Georgia, much of the pre-tournament chatter has been about the physical transformation of DeChambeau from a quirky but likeable geek into an evil dark character more akin to Darth Vader! 

Upon arriving on the PGA Tour just four years ago, DeChambeau quickly picked-up the nickname of “The Mad Scientist!” due to his unique set of single-length irons (all are the length as a 6-iron) and his overly analytical (and often slow) pace of play.  His initial success on the PGA Tour was quite good as he grabbed five wins in his first three years on the big stage.

Already a better than average driver of the golf ball, Bryson DeChambeau (ever the scientist) wondered if he could transform his body to be able to hit the golf ball as far the guys who were winning the long-driving contests.  If he could hit the golf ball as far as they did and have a PGA-level short game to go along with it, he calculated that playing a game of drive, pitch, and putt would allow him to obliterate many PGA Tour golf courses. 

About this time last year, it was time for him to enter his laboratory (bwa-ha-ha!). 

The 6’1” Bryson DeChambeau (then weighing a relatively normal 195 pounds) entered a different kind of laboratory called “The Gym”.  He spent two months over the 2019 holiday season with a purposeful decision to add both strength and weight and see if he could translate it into added length on the golf course.    

Mission accomplished!

After adding nearly 40 pounds of bulk by late this spring, DeChambeau has gained over 30 yards off the tee and began hitting all of his golf clubs further than ever before.  PGA Tour players and the media gave him yet another nickname. 

Bryson DeChambeau was now known as “The Incredible Bulk.” 

Not only did his added size make for some odd second-take looks from his fellow golfers, his extra length off the tee (now over 325 yards and rising) eventually translated into success on the golf course this summer, too. 

DeChambeau won the Rocket Mortgage (Detroit) tournament in July.  He then finished in the top ten in the PGA Championship in August.

In September, Bryson DeChambeau secured his first professional golf major championship by destroying the field in winning the US Open at the difficult Winged Foot Golf Club.  He was the only player who finished under-par in the event (-6) in winning by six shots. 

After the win, DeChambeau has been bombarded with questions about his motivations for “breaking” golf by playing the golf course in ways that the designers had never imagined.  He intends to play the famed Augusta National Golf Club in the same manner in which he tamed the equally tough Winged Foot a few months ago.

Bryson DeChambeau has been practicing driving his golf ball up and over the tops of Augusta’s lovely pine trees to leave relatively short iron shots into the lightning-fast greens.  Stories abound about practice rounds where he was able to drive the golf ball onto the greens on a few par-4 h...

In our last visit, we explored the significant revenue shortfalls expected by some of America’s largest athletics programs in the Southeastern Conference. 

With large football stadiums going 80% empty this fall due to precautions necessitated by this ongoing pandemic, 60,000 or more empty seats in many SEC football stadiums means incredible financial losses compared to a normal season.  With lost revenues from ticket sales, fewer parking and tailgating spots sold, less concessions and team merchandise peddled at the stadiums each week this fall plus the devastating financial impact on local businesses (hotels, restaurants, etc.), the lost revenue on football weekends in cities around the nation in 2020 has been breathtaking. 

Fortunately, the 130 schools (which comprise the major sports conferences participating in football’s Bowl Championship Series) have been able to offset some of the financial losses by relying on lucrative network television contracts along with revenues from regional radio networks, student fees, and an assortment of other revenue sources. 

How are the smaller conference schools and those playing in the Football Championship Series (formerly known as Division 1-A) along with D-II and D-III colleges financially coping with this season’s pandemic issues?

Unlike the big schools playing games in large stadiums with high ticket prices and supported by lucrative television deals, the remainder of most college football teams hit the gridiron in smaller stadiums, charge lower ticket prices, and are fortunate if a few commercial radio stations are willing to pay small fees to broadcast the games.

Athletic departments at the smaller conference colleges primarily rely on funding from the school itself and from separate athletics fees being charged to all students at the school. 

The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics shows that private donors comprise nearly 25% of the revenue for athletics at the biggest universities (the so-called “Power 5” conferences).  The smaller schools currently average about 10% of funding from its athletic donors.   

Likewise, network television contributes well over 30% to the budgets of large conference schools vs. 11% to the smaller conferences.  Ticket sales account for 23% of the revenue for the large conference schools, but it only comprises 5% of revenues for smaller schools.     

How do the smaller colleges find enough revenue to compete in intercollegiate athletics?  Institutional support from the college itself comprises 39% for smaller conferences, but it is a minuscule 1% for the Power 5 schools.  Student fees for smaller schools amounts to 25% of revenues vs. just 1% for the larger colleges. 

That means that 64% of the money needed to run athletics programs of the smaller conference schools is dependent upon the financial health of the college itself and the willingness of students to pay for it. 

The athletics budgets of larger conference schools are quite dependent upon playing the games with as many fans in the stands as possible.   Without the revenue from television (30%) and ticket sales (23%), it is easier to understand why the Big Ten, Pac 12, and all other football conferences eventually joined the SEC and opted to play football this fall after weighing pandemic-related concerns.   

For the smaller conferences and schools, the loss of ticket revenue (only 5% of revenue) from cancelled games...

If you have watched any college football this year, you’ve noticed that there are a lot fewer fans in the stadiums during this lingering pandemic year of 2020. 

Though it was nice to see 17,000 students and fans inside Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday afternoon to watch Auburn host LSU, it also means that 68,000 fans weren’t allowed inside.  Due to state and university precautions, the school is trying to maintain social distancing even if it is putting a choke hold on football revenues, too.    

Since college football is the primary cash cow for most universities’ athletics budgets, having just 20% of the fans in the stands for a college football game also means that the other 80% of the seats are empty.

For those 68,000 empty seats in Auburn, that means there were no tickets sold for those seats, no parking permits or concessions purchased along with other stadium-related merchandising normally peddled to thousands of enthusiastic college football fans at every Auburn home game this fall.

If that’s not bad enough, there is a significant negative effect caused to many local businesses in and around Auburn, Alabama.  Formerly sold-out hotels are struggling to sell rooms.  Restaurants and entertainment establishments in the lovely and historic Toomer’s Corner portion of downtown Auburn are even feeling the pain, too. 

Don’t get me wrong.  Having college football to watch on television or in person is a blessing in 2020.  The costs being extracted on the college athletics budgets and in the home cities of those universities will linger on long after the pandemic comes under control.   

This isn’t just an SEC issue.  The same scenario is playing out in college football cities around the nation this fall.

It’s a lot like the US national debt.  You know it’s rising at a meteoric rate right now.  During this pandemic year of 2020, though, you simply prefer not to look regardless of how ugly it has been getting. 

Since college athletics departments aren’t able to issue their own currency, though, they must find creative ways to cover their costs of operation.  When revenues are plummeting in the primary cash cow sport (football) and there is no improvement seen anytime soon, it is time to take drastic measures to get costs under control.

LSU recently announced that the school’s athletics budget shortfall could reach an astounding $80 million.  After the SEC cancelled all non-conference football games in 2020, LSU football would not reap the revenues from two home football games in 103,000 seat Tiger Stadium.   Coming off a national championship season in 2019, those two sellouts probably cost the LSU athletics department well over $6 million per game.  Let’s call it a $12 million loss this year in ticket sales alone.

For the remaining five SEC home games in 2020, ticket sales will be limited to 25% of capacity.  The loss of nearly 76,000 tickets per home game for those five games adds up quickly.  Assuming an average ticket price of $75 (a conservative estimate) with 76,000 fewer seats for five home games, the estimated ticket revenue loss for these five games reaches over $28 million. 

Again, these are my own ballpark estimates.  I am forecasting a $40 million revenue shortfall just in unsold football seats alone.  When adding on the loss of parking and tailgating revenue, in-stadium concessions and merchandising, LSU’s projected $80 million revenue shortfall is looking more and more realistic.        

As a result of these estimates, LSU

As the 1959 Lloyd Price smash hit song claims, “Personality” really does matter!  That’s true when you take a look at your favorite sports personalities and teams, too. 

I read a fascinating story this week which discussed a recent survey showing that the National Basketball Association is now known more for its politics than the game of basketball itself.

Though the majority of the “too political” voters were Republicans (83%), nearly 40% of political Independents and a quarter of Democrats agreed with the same sentiment.  

The NBA shot itself in the proverbial foot in 2020 by placing overt social messaging on the basketball court, on the jerseys of the players, and in the rhetoric of its biggest star.   The league mistakenly believed that fans were more concerned about being sympathetic to social issues than understanding that most of its audience was tuning in to escape life’s stresses to watch athletes playing a simple game of putting a ball into the basket more than the other team.

LeBron James was hawked by the media and has morphed into the primary face of the NBA.  It is a role which he obviously embraces as indicated by his own “King” James moniker.  LeBron James has participated in the NBA Finals nearly every season over the past decade.  He is obviously a talented basketball player. 

In this age of social media, LeBron James has also become a “King” on Twitter and Instagram, too.  According to one report, James has over 90 million followers on those two social media sites.  Coming in a distant second in the NBA is Golden State’s Stephen Curry with about 40 million followers. 

Those who become social media stars are modern day Pied Pipers – for good and bad.   The image of today’s NBA has slowly morphed into a caricature of LeBron James – for good and bad, too.  The two names (NBA and LeBron James) have now become nearly synonymous in the minds of the sports public. 

LeBron James personally approved the NBA’s on-court messaging this season.  The public didn’t necessarily agree as the NBA’s television ratings descended to historic lows as a result.

The personality of the stars of major sports teams has much to do with the overall popularity of their leagues, too. 

Let’s start with the NBA.  The league’s most popular players have morphed from the likes of Bill Russell/Wilt Chamberlain era (1960’s and 1970’s) to Larry Bird/Magic Johnson (late 70’s and 1980’s).  The Michael Jordan era carried the league from the 1980’s into the late 1990’s.  Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan led the league into the 2000’s.   Also noteworthy, most of these players stayed with one franchise for the majority of their playing careers.  Fan loyalty was built with both the franchises and the team’s star players. 

Since the early 2000’s, though, the NBA has become nearly synonymous with the career of LeBron James.   If you happen to like LeBron, you’ve been happy.  If not, more fans have been turning away from the sport as each season passes by. 

As LeBron James came into the league, he helped rebuild the Cleveland Cavaliers into a playoff cont...

As the Los Angeles Dodgers grabbed their first World Series title in 32 years with a 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday night, America generally ignored it.  Again.

The six-game World Series of 2020 was not played in Los Angeles or Tampa Bay.  Due to the lingering pandemic, Major League Baseball decided (for some odd reason) to play this year’s World Series in Arlington, Texas between Dallas and Fort Worth. 

For television viewers, nothing says excitement like watching a snail-paced 3 ½ to 4 hour World Series game being played at a neutral site in front of a smattering of fans allowed into the stadium. 

It should come as no surprise that the 2020 World Series just set another record for lowest television ratings in the history of the annual event.   For the first time ever, the 2020 World Series averaged fewer than 10 million viewers.   The ratings for this year’s Fall Classic were 32% lower than the previously lowest rated World Series (San Francisco vs. Detroit in 2012).

The viewership slide for baseball has been long and very ugly.  Let’s take a look by decade:

1980 – 42 million television viewers (NBC)

1990 – 30 million viewers (CBS)

2000 – 18 million viewers (FOX)

2010 – 14 million viewers (FOX)

2020 – 9.8 million viewers (FOX)

In forty years, public interest in watching baseball’s premier event has dropped by 442%.  With a loss of more than 32 million fans over that period, baseball has gone from “America’s pastime” to being “past its time”. 

The continued erosion of interest in the sport of baseball is sounding some troubling alarms.   Though the league was able to cobble together an abbreviated 60-game regular season this year (instead of its normal 162-game marathon), fans were kept away from the local ball parks due to pandemic-related concerns.   Team owners and MLB brass hoped that providing a televised sprint-to-the-finish baseball season would serve to pique viewer interest.

Based on this year’s TV ratings, that business plan flopped. 

Though attendance at professional baseball games has been ever-so-slightly dwindling in recent years, interest in the game has been plummeting among the youth.  The game, which has enjoyed a long history of passing down traditions and stories, is failing to capture the imagination and support of the millennial “video game” generation.

Baseball is a much slower sport to digest for casual fans.  When you are at the ball park, baseball provides the rare opportunity to carry-on a conversation with a friend or family member while being able to follow action on the field.  The same laid-back pace of a baseball game just may not satisfy the interests of many younger people today. 

As older fans continue to literally die out, baseball’s interest has correspondingly dwindled over the years.

There is also the prohibitive cost of attending a game in person.  With average ticket prices for a Major League Baseball game at $33 apiece, a family of four will shell out $132 (plus tax) on just the tickets.  Add parking, a program and concessions, and the average family of four will spend about $232 for their visit to see just one major league baseball game at the ball park.

If you happen to plan a summer vacation around see...

A friend of mine sent an email recently which mentioned the Allas Cwbys.  WHAT? Oh, he said it’s the NFL team which has no D and, as of last week, has no O either! 

Ouch!  That assessment is not only funny, but it is quite accurate thus far in 2020, too. 

You may be a long-time Dallas Cowboys fan or, perhaps, you know one.  Cowboys fans are a rather unique bunch.  They are among the most loyal supporters in the National Football League and in all of professional sports. 

Dallas Cowboys fans (pre-pandemic) buy tickets by the thousands in opposing teams’ football stadiums to cheer on their beloved team.   They are even brave enough to buy tickets in hostile environments like Philadelphia where Eagles ticket holders will taunt and even tangle with those daring to enter their stadium wearing that dreaded Blue Star.

For the baby boomer generation, the Dallas Cowboys (who actually play in the nearby city of Arlington) were eventually were coined “America’s Team” in the late 1970’s. 

The team was guided by their iconic head coach, Tom Landry, who led the team to 20 consecutive winning seasons from 1966 through 1985.   Landry wore an ever-present fedora which helped to make him quite easily recognizable along the sidelines.   

The team’s helmet was adorned by a single blue star (as in the Lone Star state of Texas).  The Dallas Cowboys wore their white jerseys at home with blue and silver accents on the jerseys and pants.  That was the opposite of most other NFL teams who wear a color-based jersey for their home games.    

With Dallas’ success on the field, some of the Cowboys’ NFC East opponents then started to wear white jerseys at home in order force the Cowboys into wearing their blue (and possibly unlucky) uniforms. 

Many long-time Dallas Cowboys supporters still believe the team’s blue jerseys are jinxed.  This idea may have started at the end of the 1968 season when the 12-2 blue-shirted Cowboys were crushed 31-20 on the road by the Cleveland Browns in the NFL playoffs.  That 1968 game also turned out to be the final game as a Cowboy player for star quarterback Don Meredith, too.  

At times, “Dandy” Don played professional football on the field like a cowboy.  He would often scramble around and took chances on the field (often against the advice of his stoic coach, Tom Landry) while rarely complaining about his injuries.   Don Meredith’s easy going Texas-styled personality would later translate into even more stardom in the television booth as he became an analyst and the primary foil for New York City journalist Howard Cosell during ABC’s revolutionary “Monday Night Football” games beginning in 1970.  

The Dallas Cowboys introduced a new type of cheerleaders into the NFL, too.  The team’s dance-oriented team of young women and their iconic uniforms quickly became a favorite for fans in the stadium and the millions watching on national television. 

Beginning in the late 1960’s, the Dallas Cowboys’ winning success on the field was noticed by a nation which was now able to watch NFL football games on television every week. 

CBS had the primary television rights to the NFL and, after the merger with the AFL, the NFC.   With Dallas winning so consistently during the Tom Landry era, the network tended to carry a lot of Cowboys’ football gam...