Flashback Friday: Super Bowl Weekend 10 Years Ago

FLASHBACK FRIDAY

This story below was written 10 years ago this weekend, not because the Cowboys were in the Big Dance, but because Dallas was hosting the game that year. It was a tribute to an organization that billed itself as "America's Team" and has been my youngest brother's team through the ages, a team that has won 5 Super Bowls and had some pretty illustrious years, especially under the much respected head coach Tom Landry. 

Football has become more than just another game. And the highlight of pro football is its crowning achievement, the Super Bowl. For fans, the Super Bowl means super hype, lots of spectacular spending on commercials and an opportunity to party with friends. For one day a year there will be more people watching one event than double the number of people on Facebook. (EdNote: This has changed.) 

Like the internet, its reach is global, and has been such since near the beginning. Not everyone is big on football, but there sure are a lot who are. This year's game will be held in Dallas in the new Cowboy Stadium which I mentioned in December when paying tribute to Cowboys coach Tom Landry, who played an instrumental role in making the Cowboys "America's Team" back in the Seventies. 

Another person who played an instrumental role in that era was quarterback Roger Staubach. For the record, Roger Thomas Staubach, incidentally, was born the same year as Bob Dylan and Jerry Jones, who became owner of the Cowboys in 1989 and proceeded to fire Mr. Landry. (He later admitted he handled that situation poorly.) To his credit, Jones built the new 1.2 billion dollar Cowboy Stadium with his own money and did not push that deal off on overburdened taxpayers, like other teams which I will not mention here. 

Staubach was a Heisman Trophy winner in college and learned early what it takes to remain cool under pressure. With Staubach at the helm, the Cowboys garnered their first Super Bowl victory, Staubach being named Most Valuable Player. Coach Landry described him as "possibly the best combination of a passer, an athlete and a leader to ever play in the NFL." 

Better luck next year.

Whether you win or lose, it's a highlight for any player to be in the "the Big Dance" and whether you win or lose you get a very nice chunk of change. One thing you don't get, however, when you are on the losing end, is that super ring. The Ring's the thing. Staubach has two. You only get them by being part of a team. “If you are a team player, it’s in the gut that this is a lot more special than any individual award,” Staubach once said. 

While leading the Dallas Cowboys from 1969-1979 the team never had a losing season. Here's a summary of his other career highlights and awards:
1985 Pro Football Hall of Fame Inductee
6× Pro Bowl selection (1971, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979)
5× All-NFC selection (1971, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979)
2× Super Bowl champion (VI, XII)
NFL 1970s All-Decade Team Super Bowl VI MVP
1963 Heisman Trophy
1963 Maxwell Award
1963 UPI Player of the Year
1971 Bert Bell Award Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor 

O.K.... time to start getting ready for the Game. Anyone here checked out some of the commercials that will air later today? Chevy has a couple that are pretty cool. And who's slated to be this year's Go Daddy Girl? We'll soon find out.

 

Super Bowl Trivia: Who owns more Super Bowl rings than anyone alive?

See the answer HERE

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THE ABOVE was published in 2011 on Super Bowl Sunday. This year's answer to that last question is different from the answer of 2011. Tom Brady has 6 Super Bowl rings, more than any other quarterback, and is aiming to garner a 7th this Sunday in Super Bowl 54. The amazing thing is that he's making this attempt with a new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

This has certainly been the NFLs strangest year, due in large part to Covid. Most games were played in empty or semi-empty stadiums. TV viewers heard crowd noise generated in the same fashion as laugh tracks on sitcoms. The effect was surreal, almost turning these competitions into WWF artifice. 

America's Team, the Cowboys

Americans love things that are big, and everything is bigger in Texas. This weekend my youngest brother and his wife flew to Dallas to watch the Dallas Cowboys face off with the Philadelphia Eagles tonight at the new, luxurious Dallas Stadium, now the largest domed stadium in the world. This very special weekend was a 50th birthday present from his wife, whom I believe is an Eagles fan.

Domed stadiums are nothing new. Minnesota Twins and Vikings fans have enjoyed their Metrodome for several decades now. Unfortunately, the weather can play havoc with Northland domes as in this morning's collapse of the Metrodome roof at 5:00 a.m., thereby sending tomorrow's Monday Night Football game to Ford Stadium in Michigan. Bummer for season ticket holders who can't make it to Detroit.

This isn't the first time the Metrodome collapsed. In 1981 Susie and I were returning from a year in Mexico when severe storms iced the Northland. We had our sights set on Minneapolis, but freezing rain turned Iowa bridges into skating rinks and we were forced to take shelter in a motel. We saw a lot of cars in the ditches that night. And the next morning we entered the Twin Cities to a scalped stadium. Ice had cut through the fabrics that shrouded the dome, leaving it shredded and sunken. Ah, but I digress.

Being a Cleveland Browns fan I took umbrage to the coining of the Cowboys as America's team. Nevertheless, you really can't fault the franchise for becoming darlings of the NFL and a fan magnet. And like most such stories, if you dig into the details you can usually find a reason or two for their uncanny success. In this case, I doubt the lion's share of the credit can be attributed to their Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry.

Landry's imprint on professional football was significant. Whenever you hear great coaches and players tell their stories, many will speak with reverence of the two acknowledged greats, Lombardi and Landry, who not only influenced how the game was played, but about the role of character and the real meaning of greatness.

In addition to two Super Bowl titles, Landry led the Cowboys to an unprecedented and unmatched twenty consecutive winning seasons. Many of his innovations in both offensive and defensive formations have become the standard in today's football.

So today, helmets off to the Dallas Cowboys and their legendary coach Thomas Wade Landry.

Tom Landry Quotes

"A winner never stops trying." ~Tom Landry

"Football is an incredible game. Sometimes it's so incredible, it's unbelievable." ~Tom Landry

"I don't believe in team motivation. I believe in getting a team prepared so it knows it will have the necessary confidence when it steps on a field and be prepared to play a good game." ~Tom Landry

"I've learned that something constructive comes from every defeat." ~Tom Landry

"If you are prepared, you will be confident, and will do the job." ~Tom Landry

"Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control." ~Tom Landry

"Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve." ~Tom Landry

"Right after the game, say as little as possible." ~Tom Landry

"Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan." ~Tom Landry

"The secret to winning is constant, consistent management." ~Tom Landry

"Today, you have 100% of your life left." ~Tom Landry

Trivia: Tom Landry was born on my birth date, September 11 and died on my daughter’s birth date, February 12.

Hey, bro'... Enjoy the game.

For more information on this great NFL innovator.