September means football. Since I was 7, football has meant the Dallas Cowboys.
In 1966, the Packers beat host Dallas in the NFL Championship game when Don Meredith threw an interception in the end zone in the game’s waning seconds. Green Bay then beat Kansas City in the first NFL vs. AFL Championship game. It wasn’t called the Super Bowl yet.
On Dec. 31, 1967, Dallas lost to the host Green Bay Packers in the famed Ice Bowl NFL Championship game. I became a Cowboys fan that day. The Packers would beat the Oakland Raiders two weeks later in the first “Super Bowl.”
Fast forward to last Saturday and the Cowboys at L.A. Rams preseason game. Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones, quarterback Dak Prescott, and Dallas front office folks exchanged pleasantries with Rams owner Stan Kroenke at midfield before the game.
As he shook Kroenke’s hand, Prescott said, “We’ll meet y’all in the NFC Championship.”
While I would rather have Prescott say that than, “I doubt we will make the playoffs,” history and my age fly in the face of that statement.
Let’s return to the historical journey that is my Cowboys life when it comes to the NFC Championship game.
Dallas played for the right to advance to the Super Bowl when I was 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, and 22. A decade passed, then the Cowboys returned to the NFC Championship game when I was 32, 33, 34, and 35.
If Prescott’s prediction comes to fruition, a Cowboys’ appearance in the NFC Championship will end 30 years of waiting. I doubt Prescott is correct, so the dismal beat will likely go on.
The common denominator for the Cowboys over those three decades is the team’s owner and general manager — Jerry Jones.
My guess is he or his family will own the Cowboys for at least another 30 years. Unfortunately, I think the championship game drought will continue until Jones relinquishes the GM title.
Chris Canty, a co-host of ESPN radio’s “Unsportsmanlike,” recently likened Prescott to the Jim Carey character ‘Truman’ in “The Truman Show.” Truman lives his daily life unaware that it is a sitcom that the entire world can view. He is crushed when he learns the truth — that the joke is on him.
Canty’s point is that Prescott thinks Jones is serious about winning games, returning to the NFC Championship, and possibly the Super Bowl.
The reality is that Jones is more interested in the astronomical value of his team, marketing, popularity, and fame.
I’ve watched the Dallas Cowboys movie for 59 years and it was a blockbuster hit until 30 years ago.
It has become a “dramady.” Each season brings laughter and sorrow — but no championship game.
New actors come and go, and the franchise valuation has soared to $10 billion. But there is never an “Oscar,” or an Academy Award nomination. The prolonged failure falls on the shoulders of the studio mogul, Jerry Jones.
Lights, camera, and action begins on Sept. 4 on the road against the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. The curtain will likely fall before the NFC title game.
The Reid Roundup
At the MLB All-Star Game break, I wrote that time was running out on St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker’s time with the franchise. In the 22 games following break, Walker batted .318 with a home run and eight RBIs. The turnaround raised his overall average from .206 to .241…Last week, when speaking on KMOX about Walker and other young players, manager Ollie Mormol said, “At some point, you have to make it impossible for the manager to take you out.” I think Walker was listening…18-year-old Victoria Mboko, who was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and lives in Montreal, defeated four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka in the final of the Canadian Open on Aug. 7, to earn the first WTA title of her career in front of a home crowd. By beating Osaka, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, and Sofia Kenin, Mboko became the second-youngest player to defeat four Grand Slam champions in a single tournament. The youngest was Serena Williams.