• SPEAKING OF SPORTS As impressive as it is, AT&T Stadium has not represented a great home field advantage for the Cowboys. Could that change this year?
Will this be the year of the Cowboys?
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Super Bowl ever. Of course, he had Aaron Rogers. Then again, he Manning brothers, Peyton and Eli, have a new television the Cowboys have Dak Prescott. To see him back this season is to show. It is just the two of them watching the broadcast of realize that the Cowboys are set at the most important position on Monday Night Football. They sit there and watch the game the field. together and crack jokes and tell stories and give us a glimpse at So far this season he has gone head to head with one of the best how a former professional athlete watches a game. young quarterbacks in the game, Justin Herbert, and the best old It is a great alternative to the regular broadcast, and in week quarterback ever. Dak performed great against Tom Brady and the one, a game that featured a team from Baltimore and one from Buccaneers to start the season and reminded us that the position Las Vegas, Arlington, Texas, was a topic of discussion. Since here is set for a long time. He is a great field general, a great locker the game was at the Raiders' new home in Las Vegas, Eli was room leader and another example of the Cowboys' success with remembering stories from the first ever game in the stadium that quarterbacks. he called, wait for it, “Jerry World.” I laughed when I realized Troy Aikman is the only signal caller the Cowboys have ever that even opposing players know the nickname of our stadium. taken with a first round pick. Let that sink in. The Cowboys Sept. 20, 2009 was somewhat forgettable for Cowboys fans as the have had Don Meredith, who signed a Giants came in and spoiled the stadium personal services contract with another debut. Eli threw for 330 yard, and the company owned by then owner Clint Giants beat the Cowboys 33-31. Murchison. He became a three-time Pro Eli recalled heading into the visitors Bowl player and was inducted into the locker room where an attendant had some John Rhadigan Cowboys Ring of Honor. Roger Staubach ice cold adult beverages. As the Giants was a 10th-round pick because he had a celebrated that night the attendant asked Naval commitment. He won two Super if Eli would sign the wall in his office. He THE COWBOYS HAVE a Bowls, was the MVP of one of them. He was the first to sign it, and over the years franchise QB in Dak Prescott. joined Dandy Don in the Ring of Honor many other players did the same. The That could be enough to take and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. punch line to the story was that years later Then there was Troy, who won three Eli came back, and the signatures had all them to the promised land. Super Bowls and made the Hall of Fame. been painted over. He speculated on the Tony Romo followed not too far behind Troy; he was an undrafted show that Jerry probably heard about the “signature wall” and free agent. While he did not lead the team to a Super Bowl, he was had it removed. Possibly, or maybe it was just time to remodel the a franchise quarterback that became the envy of other teams. visiting locker room. The stadium is a dozen years old, after all, Now there is Dak, a fourth-round pick out of Mississippi State and we like to keep things looking fresh around here. in 2016. He is a born leader and has a chance to do the things that Since that first game there have been more than 100 NFL games Tony didn’t but the others did. That is to take the Cowboys to the played at AT&T Stadium, counting Super Bowl XLV. The Cowboys promised land. OK, maybe it is not promised, but we expect it have won some 53% of their home games in the regular season around here. and are 3-1 in the playoffs. Those are respectable numbers, to It’s a quarterback league! The Cowboys have had some great be sure. But it is time to make this place a house of horrors for quarterbacks and, for that matter, some great broadcasters. Dandy opposing teams. Don, Troy and Tony have all called games at the highest level. The Cowboys appear poised and ready to do just that. They It is just another example of how being involved with the have the coach who won the only Super Bowl ever played in the Cowboys keeps Arlington in the national spotlight. stadium. Mike McCarthy led the Packers to a victory in that 50th Sports columnist John Rhadigan is an anchor for the Bally Sports Southwest television network.
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ARLINGTON TODAY • October 2021 • arlingtontoday.com
