Another Cowboys season, another heartbreak

For the 27th year in a row, I will awake on the morning of the NFC Championship game without the familiar mix of excitement and nerves as I wonder if my Dallas Cowboys will advance to the Super Bowl.

Honestly, that mix of excitement and nerves about the Cowboys advancing to the Super Bowl is no longer so familiar because it’s been nearly three decades since I’ve experienced it.

Last Sunday, for the second consecutive year, the Cowboys’ season ended ignominiously on a “What the hell was that?” last play against the San Francisco 49ers. A few Cowboys fans mindlessly destroyed their TVs and burned their Dak Prescott jerseys.

Those less impulsive of us took our cues from two characters on the Island of Misfit Toys, from the “Rudolph the RedNosed Reindeer” animated classic, who thought that, once again, Santa Claus was passing them by.

Some, like me, were Charliein-the-Box, who said he was going to bed to start dreaming about next year. Others echoed Dolly the doll, who said, “I haven’t any dreams left to dream.”

And since I’m on the subject, let me pause and ask a question that has perplexed me longer than the Dallas Cowboys: Why is Dolly on the Island of the Misfit Toys? I understand a Charlie-in-the-Box not named Jack, a spotted elephant and a bird that can’t fly (who, despite this, gets tossed off Santa’s sleigh without an umbrella by an elf.) But what’s wrong with

Dolly?

But I digress, which I wouldn’t have done had the Cowboys won Sunday.

To be a Cowboys fan is to be like any fan of a sports franchise or collegiate team. You’re disappointed more often than satisfied. But it’s the mixture of uncertainty, fun and frustration that makes sports fascinating and maddening.

To be a Cowboys fan when the going was good, like during the Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson heydays, was glorious. It also made for insufferable Cowboys fans, which has made the team the most loved and hated sports franchise in the nation. It’s the most valuable sports franchise in the world worth ($8 billion, according to Forbes) and whatever their record, the Cowboys have unmatched TV drawing power.

But to be a Cowboys fan when they’re bad or just not quite good enough is to be mocked and to see the Cowboys treated as a laughingstock by other fans, most of whose teams haven’t come close to Dallas’ eight Super Bowl appearances and five Super Bowl wins.

There was a time when the Cowboys had the record for Super Bowl appearances and was tied for Super Bowl wins, but it’s been so long since they’ve played in one that Tom Brady, alone, has eclipsed those marks.

I’ve grown up with the Cowboys. We were both born in 1960. Because of them I’ve had my heart lifted as well as broken countless times — off the field as well as on.

In 1971, Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach spoke at an engagement in San Antonio. This was ahead of what would be his breakout season and Dallas’ first Super Bowl appearance.

My father saw him at the airport and asked for an autograph for me. Staubach, who will always be a god among men in my eyes, signed a small piece of notebook paper.

The next day, during class at school, I showed off the autograph to my friends. It was confiscated by a substitute teacher named Mrs. Baldwin. At the end of the day, I asked for it back, but she wouldn’t return it. That was the last time I saw her or my Staubach autograph.

During the 1980s, my aunt dated Dallas’ superstar running back Tony Dorsett, my all-time favorite football player. When she broke up with him, I don’t know how Tony felt, but I was devastated.

“How could you do this to Uncle Tony?” I asked my aunt.

“He wasn’t your uncle!” she answered.

“No thanks to you!” I said. As I write this, the Cowboys have fired five assistant coaches. Just what Santa Jerry needs to have Dak guide him to the Super Bowl, right?

Like Charlie-in-the Box, I’ll start dreaming about next year.