Reach of ‘America’s Team’ is alive and well
“America’s Team” was not coined by Jerry Jones or some sharp marketer in the Dallas Cowboys’ Tex Schramm days.
“America’s Team” was not a result of America’s fascination with J.R. Ewing and “Dallas,” among the most iconic of television shows, back when the medium ruled pop culture.
“America’s Team” did not result from the glitz and glamor of the Cowboy cheerleaders, who brought sex appeal to pro football.
“America’s Team” came from a much more innocent mind. In 1979, Bob Ryan, editor-inchief of NFL Films, having noticed Cowboy fans sprinkled all over visiting stadiums, included “America’s Team” in the title of the Cowboys’ 1978 highlight video.
The name stuck. Even if it wasn’t true.
Over the decades, the Pittsburgh Steelers clearly have the best fan support in visiting stadiums. The Green Bay Packers, from a normal town in a normal state, are the sentimental favorite in the NFL. The
New England Patriots, with their two-decades domination of pro football, are football’s Yankees.
But the name “America’s Team” stuck. And it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Cowboys indeed are America’s Team.
If you don’t believe it, watch the marquee games next season. Not because the Cowboys will necessarily be playing, but because former Cowboys will be announcing.
Dallas tight end Jason Witten announced his retirement Thursday after 15 seasons. The longestserving Cowboy will join
ESPN to become the color analyst of Monday Night Football.
Troy Aikman is the primary analyst for CBS.
Tony Romo is the primary analyst for Fox.
Now Witten is the primary analyst for ESPN.
Aikman at least spent a year plying his trade on Fox’s inferior games. Romo and now Witten have gone straight to main man on major networks, with no interval. Literally from the huddle to the best broadcast booth. From shoulder pads to coat and tie. From answering questions to asking questions.
All in a 20-year era, 1997-2017 when the Cowboys won as many playoff games (two) as the Jacksonville Jaguars did in 2017 alone.
It’s one thing for a network to hire a quarterback. It’s quite another for a network to hire a tight end. On a nonchampionship team.
Such is the power of the silver star.
No Broncos. No Patriots. No Giants or Eagles or Redskins. No Steelers or Packers. No Jets or Colts or Ravens.
The only non-Cowboy with the best analyst job at a network is NBC’s Cris Collinsworth, who toiled as a Cincinnati Bengal before going into local radio, HBO reporting, NBC’s and Fox’s pregame shows, some game analysis and finally, in 2009, replacing John Madden on Sunday Night Football. Twenty years after retirement.
Aikman, Romo and
Witten combined for one year of preparation before being handed the best job at a network.
This is not a criticism of anyone’s individual work. I think Aikman is fantastic. I thought Romo was pretty good in his rookie year at the mic. I have no clue how Witten will do.
But it has to be troubling to all the former NFL players trying to make it in the broadcast world— and all the current players who might seek the same path— that the majority of the plum jobs have gone to a tiny slice of the fraternity. White Dallas Cowboys with virtually, or literally, no experience.
You sort of understand it with Aikman. A threetime Super Bowl champion. A surefire Hall of Famer. A face and a voice
that America— not just America’s Team fans — knew well.
Romo was a lot more puzzling choice. A likable guy and a good quarterback. But he won two playoff games total and he’ll never be on the stage in Canton. Maybe Romo is the next Don Meredith, a good quarterback without championship pedigree who was ushered with minimal experience to the Monday Night Football booth and excelled. We’ll have to wait on that one.
But Witten? The Dallas Cowboy tight end could walk through any mall outside Dallas-Fort Worth and barely be recognized.
Witten has the fourthmost catches in NFL history (1,152), behind only Jerry Rice, Tony Gonzalez and Larry Fitzgerald. But I’ve got to admit. I didn’t know that until this week. Most football fans didn’t know it, either.
I could pick Witten out of a crowd because I’ve watched enough games and seen him stand on the sidelines, holding his helmet, and I’ve been in the Cowboy locker room enough to know his face.
But Monday Night Football? The reach of America’s Team is alive and well, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.