(July 28, 1996)
AUSTIN (AP) - It's another crazy Cowboy camp.
No Michael Irvin. Deion (we'll just call him by his first name
from now on. Like Pele you know who we mean) is driving around
in a $30,000 customized golf cart with stereo and spray mist for
a hot, sweaty face.
Thousands of people, presumably with nothing else to do in their
lives, show daily for the grinding practices under a merciless
central Texas sun. Sudden thought: Don't most people work hard
so they can afford air conditioning to escape these kind of conditions?
Yes, we have camp women back again, holding their children over
the "autograph alley" fence to get autographs.
We have the occasional gate-buster who has to be chased down by
security and hustled away.
Despite the Irvin scandal, and the Shante Carver situation, Dallas
fans still adore their football idols.
You either love 'em or hate 'em. Cowboys fans love their boys
enough to attend scrimmages in 100-degree heat on the day of rest.
"Image" is one of the big buzzwords of this training
camp at St. Edward's University. Have the Cowboys, the NFL's most
successful and glamorous team, been stained and tarnished by the
Irvin scandal and other problems which seem to surface almost
daily?
Nate Newton, the Cowboys behemoth philosopher, always has an answer.
"Sometimes it seems like what we do is never good enough,"
Newton said after a scrimmage. "A team isn't all choirboys
or thugs. You are going to have both. It's too bad that sometimes
the bad outweighs the good. Now look at Emmitt Smith and Troy
Aikman staying out there after practice signing autographs. For
people to say the Cowboys have a bad image and something is wrong
with us, that's a lie."
So that's Newton's Cowboy law of gravity. An apple falls off the
tree and gravity takes it to the ground. But there are still some
good things on the old Cowboy tree.
The Cowboys must mean a lot of things to a lot of people or they
wouldn't have such a rabid following. Perhaps, to get philosophical
like Sr. Newton, it gives them a winner to root for in their lives,
to heck with the blemishes.
Over 200 media representatives have visited camp so far to give
the Dallas fans the reports they want on their team. Sidelines
are crowded. When coach Barry Switzer gets on his box at the end
of each practice, you have to have the post-up ability of Charles
Barkley to get within hearing distance.
Just how popular are the Cowboys? Want an upcoming example?
The Cowboys are going to scrimmage the Houston Oilers Thursday
Aug. 8 in El Paso.
Jones has already sold some 50,000 tickets at $15 a pop. You can
do the math on what he will make.
The one thing you come away with watching the players toil in
full pads under the sun is that not a darned one of them is overpaid.
Playing under the conditions they do and the hits they have to
take, here's one coward who wouldn't play a week for Troy Aikman's
salary.
Adios from camp crazy Cowboy.