AUSTIN, Texas (KRT) - The campus is hopping and practice is packed, despite
another uncomfortable 100-degree day. It's a festive setting fit for the
Super Bowl champions. From Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith on down, players
are treated like rock stars.
The Cowboys, a dynasty in the making, have won three of the last four Super
Bowls, the first team to do that. Aikman and Smith are the two best players
in the league and two of its best citizens.
But there's trouble in paradise.
This has been an offseason not to celebrate, but to apologize. The 'Boys
have been champions on the field for a good deal of the '90s, but they are
fortunate trophies are not handed out for off-field behavior - instead a
few of them are handed probation by judges and suspensions by the league.
The carefully cultivated Cowboys image is being tarnished. Other teams have
problems, too, but nobody else is the Super Bowl champion.
"As an old Cowboy and Cowboys fan, there is a history and image,"
said former Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach. "You want to make sure
if people don't like you, it's because you are a great team, and not a real
dislike because of arrogance or behavior pattern. Dallas has shown a little
bit of arrogance I wasn't proud of. In sports today, there seems to be a
lack of humility."
The perception: The problems began on the night of March 4 when police found
potential Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin in a room at the Residence
Inn in Irving with two topless dancers, former teammate Alfredo Roberts
and enough drugs that Irvin would eventually plead no-contest to felony
cocaine possession and be given four years probation, 800 hours of community
service and a $10,000 fine.
The reality: The problems for this Cowboys team started before Irvin's poor
judgment. It included All-Pro tackle Erik Williams nearly killing himself
in 1994 while driving drunk and demolishing his car; drug suspensions last
year for defensive tackle Leon Lett and cornerback Clayton Holmes; and,
stories of the "White House," a house reportedly leased by players
near their practice facility where, regardless of their marital status,
they could take women without wives or girlfriends finding out.
So far, five players from last year's team already have or will be suspended
for violating the NFL substance-abuse policy. A few months after he nearly
died, Williams and a friend were arrested on charges of sexually assaulting
a 17-year old topless dancer at Williams' home. The woman's civil case was
dropped after Williams reportedly agreed to a financial settlement. A grand
jury decided not to indict Williams and his friend.
The out-of-control environment goes back to 1983, when things were so bad
the Cowboys hired former FBI agent Larry Wansley to serve as the director
of counseling services. That came at a time when a drug investigation linked
several players to cocaine, prompting the derisive nicknames, "South
America's Team," and "The Cocaine Cowboys." And that was
years after the drug problems of Hollywood Henderson.
A few hours before the Cowboys completed another round of two-a-days, Dallas'
maverick owner Jerry Jones is sitting in his dorm room, in spartan surroundings
more appropriate for a resident advisor - except for the big-screen TV -
trying to put the Irvin situation in historical perspective.
"In terms of the degree of the violation, this pales in comparison
with a lot of things that have happened in sports," he said. "I
can tell you right now it doesn't even go in the top 10 in the history of
the Dallas Cowboys."
Jones wasn't about to reveal his top 10 and submit it to David Letterman.
But the Cowboys have had their share of incidents in their 36-year history.
Fearful he was minimizing the Irvin affair, Jones clarified his comments,
claiming his rankings were based only on the legal outcome. Irvin will not
go to jail if he successfully completes his probation. "Perception-wise,
maybe arguably it's as negative a thing as we have had in the organization,"
Jones said. "There is a responsibility to lead by example. That's one
of the roles of leadership and that's one of the areas where Michael dropped
the ball."
When Jones bought the Cowboys in 1989, team president Tex Schramm remained
with the organization for a few months. Jones and Schramm were on a collision
course, however, and Schramm was gone within a few months. Still, it's not
surprising how they explained their team's problems from different eras:
Each pointed to the visibility of the team making matters seem worse.
Schramm in 1987: "I don't think what's happened here is a great deal
different than with other clubs. The biggest difference is anything associated
with the Cowboys becomes very high-profile."
Jones in 1996: "Certainly ... (we) get more visibility than any other
sports team, or for that matter, most entities in this area. And so it's
not surprising to me that sometimes the negative things are highly visible."
Staubach, who runs a successful real estate company and still lives in Dallas,
said, "I think the problems are worse today. There is more money involved
and you have a greater chance to get in trouble. I think the Cowboys, with
their success, get them to another level of temptation. Who is mature and
who can be influenced? It goes back to the value system. It's amazing that
these guys are married and off doing these crazy things. Why is that?"
The Cowboys will be without Irvin for the first five games this season.
And they will miss him. But the negative publicity and embarrassment he
has bought to the organization might be even worse than not having him on
the field.
"What happened with Michael is not unique to the Cowboys," said
coach Barry Switzer, forced out in Oklahoma seven years ago after a rash
of player problems. "It's what happens in our society today. When I
came out of Oklahoma, I recognized that. It's a national epidemic. Kids
were faced with choices they never had before. It happens to every organization
at every level, collegiate and professional. We all have guys that make
mistakes. Stupid, dumb mistakes. They know the consequences. But yet some
live on the edge and they don't think it's going to happen to them."
Safety Bill Bates, a Cowboy since 1983, has played for all three owners
and all three coaches in team history. "I try to live my life the way
I believe a man should," he said. "It's just amazing that people
have not learned, a few people have not learned, that the NFL is very serious
about drugs, very serious about alcohol, very serious about correcting it.
It's not like it was in the past, when you could get away with a lot of
stuff."
In Dallas, there are the Cowboys and everything else. They live in a fishbowl
environment that can be claustrophobic. Every move is chronicled and analyzed.
Players complain about a lack of privacy. Dr. Don Beck of the National Values
Center in Denton, a suburb of Dallas, doesn't buy it.
"You can't have it both ways," he said. "They can enjoy the
high visibility so they can endorse products and make more money, but they
can't turn around and complain when they are caught with their pants down,
literally. What makes them smile will make them cry. They must accept that
and can't complain."
The lack of privacy led to the "White House," a place where players
could host parties and escape the public eye. "One individual said
regarding that, 'We were trying to do the wrong thing right,' " Jones
said. "There is nothing acceptable about that."
Jones says he recognizes that one off-the-field problem is "one too
many, that's way too many," but points out "that when you have
the kind of visibility that we have had, it is convenient to forget about
Emmitt and dwell on Michael's incident."
Aikman, who acknowledges the Cowboys are no longer looked at as a class
organization, was asked if the players ever get together and say enough
is enough.
"We do it every week," he joked.
"There is so much attention drawn to this team, things are made out
to be bigger than what they are," Aikman said. "Other teams -
and I don't keep score - have had significant problems throughout the offseason
and in previous years. And we've had our share, too."
Aikman said he hasn't been put in a position of apologizing for the organization,
but he's been doing a lot of explaining.
"I don't think this football club is necessarily unique in regard to
some of the things that have taken place," he said. "We need to
realize there is a little bit more attention drawn to some of the things
that happen here because of the success we've had on the football field."
Jones counters the argument that the Cowboys' image has been spoiled by
pointing to the good deeds done by Aikman and Smith and many others. Indeed,
the Cowboys and the NFL have gotten a lot of mileage out of Smith receiving
his college degree in May.
"I didn't look at it as an opportunity to bring in some positive things
for the Cowboys," Smith said. "It was something I had been working
on anyway."
As the Cowboys' character has been relentlessly attacked since the Super
Bowl, Jones and Smith and others have defended it. You don't win championships
without top-character people. "My perception is some people look at
us as a team that is cocky, arrogant, a team that has a lot of trouble and
dissension within the organization," Smith said. "And a lot of
that stuff is not true."
Aikman admitted that the problems of a few tend to smudge the image of the
entire organization. "I recognize that we are in this together. If
we are going to win together, we are going to lose together. You talk about
all those team concepts, then the actions of one, right or wrong, certainly
rubs off on the rest of us," he said.
"I really feel this football team is very talented. I really feel the
reason the team has been as successful as it has been, is it is really made
up of some quality people. And there are probably people out there that
laugh when they read that. But it's true. Unfortunately in society, so much
of the negative is publicized. But some of the good things that are done,
they aren't nearly as interesting to read."
Smith insists that saying "America loves a champion" is wrong.
"Everybody loves a different champion," he said. "People
are tired of looking at the Dallas Cowboys win."
So many Cowboys want to point the blame at the media for blowing things
out of proportion, but nobody denies some players stepped over the line.
"Those things happen in life," Smith said. "And what a lot
of people fail to realize is we are human beings first and football players
second. We are people and we do make mistakes. If you are going to put us
on a pedestal, don't expect us not to make a mistake. That's almost impossible."
Jones believes the Cowboys will endure. "The Cowboys have been proven
to be larger and broader and to have more substance and depth than any individual's
frailties," he said.
Jones was asked if he had any reason to believe Irvin was involved in drugs
before the Residence Inn incident. "All I know is Michael has never
tested positive to this day," he said. "His psychiatric and pyschological
examinations don't show him in any way to have a substance dependency. And
they have been done in the last six months."
He believes Irvin can do some good by using his forum on a high-profile
team to be an "example of how to make a mistake and come back,"
and say and do the right things while everybody is watching, rather than
other athletes who lament 20 years later "how they messed their career
up."
The Cowboys didn't come up with the America's Team tag. But they haven't
done anything to discourage it, either. "We want to acknowledge that
we can do better," Jones said.
(c) 1996, New York Daily News. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information
Services.