Go Big D!

I visited my cousin Nick and his wife at their pizza place.

All day I have been battling a bad headache. I took a Tylenol-3 while I was there and had a cup of coffee with them. Caffeine makes all painkillers work faster. I brought them some kourambiedes that my mom made. She makes them really good - they literally melt in your mouth.

In a little while I am going to get my clothes ready for the Dallas / Eagles game tomorrow night. It's going to be around 30-35 degrees with winds 8 to 10 miles an hr. It's going to be a great game.

I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan. I've been a fan since I was a kid. I remember Roger Staubach throwing a bomb with less than a minute to go against the Minnesota Vikings. Tom Landry was the coach back then and he was a class act. He invented the now popular 4–3 defense, and the 'flex defense' system made famous by the 'Doomsday Defense' squads he created during his 29-year tenure with the Dallas Cowboys. His 29 consecutive years as the coach of one team are an NFL record, along with his 20 consecutive winning seasons.

After inventing the Flex Defense, he then invented an offense to score on it, reviving the man-in-motion and starting in the mid-1970s, the shotgun formation. But Landry's biggest contribution in this area was the use of 'preshifting' where the offense would shift from one formation to the other before the snap of the ball. The idea was to break the keys within the defense used to determine what the offense might do. An unusual feature of this offense was Landry having his offensive linemen get in their squatted pre-stance, stand up while the running backs shifted, and then go back down into their complete 'hand down' stance. The purpose of the 'up and down' movement was to make it more difficult for the defense to see where the backs were shifting (over the tall offensive linemen). While other NFL teams later employed shifting, few employed this 'up and down' technique as much as Landry.

How can I forget the 50 yard pass from Roger Staubach to Drew Pearson against the Minnesota Vikings in 75. The Cowboys won that playoff game 17 - 14. I was 11 years old!

During their big years of the 1970s, the Cowboys were led by such future Pro Football Hall of Fame members as quarterback Roger Staubach, tackle Rayfield Wright, defensive tackles Bob Lilly and Randy White, defensive back Mel Renfro and running back Tony Dorsett.

I also liked Jimmy Johnson. Johnson was the first and one of only three football coaches to lead teams to both a major college football championship and a Super Bowl.

In 1989, Jerry Jones, the new owner of the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys, a long-time friend and former University of Arkansas teammate of Johnson's, asked him to be the new head coach, replacing Tom Landry, who had coached the team since its beginning in 1960. Johnson was reunited with former Miami standout Michael Irvin, and in Johnson's first season as coach, the 1989 Cowboys went 1–15. Johnson, however, did not take long to develop the Cowboys into a championship-quality team.

Johnson served as head coach of the Cowboys from 1989 through 1993. He is one of only six men in NFL history (including Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, Mike Shanahan, and Bill Belichick) to coach consecutive Super Bowl winners, winning Super Bowl XXVII in 1992 and Super Bowl XXVIII in 1993. Although no head coach has won three consecutive Super Bowls, only one head coach has led his teams to three consecutive NFL championships on the field (Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers 1965–1967). Johnson led the Cowboys to a record of 10-1 in the regular season during the month of December from 1991 to 1993, also leading to a playoff record of 7-1 in those years. Johnson also had a record of 24-1 when running back Emmitt Smith ran for 100 yards or more in a regular-season game, and 5-0 in the postseason, setting the culture for winning and keeping the lead in those years from 1990 to 1993, winning two Super Bowls.

Buddy Ryan was coaching the Eagles at the time.

I bleed blue when it comes to football. I hope my Cowboys win tomorrow night. Regardless of whether they win or lose, we will have fun.



Of course, I will be wearing my Emmitt Smith jersey under my jacket.

Smith won three Super Bowl rings and rushed for over 100 yards in two of those games, Super Bowl XXVII (108 yards and a touchdown, and six receptions for twenty-seven yards), and Super Bowl XXVIII (132 yards and two touchdowns, and four receptions for twenty-six yards). Smith received the Super Bowl MVP award for Super Bowl XXVIII, becoming the only Cowboys running back ever to win that award. He also scored two touchdowns in Super Bowl XXX.

In 1995, Smith passed Tony Dorsett's Dallas franchise record with rushing for 100 yards in each of the first four games of a season.

In his last season, Smith became the oldest player in NFL history ever to throw his first touchdown pass, throwing a 21-yard touchdown strike on a halfback option play. It was the only passing attempt of his career.

I won't wear my Dallas hat. I survived breast cancer - I don't want to get beat up by some drunk Eagles fan!