The Dallas Cowboys: The Outrageous History of the Biggest, Loudest, Most Hated, Best Loved Football Team in America by Joe Nick Patoski
Reviewed by Joe T.
First things first, as I write this short little review of Joe Nick Patoski’s history of America’s Team, The Dallas Cowboys, there are some things you should know. Number one thing to understand is that I hate football. Can’t stand it. The second thing is that, were I to like football, I’d be a Houston Oilers fan, but, as there is no Oilers anymore, I’m kinda stuck. However, as a Texan raised by Texans, football is in my blood.
This book is epic. It opens with the unveiling of the new Cowboys Stadium in an introduction appropriately entitled “Everything’s Bigger In Texas” before jumping back two centuries to 1841 and the creation of the city of Dallas. From then on out, alongside the history of the Cowboys, the rise of the Metroplex is also mirrored. Two histories in one.
The book is also two biographies intertwined with the dual histories of a city and a team. The first is Clint Murchison, Jr., “The Boy Who Loved Football.” The son of a successful oilman, he worshiped football and simultaneously with Lamar Hunt brought the professional game to Texas. For three seasons Murchison’s Cowboys battled Hunt’s AFL league’s Texans for the heart and soul of Dallas and Texas until Hunt blinked and moved his team to Missouri to become the Kansas City Chiefs. From then on out the Cowboys, coached by the deeply religious Tom Landry, were the only team that mattered.
The story of the sixties, seventies, and eighties is the story of how an offbeat team of misfits became the team that owned the world, how Dallas went from the backwards metropolis that killed the president to the star of American television to ground center of the margarita and modern commerce.
Which leads us to the second biography enfolded in these pages. If the Cowboys were larger than life, their owner and coach were still anchored in the past. Murchison, a libertine turned born again Christian, and Landry, a strict disciplinarian and always devout Christian, were the past and outrageous Arkansas native Jerry Jones was the future.
As interesting as the book was before this point, the moment Jerry Jones becomes the owner of the Cowboys the book comes alive. It’s as if THIS is the story that Patoski wanted to tell. Unfortunately, after a couple hundred of pages of the Jones era, all the endless controversy becomes repetitive and the portrait of modern football that is painted reminds me of why I never became a fan of the game.
The book is an exciting read, and since it’s written by the author of the superb Willie Nelson: An Epic Life I’m not surprised. Even as someone who doesn’t care for football, I was caught in the drama and the story of a team that I don’t care for (like I said, I grew up in an Oilers household, I’d probably be excommunicated if I showed any kind of support for “America’s Team.”) If you dig football (and this is Texas so I’m sure you do) this book has your name written all over it.
A great read.
BookPeople 