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Get Dallas Cowboys news on your cellIs the Team of the '90s tarnished?
10:48 AM Mon, Sep 17, 2007 | Permalink
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February 2008
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I stayed awake on the plane ride home long enough to skim USA Today's sports section. One sentence in Michael McCarthy's Sports on TV column, which focused on the reaction to Spygate, caught my eye. Former coaches turned analysts Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer admitted to similar stunts during their sideline days. Hmmmm. Should Sheriff Goodell confiscate the Lombardi trophies Jerry snuggles with in the Papa John's commercial? |
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Comments
Posted by Brian M., Atlanta @ 10:55 AM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
This is just furthering the point that EVERYBODY, well anyone who cared about winning on a consistent basis anyhow, has done this at one point in time.
Posted by Jim @ 10:56 AM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
I have no doubt that spying has been a part of every team but most just aren't as obvious as Belicheat, that was just stupid! Tell Jerry to keep his trophies where they are...under his pillow!
Posted by PaulC @ 11:05 AM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
How would Barry know? I guess Jimmy had to tell him. Barry couldn't find his own way to Emmitt's domino games.
Posted by John in NC @ 11:20 AM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
Barry admitted to using similar tactics at Oklahoma and Jimmy did the same for his tenure at Miami. Both implied that they did not employ the same tactics on the pro level. We are still the TEAM OF THE 90'S!!!
Posted by Habib @ 11:28 AM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
I do not belive those two clowns could be as brazen as Belicheat was.Tell those two has beens to shut up and try to entertain us by saying things like how bout them cowboys and we got a job to do and we are gonna do it baby.
Posted by Vox Veritas @ 11:41 AM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
Not unless it can be determined that rules in existence at the time were broken. I'm not sure many (including you and McCarthy, Tim) get what this issue is about. It's not against the rules to steal signals, per se. How you steal the signals is the core issue. "Similar" =/= "same". That said, Switzer, Johnson and the Cowboys should be fined, and the Cowboys should forfeit picks if it's found that they broke rules in order to gain a competitive advantage. Additionally, Switzer and Johnson should be permanently banned from the NFL for besmirching the integrity of the game that we all love so dearly. Breaking the rules to gain a competitive advantage is cheating, and if you look at the bigger picture, the Patriots were not only cheating the other teams from a competitive standpoint, they were cheating their business partners.
Posted by JR @ 11:53 AM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
I think the difference is, prior to the season, the Commish warned all the teams to knock it off and one team, the Patriots, decided to test him.
Posted by Brandon @ 11:57 AM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
They admitted to doing it in college, not with the boys. Actuall Barry stated he asked the coaching staff he adopted from Jimmy if it was done with Jimmy and they said no, so he didn't do it either.
Posted by Saint Jimmy @ 1:43 PM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
This is why you print media guys are becoming useless. Ya'll take everything out of context, twist it up, and spin it to make it fit your own purposes. Like the TO and Romo thing. Everyone failed to mention that TO picked McNabb and Manning because the question was "If you can't pick Romo...." So now the print is saying that the Cowboys cheated when Barry clearly made it obvious that since Jimmy and his staff didn't have to cheat then he didn't either.
Posted by dave j @ 1:55 PM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
First of all, it is not illegal to steal signals. The NFL wrote a letter last year to NOT USE VIDEO TAPE to try to steal signs. That's why Belichick and the Patriots got fined.
Second, Marty Schottenheimer told Jerry Jones at a league meeting that the entire league knew the Cowboys' offensive signals during the early '90s and what plays the team was going to run and they still couldn't stop them. What does that tell you about how good the Cowboys were?
Posted by Sly McSlyville @ 2:02 PM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
Vox - so you join in with the Cowboys fans who say that the Patriots should have astericks placed beside their SB wins? Then I guess if proven the Cowboys did the same thing, then astericks are in order for those SB wins too.
Posted by Vox Veritas @ 5:06 PM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
Sly... was I unclear? Talk of asterisks is stupid, there are no aterisks in football.
Of course the Patriots' Super Bowls should be remembered by fans as tainted, as should at least two of the 49ers' Super Bowls (by virtue of the extra-contractual bonuses given to players in the late 80's, and attempts to circumvent the salary cap involving the contracts of several players in the mid- to late-90's, and all the cheating in between) and at least one, possibly both of the Broncos' Super Bowl wins by virtue of their salary cap shenanigans. And the Cowboys' Super Bowl wins in the 90's should be remembered the same way, should it be proven that they cheated in order to gain a competitive advantage. But official asterisks? That's fanboi talk. The NFL isn't in the business of reminding people about the shady deals that go on within it's hallowed halls.
Posted by Hanker @ 6:36 PM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
I am old enough to remember when George Allen would rent 2 rooms on the 2nd floor at the old days inn on Forest Ln, to spy on the Cowboys. The Hotel Balcony had a clear shot of the practice feild at the old pratice facility. Everyone at one time or another has cheated.
Posted by Mr Rogers @ 10:16 PM Mon, Sep 17, 2007
I did not see the Switzer/Johnson exchange, but according to some bloggers, the coaches admitted to cheating in college, not in the NFL. You want an asterisk for that, then maybe add an asterisk to Landry's SuperBowls because Too Tall Jones cheated on a math quizz in high school. Asterisk for the jets' too-Namath cheated on ALL his girls.
The 90s Cowboys didn't need to cheat, they just needed to show up. They won ALL their playoff games during their SB years by AT LEAST 10 points. The Pats, however, won their SBs by a COMBINED 9 points. And they watered their frozen field before an Indy AFC championship, so on. The Pats DID need to cheat to win.