Dallas Week

Dallas Week. The Dallas Cowboys. Just thinking about, just saying the words raises certain visceral memories, euphoric and miserable. I knew, just by growing up in Bethesda, drinking the Bethesda water, and eating the Bethesda food that the Dallas Cowboys were evil, horrible, smug, pompous, jerk a-holes who were friends with Darth Vader and the whole Evil Empire.

Dad: "Dallas week used to mean anticipation of smash mouth, take no prisoner football. Now it means hoping to avoid national embarrasment. I knew I would always hate Dallas after
Roger Staubach’s final colossal comeback in December 1979. Riggins has just broken off a huge run for a touchdown -- maybe a 65 yard run from scrimmage to put the Skins ahead with just a few minutes to go. Staubach rallies Dallas from a 34-21 deficit in the last two minutes, capped by a 7-yard touchdown pass to Tony Hill that clinches the NFC East. It was a fade route. I still can't believe he was able to so thoroughly snooker our DB. After the game Dallas defensive end Harvey Martin tossed a funeral wreath into Washington’s locker room. After the season, Riggins retires. He said the comeback broke his spirit. He sat out the 1980 season, but returned for Gibbs first in 1981. He famously said, in explaining his return:

'I'm bored; I'm broke; and I'm back.'"

Steve: "I knew I hated Dallas when Jack Kent Cooke hired Norv Turner. Norv was the hot, young, innovative offensive genius, and he was heralded as the guy who was going to turn around our brief misfortunes. I should have been thrilled at the prospect of an exciting new team, predicated on the same explosive offense that Dallas rode to those Super Bowls, but I wasn't. I was trapped emotionally, because we had just stolen from the enemy, and therefore any success we were to experience in the following years would be cheapened by the fact that Norv was a Cowboy. Like, we had to consult the Cowboys to figure out how to win, because we couldn't figure it out on our own.

My fears were realized when we started signing all those old Cowboys players, like our center, Gesic and Alvin Harper and some other guy. I began to hate Dallas at that point, because the wins seemed tarnished in some way. It was no longer good enough to win; I discovered that I cared about how the Redskins win. In retrospect, I wanted homegrown players, and homegrown coaches, so that when the Skins finally did reach the upper echelons (which still hasn't happened), it would be that much more rewarding. I never invested myself emotionally in those Redskins teams, I think, because they were trying to mimic the Cowboys. That made me hate the Cowboys, because they prevented me from unconditionally loving my own team."

In '86, the Skins started 5-0, and then went to Dallas and lost to Hershel Walker and Tony Dorsett, badly. It felt like getting popped in the nose. Weeks later in November, when the Cowboys came to Washington, I had to go to a stupid birthday party at Corner Kick. When you're 8, you can't really tell everyone to go to hell, I'm watching the game like you can when you are 31. So I missed a lot of what was going on. But when soccer ended for pizza time, and I found out that the Skins were kicking royal ass, I started jumping up and down like it was my birthday and I just received a pet puppy.

Then there was that 1989 game. The Skins were having a mediocre year, but the Cowboy were awful at 0-11. They played the first ever Sunday night game at RFK and of course the Skins played like crap and gave up 150 yards to some dude who went to school at Churchill High School. And of course the Skins ended up missing the playoffs by one game.

In 1991, the Skins were undefeated, 11-0, hosting Jimmy Johnson and his upstart team of plucky cowboys. They scored on a hail mary, in the second or third quarter, on 4th down, and ended up winning by a field goal. Ruined the perfect season.

Two seasons later, I went to my first Cowboys game at RFK--a Monday Night Football opener. We beat the shit out of them, but went on to have a 4-12 season.

I remember almost all of them, including that cold Sunday in December when Steve, me, and Cody were just hanging out the house, watching Heath Shuler defeat the Cowboys in Dallas for the sweep, throwing Dominoes pizza crusts across the living room to Cody.

I almost remember sitting in Touchdown's bar in Ann Arbor Michigan in November 1997 watching the Redskins get a 9 point lead in the 4th quarter before Troy Aikman and an embarrasingly pathetic prevent defense gave it away. I remember two years later, being in that same bar, watching them give up a 3 touchdown lead to the Cowboys and storming out of there and walking home as Raghib Ismail entered the end zone in overtime.

Ah, the rivarly. So bitter, so sweet. So gut churning, so glorious.

Here's an incredible entry from the Wash. Post Sports Bog about how Dexter Manley (above) basically went BEZERKER against Dallas in the Jan. 1983 Championship game.

"If you've ever heard Dexter Manley talk, you know that it can be a sometimes baffling yet thrilling experience. His answer to one question will quickly veer to something else entirely, then something else, then something else, then a plug for Certified Building Services, then a sharp dash of pathos, then an aside about Joe Gibbs, and then finally he'll be interrupted and asked something else after 15 minutes or so.

So trying to piece together two of Manley's radio interviews this week, both on ESPN 980, is a bit of a job. But let's get to some highlights anyhow. Like, here was when he was asked about knocking out Danny White during the 1982 NFC championship game at RFK, which remains one of the indelible images of this Dallas-Washington rivalry.

"I could tell as he was going down, he was whining like a baby, and I knew at that point in time this guy is done," Manley said on The Sports Fix. "He'd never play another down, and I knew that the Redskins' fan base was all excited and happy and we were on our way. But then we had to keep coming back, because they brought in a guy named Gary Hogeboom. I couldn't pronounce his name at the time. I was pronouncing his name sort of wrong, and then Joe Theismann kept telling me the correct name. You know, his name is Hogeboom. I didn't know how to pronounce the guy's name at first."

From making Danny White whine like a baby to being schooled on the pronunciation of Hogeboom; that's a Dexter Manley interview. If I can switch around here, Manley's teammate Darryl Grant was on the John Thompson Show later in the day, and he was asked about the defense during that game.

"Basically the scheme, to sum it up, was just attack," Grant said. "We ran some stunts, we ran some twists, but it was just penetration, get to the quarterback, put as much pressure, knock him around. And Dexter came through there on a twist and knocked him out. Cold. That's the kind of aggression we went into the game with. We felt they had no respect for us, they totally disrespected us, and we were focused when we went in there. It was all about beating the Cowboys, man. We weren't gonna be denied."

Anyhow, Kevin Sheehan also asked Manley about his pre-game locker room behavior before that game. Apparently he had gotten sort of excited.

"That was my second year in the league, and of course I think Tex Schramm had sort of built the Cowboys as America's football team: the star, the uniforms," Manley said. "And I was just sort of a young guy, straight out of Oklahoma State. I felt like I could compete. I always sort of disliked the Cowboys once I became a Redskin, because I understood that just goes with the territory. And so I was shooting my mouth off during the week, and so now it's time to back it up.
"And so now it's game day. You know, and so you can do all that stuff in the locker room, but also you've got to go perform on the field. And I was just so pumped. To be quite frank with you, I read a book about Thomas Hollywood Henderson, and I didn't know anything about it, but he said it sort of gets your adrenaline flowing. I took maybe five Sudafed tablets before the game. I took Sudafed tablets and I just sort of lost it in the locker room.

"I remember there was a big coffee maker machine there and I just went and picked it up and slammed it on the blackboard. It was, like, barbaric stuff. But you know, I knew that once you do that, you play a game in the locker room, and then you have to play a game on the field as well, and I sort of couldn't control it."

(What was it like to play next to Dexter? "It was awesome," Grant said, "because you knew Dexter was gonna bring that heat. He'd be woofing and hollering and being all excited and fired up every play, ready to go, and just would be mauling his man. Just maul him. I just watched him maul guys.")

Both of these players were asked about Dallas Week now, and both said it still matters, which is exactly what you want them to say.

"It is a big week; I think it's a big week for the current players and the non-active players," Manley said. "It's something still in my craw that I just dislike the Cowboys. I don't quite understand, you've got a fan base here, Washington people here, and most all these people, they be telling me they're rooting for the Cowboys. This is a great tradition here in their own backyard and they sort of neglect the Redskins....You of course are rooting for the guys to go out there and play well and play with a lot of heart and represent the Redskins and the guys who was there before them, and so I'm hoping that they'll do that on Sunday."
"What does this particular game mean? It's big," Grant said. "It's a lot of tradition, a lot of history. At one point this was the biggest rivalry in the NFL, possibly all of sports. Man, this is the week."

(Grant will turn 50 on Sunday; he said his birthday present is "gonna be a win against Dallas. That's all I'm asking for. It's simple.")

Manley was asked whether he could give a pre-game talk to this year's team, if necessary, and he said sure. Which I don't doubt. So long as he doesn't hand out cold medication.
"It's like defending America," he said, summarizing his talking points. "You've got to take the fight to the enemy, and the Cowboys will be the enemy....I think that what's important is that those guys have to have the courage to go out there and persevere and sacrifice, not only for themselves but for this great generation that's here, this legacy that the Redskins have been here since 1932. So many things I could say that these guys can do. Can't be frustrated, just got to be determined."

Manley also appeared on the John Thompson Show, leading Doc Walker to tell stories of Dexter smashing up a locker room at Texas Stadium before a Cowboys game. Doc asked him whether that was his top pre-game psycho moment.

"I think so," Manley said. "No, I take that back, that's probably the second one. The first one, I'll never forget....We had just beat the Minnesota Vikings in the Metrodome and then some reporter asked me about Mike Ditka. It was on a Monday night in San Francisco, he threw bubble gum at a woman in San Francisco, you remember that? Okay so a reporter asked me about this, I said Mike Ditka's a bum, something like that. He came back and said Manley's got the IQ of a grapefruit. So I took that real personal. I didn't think a coach of his caliber, an NFL coach would sort of get into this tit for tat with a player.

"And that [had] a lot of validity. Not that I had the IQ of a grapefruit, but I had a learning disability, I was sort of living this secret life, and he sort of exposed me. People made fun of me. And I sort of made a commitment on that day. I remember, that's the first time Joe Gibbs came to my back for me, and he sort of stood up and said something and we had a team meeting. You should ask those guys. I threw chairs. Joe Gibbs was up talking in the meeting, and I just kind of lost it and then I went out and played a game against the Bears and I challenged Mike Ditka to come on the field."

Jeez, can you imagine the Web traffic that episode would have generated?"

***

This Sunday, the Cowboys will be the better team. They have a much more powerful offense, but it doesn't mean the Skins can't hang and maybe steal it late. The Cowboys are missing their starting right tackle and Ken Hamlin at safety. Because of this, because of the rivalry, and because of regained confidence from last week, I think this game will be decided by no more than 1 touchdown.