America's Game, America's Team. 70's edition.

America's Game is the NFL Flims collection of the Superbowl winners and what they went through that year. I have owned the Cowboys set for years now and recently decided to rewatch them. Either you never saw the DVD, weren't alive for the real thing or maybe forget. So I have put together some memorable quotes that either somehow relate to the current team, important to franchise history, or are just a classic.

1971 America's Game.

Story lines:

• Duane Thomas wants more money
• Duane Thomas gets traded
• Dallas has two quarterbacks.
• Duane Thomas comes back
• Dallas alternates quarterbacks every play against the Bears.
• Off to a rough 4-3 start.

Landry couldn't decide on a QB and general comments towards him.

Sometimes coach tried to over think football.

He was a player and a very bright guy who knew an awful lot about football but he was not a psychiatrist, and he wasn't a real strong motivator.

We could tell he really cared about us. I mean he didnt show emotion a lot.

It was like a business. You receive your information. There was no pep talks or anything of that.

They knew they would win.

Being on the roll that we were, we were now a new team. We were so determined that, just looking back on it, we were gonna beat the vikings in Minnesota.

We still had that tag "Dallas can't win the big game" And the only way to get the monkey off our back was to win it all.

If they scored they were gonna have to crawl over dead bodies. That's how we felt. That may be the ingredient we lacked some of those prior years.

We were just mentally there. We finally had arrived. We were in a real tough mental state.

You know, where you know you know that you know that you know.

The play of the Game.

It just sent a message And Bob was probably the most frustrated defensive guy the year before we lost.

So he was ready to play that football game. We shut everbody down after that.

I finally got bob because he made a turn my way. It was a huge.. I cannot even begin to tell you. It was a relief. Like Rolaids. It's spelled R-E-L-I-E-F.

The Win.

I still have that picture of him smiling.

They had to struggle for so long. I mean, 11 years of my life, I struggled with all my teammates. And we finally won it. And it was just like being free.

We finally did it.

Its a sense of accomplishment that can't -- like i haven't anything to replace it yet.

We won.

Every superbowl dallas has won -- every last one -- there's been controversy. The controversy was with Duane Thomas. the controversy was with Thomas Henderson. The controversy was with what? Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones. And they won. And Switzer.

But Dallas Has never won without controversy.

What if?

I fully expected you(Thomas) to be the next Jim Brown.

In the beginning of the 1977 America's Game about the Cowboys they talk about losing to the Steelers in SBX and the Rams in the playoffs was because of no running game. What if Duane Thomas had stuck around with a good attitude? Would they have won more before beating the Broncos?

1977 America's Game

Story lines:

• Dallas trades for 1st pick - Tony Dorsett
• Thomas Henderson is mad
• Dorsett hasn't become starter

The rookie that changed a team.

My whole thing was I am a runner. I run to daylight. I run to what I see. And it always is not gonna be like you draw it up Xs and Os.

We were running practice. Our defense is playing the mock defesne of the cardnials I broke all the way back across back behind the center. "It will never in 100 years ever break like that stay onside." Im saying I got to run to what I see. "I rolled slant 24 and it broke back just like he said it would never break in 100 years and I go 77 yards for a touchdown."

Yeah I was small but I always used to say, "A thin piece of leather well put together."

You weren't ever just handed a job, you had to earn it.

Tony was a power back. Not many people know that we ran him in third and 1 an awful lot. He was blessed with a chassis that was powerful to pick up short yardage.

He could start from a stop and go ful speed after the second step which is incredible. He had that vision Great vision. And he could also see into the future. on plays that were designed to go to the right, he would bend it all the way back to the other side. He could just see where the hole was gonna be.

You see him for the first time, you're wondering, "What? This little guy?"

A quarterback to cornerback to All Pro Safety.

Charlie is the smartest football player I ever played with. He had to be because he had to me the damn play.

Coach Landy came to me and ask me to play corner. And I wasn't a very good corner. I didn't have the speed to play corner. Sometimes it just didn't matter how smart you are or how much technique you used. I just couldnt play out there because I didn't have the raw speed to play the cornerback spot. And I was abused. Ive been exposed to a lot of hell at the cornerback spot. I got booed at Texas Stadium. And , you know, that was hard.

And I got beat for touchdown passes in games to where when I'd got to practice the next day, I'd have to sit in the room with the offensive team, and Coach Landry would point out that I lost the game. And he was real blunt about those sort of things. So it taught me how to deal with adversity.

Coach Landry got up in front of the team. Of course this is the game I lost the game for them. and He said to the team, "Look, Charlie had a tough day yesterday." and he said "But if I'd had 45 guys that tried as hard as he did, I wouldnt have lost a game in my whole career of coaching."

He paid his dues at cornerback its amazing that it didnt ruin his psyche.

There's no one player I have more respect for, what he sacrificed for this game in the NFL to play it as long as he played than Charlie Waters.

The original Eighty-Eight.

He was a leader both on and off the field. He not only did it vocally but he showed by example. He did both. You dont have many guys that do that. He was our man.

What he brought to the cowboys was every week he vomited on the field. You know, He thew up. And I would throw up to If i was as skinny as he was. But he'd walk over to Tom Landry on a timeout and just throw up.

You trusted him. You knew he was going to give up his body over the middle. and he was a twig. He weighed 160 pounds 150 maybe. He was a guy you could count on.

Everybody on the defensive side of the ball just loved Drew Pearson because they know how tough he was as far as performing when you had to perform.

The Coach.

If you really wanted to get a picture of Tom Landry, it would be in Thousand Oaks, California, on that two story apparatus with a bullhorn. That's about as close emotionally that you got to him.

Coach Landry ran our team like a corporation. We had goals. We had methods to obtain the goals. We had critical points to obtain the methods that obtained the goals.We had the individial exact details to perform the critical points to perform the methods to perform the goal. And the goal was to win the Superbowl.

After starting 5-0

He was more of a disciplinarian than he ever was and didn't let us get away with anything. His critiques on the games after the games we played. We would win the game 30 points or so. And we'd go in that meeting on monday afternoon and it'd feel like we lost. He'd beat us down. He would never let us feel comfortable. With what we had accomplised.

Other Quotes:

That's what zero means, is nothing. And these guys got no publicity whatsoever. And they prided themselves on never being interviewed, never did any appearances as a Dallas Cowboy never bringing attention to themselves. And rarely would the coaches ever mention them.

They relished being the zero club. and not have people talk about them.

Fight with Manster.

He picked me up. He stuffed me in my locker. Then he had me pinned to the floor. And I said to him while he had me pinned to the floor, "If you let me up Im gonna kick your ass." Which is crazy.

A great trip down memory lane, what will the memorable quotes will the 90's teams have for us? What does this mean for the current team?

My thoughts:

• How special was that Charlie Waters guy?
• Will we remember the current 88 the same way as the original?
• Will DeCastro make this line the new Zero club?
• All that process talk reminded me of another former player turned Head Coach of the Dallas Cowboys.