I just got back from the Dallas Cowboys pep rally. It was just like a high school pep rally, if say, your high school could fill half of the Alamodome, could hire Los Lonely Boys to play, and trot out the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. Other than that, it was just like a high school pep rally.
Seriously, I was stunned at the amount of people who showed up for this thing. They had the field cut in half with a big curtain, but the half that was being used was full of fans. I think even Jerry Jones was surprised at the turnout.
Basically what happened was Los Lonely Boys played for a while, then the Cowboys cheerleaders did their thing, Rowdy and the San Antonio Spurs Mascot Coyote were throwing out t-shirts and riding a 4-wheeler, then they got to the good part.
Brad Sham was the M.C. and he introduced the Dallas Cowboys players by position. First up was the defensive line, where he introduced everybody but saved Marcus Spears for last and he got to answer a question from Sham. That was the way it worked for each position. Sham asked Spears about why the d-line will be different this year – talk about a loaded question to ask Spears – and he said this year they can show people what they can do and they want to be dominating every game. Next up were the linebackers, and the featured player was of course DeMarcus Ware. But before Ware got up there they introduced Greg Ellis who got a huge pop from the crowd. For the defensive backs, they featured Roy Williams and Terence Newman. Sham asked Roy what T-New needs to do to get to the Pro Bowl and Roy said he needs to get some picks. Then T-New said the goal of this defense is to be the #1 defense in the league this year.
Moving on to offense, Sham introduced the offensive line. Andre Gurode and Leonard Davis were the featured guys and Davis said it was good to be back in Texas playing football and Gurode said he’s going back to the Pro Bowl again this year. Next up, they slipped in the specialists and Mat McBriar got a nice ovation from the crowd. Then it was time for the running backs and they tried to feature MB3 and JJ. But MB3 was too shy to come out and answer a question – Sham said he does his talking when crossing the goal line – so JJ took the honors of answering the question. He said they are going to have a big year because they got a new staff and a new training camp. The tight ends were next and Jason Witten got the featured spot, then they moved on to the wide receivers. They spotlighted Terry Glenn and Terrell Owens, and wouldn’t you know it that T.O. went on the stage shaking some cheerleaders’ pom-poms. I couldn’t hear what Owens said on stage because the noise was really loud, but he mentioned something about bringing the Super Bowl back to Dallas.
Next up were the quarterbacks and if you had any question about who the most popular Cowboy player is, you can be certain now. Tony Romo was the featured guy and got a mega-huge ovation. It was loud. Romo being Romo, he hammed it up on stage and took the mic to pump up the crowd, then ended with a "How ‘bout them Cowboys!"
In the end, they brought out Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett and Brain Stewart and introduced them, and then Phillips cut a ceremonial ribbon to officially open training camp.
I’ll post again in a little while to discuss the layout of the stadium and maybe have a few pictures.
Oh yeah, practice starts tomorrow.