Mama, let your babies grow up to be Cowboys. It gives them the best chance to be a sports icon in DFW. This year’s bracket challenge has not had many upsets, so far. It’s been almost all chalk with the Dallas Cowboys dominating the first weekend.
If you’re not yet playing along with the hundreds of readers who have filled out a bracket, here’s the backstory: every March for the past three years, I have worked with some friends to create a March Madness style bracket where Dallas Morning News readers can pick their favorites in a certain category. The first year it was Dallas landmarks. This year it’s DFW sports legends.
I enjoy this process each year because it gives me an opportunity to crowd source what people think. I thought people would love the Cowboys the most — specifically the “old school” Cowboys, the ones who were good at football. So far I’ve been right.
Cowboys coaches, players and management have ruled the bracket, sending eight into the Sweet 16. Importantly, that does not include current owner Jerry Jones, who did not gain enough support to make the 64-person field. Let that sink in: Jerry received fewer votes than Nancy Lieberman or Tatu. Jones’ old frenemy, Jimmy Johnson, beat two all-time greats in Jason Kidd and Adrian Beltre in reader votes. Sure, Jimmy was joined by Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin (who was drafted in the pre-Jerry days), but the early, classy, successful Cowboys are remembered most fondly.
The tournament’s top seed, Coach Tom Landry, cruised to the biggest blowout in round one over Sha’Carri Richardson (370 votes to 11) before beating Josh Hamilton even more handily (352 to 9). Coach has come to play. So has legendary Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach. I predicted the former coach and player would meet up in the final, but we’ll see what the readers and voters of this paper have to say.
Opinion
Joining the pair from the earlier era of Cowboys football are “Mr. Cowboy” Bob Lilly, club president Tex Schramm and mustachioed safety Cliff Harris, the biggest surprise of the first weekend. Harris’ victory over the best hooper from Dallas, Skyline High School’s Larry Johnson, demonstrates locals cheer for their professional heroes more than the players that hail from the area. This is something of a shame. I had hoped our homegrown heroes would have fared better.
When you look at who advanced past the first weekend, it’s the biggest of big names. From the original field of 64, only four grew up in the area and made the Sweet 16. Byron Nelson (who did not finish high school in Fort Worth, but ironically has one named for him now) and three Highland Park Scots: Clayton Kershaw, Doak Walker, and Scottie Scheffler.
To get to the Sweet 16, Walker narrowly edged out Irvin — one of the biggest surprises, given that Walker died almost 30 years ago while Irvin still makes popular TV and podcast appearances. Three other Scots won in the first round: Matthew Stafford, Chris Young and Bobby Layne. All three lost to Dallas Cowboys in the second round. Nonetheless the old adage Scotties find a way proved true for sporting icons.
The other area professional teams have not placed as many heroes in the Sweet 16. The Stars had only Mike Modano and the Mavs just Dirk Nowitzki. The Rangers had two players from well in their past, Nolan Ryan and Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez. I was a bit surprised no one from the world champion team of 2023 moved on.
Six golfers made the original field, but only Scheffler and Byron Nelson moved on in the tournament. It’s a tough field when Ben Hogan and Lee Trevino don’t make the cut. In fact, the entire field was tough. These are hard decisions and we’ll see how it goes from here. I’ll announce the winner of the voting next weekend, just as the NCAA is crowning its men’s basketball champion which could be a Texas team this year. The University of Texas and the University of Houston are still alive.
For now, it looks like readers and voters love the old Cowboys — maybe because they won and did it with class. Maybe that’s the thesis I was hoping to prove.
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