Every year sportswriters across the continent wish and wonder if the Dallas Cowboys will finally restore the glory of their Superbowl dominance in the 1990’s. Back then they were known as “America’s Team,” although the title appears to have been taken by fiat, rather than election. Still, they never befouled the NFL with scandal or unattractive cheerleaders, so they rode the title to three championships without protest across the land.
The New England Patriots, on the other hand, won four Superbowl titles in the Twenty-first century, while having two “-gates” to their shame– “Spygate” and “Deflate-gate.” Despite their colonial symbols and red, white, and blue uniforms, they could not aspire to the title “America’s Team,” because of their tainted reputation.
So, as the 2015 season begins, hearts throb for Tony Romo, but clench at the sight of Tom Brady. The nation pins its hope on a billionaire oil baron from Texas, instead of the master craftsman of football franchises, Robert Kraft. The Cowboys represent the hard-driving cattleman, paying out generous salaries to defensive linemen and skill positions alike, while the Patriots let half their defensive backfield fly off in free agency. Put all their hope in a pretty boy from California and a freakishly large and agile Polish tight end.
Are we sure we are not succumbing to regional prejudices here? Is Texas the politically correct birthplace of football champions, while New England gives rise to the crafty braintrust, the kind of brains you just can’t trust? Why does a team that hasn’t played in a Superbowl for twenty years cause fans to tremble with summer expectations, while the team that rules the AFC East and annually challenges for the AFC championship receives annual contempt outside of New England?
Yeah, Spygate was a pernicious plot and Deflategate had the taint of unfairness, but the first was summarily punished and the second was full of sound and psi, signifying nothing. If any of this happened in Dallas, the franchise would take its licks and come out the next year as the slightly muted America’s Team. We’d say they were bad boys and take away their scholarships. Oops, that would be the University of Texas.
No, I am not proud of the “gates” attributed to New England, and Bill Belichick can be a turd at times, but most of the time he runs a football team the way everyone wishes theirs was run. No loose-mouths or alibis. No prima donnas or sour grapes. Just gettin’ a little better with every game until the playoffs, and then play your ass off. That’s Belichick football, and everyone wishes their team played like that.
Just don’t let them play in New England, where the sissies play baseball and hockey, even in October.