Joe Nick Patoski - The Dallas Cowboys: The Outrageous History of the Biggest, Loudest, Most Hated, Best Loved Football Team in America

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Copyright 2012, 2013 by Joe Nick Patoski

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group

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First ebook edition: October 2012

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ISBN 978-0-316-13271-8

Its hard to match the thoroughness of the account presented by Mr. Patoski. The Dallas Cowboys adroitly traces the ascendancy of the team while shedding light on its unique position today as an athletic, commercial, and cultural powerhouse.

Charles Dameron, Wall Street Journal

That the book is a feast for Cowboys fans should come as no surpriseevery big game from the famous Ice Bowl with the Green Bay Packers in 1967 to the Super Bowl triumphs of the 1990s are recounted in loving detail. The surprise, perhaps, is how invigorating a read it is for thosesuch as myselfwho usually root for the team not wearing a blue star on their silver helmets. The Dallas Cowboys stands as the definitive biography of a city and a football team.

Allen Barra, Dallas Morning News

Patoskis a natural storyteller. This book couldnt have been written by anyone else.

Michael Corcoran, Austin American-Statesman

Thoughtful and well researched.

Christopher Kelly, New York Times

Patoskis in-depth study gives readers everything they want to know about The Boys and much more, from the field to the front office, the media, and, of course, the famous Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. The author also tracks the parallel development of the city of Dallas, with a focus on business and politics. A fittingly exhaustive history of a larger-than-life franchise.

Kirkus Reviews

Monumental.

Steve Bennett, San Antonio Express-News

Those looking for just the football facts have to wash them down with a lot of civic history along the way, and the book is better for it. Patoski must be fascinated by the Cowboys to have devoted himself to this herculean task. Luckily for those fans whose curiosity extends beyond the sidelines, hes also taken with the complicated region that the team calls home.

John Williams, New York Times Book Review

If you like football, and particularly the Cowboys, youll be hard-pressed to find a better storyteller than Patoski.

Glenn Dromgoole, San Angelo Standard-Times

If you think you know the remarkable story of Dallas and its pro football team, think again. Joe Nick Patoskis extraordinary book adds greatly to the colorful history of Big D and Americas Team. Whether recalling stories on the field or off, hes at the top of his game with The Dallas Cowboys.

Carlton Stowers, author of Dallas Cowboys: The First 25 Years and Staubach: Portrait of the Brightest Star

Immense. Patoski provides a comprehensive record of everything to do with the iconic franchise of Americas Team.

John Maxymuk, Library Journal

Love em or hate em, the wild, woolly and sometimes scandalous story of the Dallas Cowboys explains the explosion and evolution of professional sports into the multiplatform entertainment and merchandise phenomenon it is today. Patoskis clear-eyed outsiders perspective provides context to the Americas Team mythology whose roots predate the JFK years of Camelot.

Hector Saldaa, San Antonio Express-News

JOE NICK PATOSKI is the author of the award-winning Willie Nelson: An Epic Life as well as biographies of Stevie Ray Vaughan (with Bill Crawford) and Selena, and the book Texas High School Football: More Than the Game. He has written for No Depression, Texas Monthly, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, the New York Times, the Dallas Morning News, and the Austin American-Statesman. He lives in the Texas Hill Country.

joenickp.com

Willie Nelson: An Epic Life

Selena: Como la Flor

Stevie Ray Vaughan: Caught in the Crossfire

(coauthor Bill Crawford)

To all the good people of Dallas and Texas,
and to football fans everywhere

O URS IS BIGGER screamed the message across the front of the navy-blue-and-gray T-shirts draped on mannequins at the entrance of the Cowboys pro shop. The fifteen-thousand-square-foot bazaar was neither souvenir stand nor gift store exactly but another element of what was becoming known as the Cowboys Experienceas was the newest, most modern football stadium in the entire universe. In Cowboys tradition, the shop set new standards for swag, extending the brand to a logo-adorned tailgating rig with an official Dallas Cowboys grill and official Dallas Cowboys charcoal briquettes and official Dallas Cowboys barbecue sauce.

Two sections over, two babes in designer jeans and matching caps with matching blond ponytails stylishly bobbing out the backs admired pink designer tops and thongs with the Cowboys star attached. The Dallas Cowboys logo adorned sleeping bags, soft monkeys, draft-day caps, stadium shot glasses, hitch covers for trailer hitches, a five-foot-high inflatable helmet, and miniature cheerleader uniforms. Premium items, such as framed photographs of Aikman or Irvin or Smith in action, fetched $99 each, while $299 bought an old-timer a Don Meredithautographed helmet. A jersey signed by current QB Tony Romo was priced at $1,199.

The pro shop was but one segment of the spanking-new Cowboys Stadium, where everything was bigger, better, and state-of-the-art, which explained why thousands of visitors were paying sixteen dollars and up to peep at a building still under construction.