America is looking for a new team.
Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman know their Dallas Cowboys have worn out their welcome.
“There’s an old saying, `Everybody loves a champion,’ ” Smith said. “No. Everybody loves a different champion. America is looking for a new champion. People are tired of looking at the Dallas Cowboys.”
So the Cowboys have tried to oblige. They get suspended, hurt, sued, gored and bored, ripening themselves for a fall.
“I think it’s human nature and part of America to root for a team, and if they achieve success and have too much success, then you almost want to see them fall and see someone else rise,” Aikman said.
It’s happened only once in the last four years.
“Everybody was so happy when San Francisco beat us in the NFC championship game (in 1994),” Smith said. “Last year when San Francisco was knocked out in the first round by Green Bay, people were saying, `Shoot, that’s our last chance of somebody getting at the Cowboys.’ Then everybody was rooting for Green Bay because they knew they would be the underdog.”
So come on down, America. Get in line and beat them. If you’re waiting for them to dismantle themselves, good luck. While they seem to be doing an extraordinary job of self-destructing, listen to their defiance.
“I see it’s the Cowboys versus the rest of the league, the commissioner, the licensing people, the referees,” Smith said. “Knowing the world wants to see a different champion and knowing you have the opportunity to not give the world what they really want to see . . . it makes you try to play perfect football.”
“We have the potential to be a better football team than what we were a year ago,” Aikman said.
So if you want to see them fall, you’d better beat them yourself. There is plenty of opportunity:
– The Bears get them Monday night at Soldier Field. They don’t have Michael Irvin. They say they don’t have Jay Novacek. Smith is ailing. Charles Haley doesn’t practice. Four starters left the defense. Deion Sanders is their best receiver and he’s never started a game there in his life.
– The Indianapolis Colts go to Dallas on Sept. 15. The Colts came within an inch of playing them in the Super Bowl last year. The AFC law of averages hasn’t been repealed, has it? Maybe so after last year, when the Cowboys went to Oakland on Nov. 19 and beat the Raiders 34-21, then came home four days later and beat the Kansas City Chiefs 24-12.
– The Bills get them Sept. 22 in Buffalo. Yes, those Bills, the same ones who beat the Cowboys in Dallas in the 1993 regular season, between Super Bowl losses.
– The Eagles get them in Philadelphia on Monday night, Sept. 30. Eagles coach Ray Rhodes has been seething since the Cowboys ousted them in the playoffs 30-11 and coach Barry Switzer said his team “kicked their (rears).”
“Everything’s been recorded and taped,” Rhodes said. “Every time we look at the film, that will be spliced in. When we show up to play them again, our guys will be very much aware of what was said. Every coach in the league loves it when comments like that are made. They get your team fired up.”
The Cowboys will play all of the above without the suspended Irvin.
– On Oct. 27, the Cowboys travel to Miami to play old coach Jimmy Johnson’s Dolphins. Jimmy’s hair is already sticking straight up.
– On Nov. 10, the Cowboys travel to San Francisco to play a 49ers team that has beaten them three times in a row. Switzer is 0-3 against them.
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– Notice the champions were sent on the road on their first two Monday night games, plus Buffalo, Miami and San Francisco. But on Monday, Nov. 18, they get the Green Bay Packers at home, naturally.
This has happened six times in the last three years, all Cowboy wins. The Packers are picked by some to win it all. Bring it on.
“We can’t say we’re the best until we beat the best, and right now they are,” said Packers tight end Mark Chmura. “It’d be nice to get them up here, but the guys here don’t want that. We want to play them down there and beat them in their own backyard. We’d get more satisfaction in that.”
– Twice in the final four weeks, the Cowboys must face the Washington Redskins, who already proved they can beat them. Did it twice last year.
So it’s all set up. The Cowboys are sitting on the carnival hot seat, right over the barrel of water. They don’t figure to fall off until somebody hits the bull’s eye.
Dunk them if you dare.