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Did you know the Yankees and Dallas Cowboys formed a joint partnership to sell merchandise and concessions? Talk about conspiracy theories... The O’s are on our minds today, but let’s not forget the Dallas Cowboys come to M & T Bank Stadium this Sunday. And there are lots of good reasons why every football fan outside Texas — and some inside, like in Houston — should despise the Cowboys. The following list isn’t comprehensive, just quickly culled from the Internet. It doesn’t even include, for example, Jimmy Johnson's hair or Cowboy scandals involving Michael Irvin, steroids and cocaine. It’s a start, though. Feel free to chime in with your own reasons for hating Dallas.
1. New York Yankee partnership: Comparable to Darth Vader joining forces with the Klingons. Four years ago, Jerry Jones and the Steinbrenner clan formed Legends Hospitality Management, a concession and merchandise company that handles sales at the teams' new stadiums. Ultimately, they’d like to move into other stadiums and ballparks.
2. Chuck Howley: Baltimore Colts kicked Cowboy butt in Super Bowl V, but the Dallas linebacker got the MVP. Still only player on a losing squad to receive the honor.
3. “America’s Team" moniker: Propaganda coined by NFL Films after 1978 season. Coincidentally, another vapid, over-hyped soap opera, the television show Dallas, started the same year.
4. Former Owner H.R. “Bum” Bright: After the 1988 collapse of Bright's savings and loan, he sold the team to megalomaniac Jerry Jones. Two wrongs don't make a right.
5. Lance Rentzel: After the wide receiver exposed himself to two girls in a park while playing for Minnesota, the Cowboys traded for him. Rentzel eventually exposed himself to a 10-year-old girl in Dallas.
6. Too Tall Jones’ Boxing Career: 6-foot-9 inch defensive end left the Cowboys after his fifth season (he later returned) to box professionally. Slow and gangly in the ring against terrible opponents, he also stole a bad decision from Mexican heavyweight Jesus "Yaqui" Meneses. Suffice to say he was no Tommy Zbikowski.
7. My Brother is a Cowboys Fan: In a staunchly anti-Dallas household, my youngest brother sold his soul to the Cowboys as a kid in their Staubach and Dorsett heyday. If they win in Baltimore — which they won’t — I’ll never hear the end of it.
8. Jerry’s World: Preposterous Cowboys Stadium, a $1.15 billion indoor turf symbol of decadence, doesn't include public transportation options, but does have a video scoreboard that blocks punts.
9. God’s Team: In Dallas, it was often said that the roof at the Cowboy’s old stadium was left open because “God was watching.” I guess He wasn’t watching close enough when Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman were suffering all those unfortunate concussions.
10. Tony Romo: A year after his bobbled snap cost the Cowboys a playoff win against Seattle, Romo took then-girlfriend Jessica Simpson to Cabo San Lucas in the middle of the playoffs. Naturally, the Cowboys and their suntanned QB lost to the Giants.
