How 'Bout Them Cowboys?: Inside the Huddle with the Stars and Legends of America's Team

by Gary Myers

Overview

Welcome to Jerryworld and an all-access pass to the most valuable sports franchise on the planet, the Dallas Cowboys.

Many books have been written about the Cowboys, but there's never been an account like this one. How 'Bout Them Cowboys tells the story of the NFL's most successful franchise, with special access to its outspoken owner, Jerry Jones, his sons Stephen and Jerry Jr., daughter Charlotte, and dozens of interviews of current and former players and coaches, and characters from across Cowboy Nation. While tracking the successes and controversies of some of the biggest names in the NFL on and off the field, How 'Bout Them Cowboys? remembers the legends of previous generations, and explains why the star on the helmet has become iconic, and how a little expansion team from North Texas has evolved into a global $5 billion brand.

Primed for their make-or-break 2018 season, How 'Bout Them Cowboys? delivers a fun and surprising account of America's Team, its greatest celebrities, its mercurial management, the vicious rivalries, and the enduring saga that makes this the most popular and polarizing team in sports.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538762349
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	10/09/2018
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Gary Myers is the NFL columnist for the New York Daily News. He has authored four books: The Catch, a look at the iconic 1981 NFC Championship Game between the Cowboys and 49ers; Coaching Confidential, which details the pressures of being an NFL head coach; the New York Times bestseller Brady vs. Manning, an inside look at the greatest rivalry in NFL history; and My First Coach, which explores the many interesting facets to NFL quarterbacks and their relationships with their fathers. Myers has been covering the NFL since 1978. He was a member of the cast of HBO's Inside The NFL and the YES Network's This Week in Football. Currently the host of WFAN's "Chalk Talk," he is a voter for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and a former adjunct professor at Syracuse University.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Welcome to Dallas 1

Chapter 1 Let's Party 23

Chapter 2 Cowboys, Inc. 56

Chapter 3 Mr. Cowboy 82

Chapter 4 One Ego Too Many 112

Chapter 5 Crossing Enemy Lines 145

Chapter 6 Teammates to the End 177

Chapter 7 Jerry Jones, General Manager 201

Chapter 8 Who's Got Next? 239

Acknowledgments 257

Index 265

Editorial Reviews

"Over a career spanning decades, Gary Myers has EARNED a reputation as one of the most thorough and connected NFL reporters in the country. The earned part is important. A book like this is only possible with the kind of access a writer gets by proving him- or herself to the most cynical sources in sports. Gary started proving it covering the Landry '80s Cowboys, kept going in the crucible of New York, and has brought us here. This book is must-read."—Brad Sham, Dallas Cowboys radio network, fortieth season

"Of all the teams in American sports, the Cowboys are covered the most relentlessly. And Gary Myers has filled this book with nuggets no one knew. A secret Tom Landry - Jerry Jones lunch leading to [Landry's] entry into the team's Ring of Honor? Get ready to learn fifty such things we'd never heard before. The book's a gem."—Peter King, NBC Sports, Pro Football Hall of Fame

"When Gary Myers came to the Dallas Morning News as the Cowboys beat writer, he shook things up right away. His perspective on every era of the Cowboys is insightful and compelling. HOW 'BOUT THEM COWBOYS? is a must-read."—Everson Walls, Cowboys All-Pro, Giants Super Bowl champion, Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist

"Gary is the gold standard against which other Cowboys reporters are measured. HOW 'BOUT THEM COWBOYS? is a treasure box of fantastic stories from some of the most compelling figures in NFL history."—Ed Werder, former Dallas Morning Cowboys beat writer, ex-ESPN NFL analyst/reporter, Pro Football Hall of Fame

"As 'America's Team,' they were loved and hated. Gary Myers is one of the few writers who can share what the perceived arrogance looks like from the inside and outside."—Carl Banks, Giants two-time Super Bowl champion, All-Pro linebacker, 1980s All-Decade Team, Giants radio analyst

"Gary Myers has spent a lifetime going behind the scenes in the NFL, and his knowledge of the Cowboys goes back to his beat writer days covering Tom Landry's club in the '80s. Myers understands where to dig for the little-known nuggets. From the practice field to the postgame parties, Myers engages readers with tales of America's Team."—Tim Cowlishaw, Dallas Morning News columnist, Around the Horn panelist, ESPN Dallas radio talk show host

PREVIOUS PRAISE FOR GARY MYERS:

"Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. It's this generation's football version of Mantle vs Mays, or Wilt vs Russell. Everyone has an opinion, but some count more than others. Gary Myers has decades of experience covering and reporting on the NFL. He has long been one of the sports most respected and credible writers. His long standing access to both Hall of Fame quarterbacks, plus countless sources who competed with and against them, brings exceptional insight to Myers' take on one of football's most compelling and ongoing debates."—Bob Costas, NBC Sports

"Get behind the scenes with two of the NFL's all-time greatest players in one ultra-compelling story. Gary Myers tackles Brady and Manning in a way that very few defenders ever have. Brady and Manning always have been must-watch; here they are must-read."—Adam Schefter, ESPN NFL Insider

"Gary's decades of covering the NFL and his unique relationships with the biggest names in the game, make him the perfect person to tell the intertwined story of these NFL legends."—Mike Tirico, NBC's Thursday Night Football play-by-play and Olympics host

From the Publisher

2018-08-20

"Love 'em or hate 'em a lot, ambivalence is not on the menu": a warts-and-all portrait of the storied football club that refuses to give in.

They've long been called "America's team," much to the chagrin of every other NFL franchise, and it seems fair to say that they've been reviled more than they've been loved, sometimes even in their hometown. New York Daily News NFL columnist Myers (My First Coach: Inspiring Stories of NFL Quarterbacks and Their Dads, 2017, etc.), who had the Cowboys beat for the Dallas Morning News for nearly four decades, has a more nuanced view of "Jerry's World," a franchise built on a huge gamble built in turn on a huge fortune—and one that has since turned into a vast marketing machine whose interests extend far beyond the gridiron. By the author's account, it all hinges on Jerry Jones, who has never been afraid to make decisions that lost him a lot of fans, until, at least, those decisions turned out to be right, like canning longtime coaches and losing deadweight players. Jones has been as quick as Donald Trump to sue his fellow owners as well, making him persona non grata until, Myers writes, "he showed [them] the way to turn their franchises into ATM machines." Though fond of sportswriting clichés and set pieces, the author sets up some nice battles, such as the one waged between Jones and coach Bill Parcells over "the mercurial and controversial wide receiver Terrell Owens," for whom Parcells had no use. It was one of the many clashes between Parcells and his boss, though, to hear Myers tell it, Parcells left after one flubbed play too many, with a Cowboys record that, to put it charitably, remains mixed.

Good reading to prep for the 2018 season, which many Cowboys-watchers are calling a make-or-break—though who gets made and who gets broken remains to be seen.

Kirkus Reviews