Troy Aikman: Cowboys fans go to games 'to be seen'

superpunk

Pro Bowler
Messages
11,003
Reaction score
1
Tony Romo's five-pick night against the Chicago Bears in Week 4 was further soiled by another slap in the face at Cowboys Stadium: The steady sound of cheering for the Bears.

Chicago's faithful showed up in force and could be heard over the Dallas ticket-holders, especially on Jay Cutler's 31-yard touchdown strike to Brandon Marshall late in the game.

"I've always said Dallas isn't so much a sports town as it is a winner's town," Aikman told KTCK-AM, via The Dallas Morning News. "And that's not that unique. Most towns are like that. There are very few towns like Chicago where you can go out there and go 4-12 and they're (still) selling out stadiums. That's pretty unique. But Dallas, they pull for their winners."

Aikman wasn't finished.

"I don't think Dallas has ever really had a great home field advantage," he said. "... I think for a large part -- and the fans don't want to hear this -- a lot of the people that attend sports in this town, they're there because it's kind of just a place to be seen," he said. "I didn't know anybody who went to Rangers games, and then when they started winning and going to World Series, everybody's wearing Rangers hats and saying, 'Oh yeah, I'm a big Rangers fan.' "

Aikman's Cowboys enjoyed a run of success that few teams -- and few fan groups -- will ever know. For much of the 1990s, there was plenty to cheer about as the Cowboys sliced through opponents and hosted endless playoff games at home en route to three Super Bowl titles under owner Jerry Jones.

Even with all the success, Aikman pointed to the raucous environments in Philadelphia and New York as stadiums where the fans impacted the opponent. Dallas never came close. Lambeau Field, this is not.
 
Messages
4,952
Reaction score
0
Aikman wasn't as good as Romo is, but he's 100% correct here. Mavs and Rangers tickets used to be given away like condoms at a health clinic.

You couldn't beg people to go to Reunion and watch the Mavs back in the day.

Texas Stadium was great during the Super Bowl stretch, but there were some awfully desolate and quiet games between Switzer and Parcells' tenures.
 
Messages
46,859
Reaction score
10
Wait, so when teams suck then fans are still expected to go to games?

I don't to see shitty movies, or buy concert tickets for shitty bands. Why should I be expected to pay and go to watch a shitty football team?
 

bbgun

Administrator
Messages
15,299
Reaction score
2,575
The vast, vast majority of fans are not famous or part of society's elite, so why would they go "to be seen"? No one's looking at Joe Six-pack anyway.
 
Messages
4,952
Reaction score
0
Wait, so when teams suck then fans are still expected to go to games?

I don't to see shitty movies, or buy concert tickets for shitty bands. Why should I be expected to pay and go to watch a shitty football team?

It happens a lot. Seattle, GB, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, Chicago and even Washington to name a few. Their fans are consistently loyal (or stupid...depending on how u look at it).
 
Messages
46,859
Reaction score
10
If Seattle GB Sacramento Pittsburgh Chicago and even Washington fans to name a few jumped off a bridge, would you?
 
Messages
4,952
Reaction score
0
The majority of Dallas fans hopped on during the Super Bowl runs and have been slowly losing interest since.

Aikman's point is spot-on bc Dallas is more like Miami as a sports town than it is like Green Bay for sure.
 

Theebs

Quality Starter
Messages
8,534
Reaction score
0
The vast, vast majority of fans are not famous or part of society's elite, so why would they go "to be seen"? No one's looking at Joe Six-pack anyway.

He is talking about amongst each other.

Like the who's whos who of the area. It's a yuppie convention.

When I first foot hear the first thing I heard was that mavs and cowboys games were the cocaine and boob job crowd.

It seems fairly accurate in my time here.
 

bbgun

Administrator
Messages
15,299
Reaction score
2,575
He is talking about amongst each other.

Like the who's whos who of the area. It's a yuppie convention.

When I first foot hear the first thing I heard was that mavs and cowboys games were the cocaine and boob job crowd.

It seems fairly accurate in my time here.

Seems like a stretch. The hoi polloi in the suites might want to be seen, but the middle class Regular Joe's in the grandstand? Sounds implausible.
 

Theebs

Quality Starter
Messages
8,534
Reaction score
0
Bbgun, Dallas is home to the 30 thousand dollar millionaires.

There are tons of the douchebags that encompasses that at the stadium every week.

There were four guys at the game on the other end of the row from me last week wearing sport coats and on there phone.

I was going to ask them to pass the grey poupon but they probably couldn't afford it.
 
Messages
3,455
Reaction score
0
You could name about 20 reasons why the Cowboys have no home field advantage and they all would probably be correct. I was at the Bucs game and i could tell you the football presentation at Cowboys Stadium is terrible. Felt more like a dance party than a football game. A million distractions. The noise level was ok at times but at other times the crowd seemed to lose interest. I think Dallas area fans are have a low emotional connection to the team and i think they lack football intelligence.
 
Top Bottom