By Randy Galloway
rgalloway@star-telegram.com
This being Super Bowl week, it's time for the yearly reminder to all local parents:
Teach your children well. (By the way, that includes anyone 25 and under.)
Tell these kids that despite what they've ever known, or can remember, Super Bowl week was once a special time around here. The Dallas Cowboys went to Super Bowls on a rather regular basis.
Better yet, let the kids know the Cowboys weren't merely participants in Super Bowls. They actually won Super Bowls.
It was long ago and far away, but it's all in the history books.
And then Jerry Jones decided he wanted to be the football guru at Valley Ranch. Since then, roughly 20 years, the Cowboys' most dynamic breakthrough in football has been the first team to ever sell women's panties at its stadium.
The Cowboys are now known as the NFL's leader in lingerie. Super Bowls? Who cares about Super Bowls? Let's sell panties instead.
But for those who still dream the dream, and who wish Super Bowls were still the No. 1 priority around here, I would like to thank colleague Mac Engel for the reminder that Thursday was the 20th anniversary of special, special, special times.
On Jan. 31, 1993, those Cowboys were in Pasadena, Calif., and laid a massive 52-17 Super Bowl beating on the Buffalo Bills.
Thus began the Dynasty Days.
Three Super Bowls would be won in the next four years. The Cowboys became the kings of football. Man, it was something to see. Tell the kids to Google it.
But even that fabled dynasty stretch still comes with bittersweet attached, simply because in the opinion of many it could have been many more rings. Three in four years is a haul, but, memory-wise, the greedy side of players and fans usually surfaces.
If Jimmy had only stayed.What then? Four rings. Five? Six?
"I can tell you this, there would have been more. Definitely more rings," said Nate Newton, the All-Pro offensive guard of that time. "I don't know how many, but it wouldn't have stopped at three," Nate added in a conversation last week.
The Cowboys were so good in those days, don't dismiss Newton as just an old player with an inflated memory. It's the truth. Plus, once the Cowboys died after '95, the teams winning Super Bowls the next couple of years (Green Bay and Denver) didn't come close to the talent of the Dynasty Days bunch.
But it's all local ancient history.
The Cowboys have now reached joke status under the fine football mind of Mr. Jones.
Meanwhile, there will be a Super Bowl played Sunday in New Orleans.
And speaking of Jimmy Johnson, when you consider the case of Jim Harbaugh, the 49ers coach, he appears to me to be a modern day remake of the Jimster.
Rather ruthless, rather ego-driven, rather brilliant.
It's hard to really like Jim Harbaugh, looking at it from afar, the same as anyone outside of Cowboys Nation once had a hard hate for Johnson.
Granted, Johnson built a dynasty almost from scratch starting in 1989, which is different from this Harbaugh-led revival in San Francisco. It was unheard of in the free-wheeling, no salary cap era of that NFL, to go from 1-15 in his first year to a Super Bowl in his fourth.
Throw the salary cap in the mix, and things changed. Jimmy himself says what Bill Belichick did at New England, working within the confines of the salary cap, was more impressive than his run with the Cowboys. Maybe, maybe not.
Jim Harbaugh certainly can't be ranked up there yet with a Johnson or a Belichick, but the Jimster-like personality, and his instant success with a beaten-down 49ers franchise in his first two years, all that certainly puts Harbaugh in that kind of conversation.
Help me remember, but I can't think of a bolder coaching move in the past 20 years that ranks ahead of Harbaugh changing quarterbacks at midseason.
He yanked the QB, the once bust-labeled Alex Smith, who had helped the 49ers go to the NFC title game the year before, in favor of an unknown second-year QB in Colin Kaepernick.
It's a move that can now only be described with a loud "wow."
From RG3, to Andrew Luck, to Russell Wilson, it is Kaepernick who's the last young, sensational quarterback still standing in a remarkable season for emerging QBs.
In a Dynasty Days flashback, Johnson also had his own quarterback whirlwind tour before settling on Troy Aikman. It was no secret that Jimmy doubted Aikman early on, and there was a time when Steve Walsh appeared to be Johnson's favorite.
The year before the dynasty run started, Jimmy also stuck with Steve Beuerlein in a playoff loss at Detroit instead of going back to Aikman, who had been injured but was healthy again.
Aikman appeared to be ready to ask for a trade after the '91 season until Johnson famously called him into his office after the Detroit loss and said, "Troy, this team is yours, and totally yours. We are going where you will take us."
At that point, head coach and quarterback became one. And the Super Bowl run would begin. Is this Harbaugh-Kaepernick thing the second edition, although under different circumstances?
Jim's brother John is, of course, the opposing coach in the Super Bowl. John is the nicest of guys. Jim, not so much. Jimmy, back in the day, can relate.
But please, before kickoff on Sunday teach your children well. The Cowboys, they used to be an NFL somebody. Now, the Cowboys just sell panties.
Randy Galloway can be heard 3-6 p.m. weekdays on Galloway & Co. on ESPN/103.3 FM.Randy Galloway817-390-7697 Looking for comments?
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