Top 5 QBs: Captain America and the Good Time Cowboy.
Roger Staubach, Tony Romo and how Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks symbolize AMERICA. Also featuring a punter, some country music stars, Jack Ruby and a hypnotist.
This is the Cowboys segment of the All-Time Top 5 QB series. The headline was tweaked to reference an Elton John album while avoiding redundancy.
1. Roger Staubach
In the 1970s, the Steelers represented the working class, the Raiders represented the counterculture, and the Cowboys represented the establishment.
NFL dynasties are aspirational. They reflect some crucial set of values or desires back on us. The Patriots Way was a secular theology of neo-Boomerism for the early 21st century. Fate brought Taylor Swift and the Chiefs together. The Lombardi Packers exemplified Midwestern no-nonsense perseverance in the face of the tumultuous 1960s. Joe Namath’s Jets ushered in the sexual revolution with one swift bang. It doesn’t take much – a quarterback’s sunglasses and headband, perhaps – for a team to become the symbol of a generation or a subculture. And the Cowboys had a wide swath of American geography all to themselves for many years, not to mention the shiniest uniforms, sexiest cheerleaders, shrewdest leaders and most overtly AMERICAN iconography any sports franchise could ask for. They weren’t villains, despite how they were perceived by this Jersey boy. Instead, they represented the country club membership, the sleek Cadillac, the trophy wife, the things the steel worker and outlaw biker openly resented but may have secretly wished for.
Oh, and the quarterback: a midwestern lad with aw-shucks Gary Cooper looks. An academy man. A Heisman winner. A war veteran. A walking slice of apple pie off the field, a non-stop fireworks display on it. A cunning gunslinger who saves the town in the final reel, then orders a glass of milk at the bar. You could hate the Cowboys, absolutely loathe them, for strutting into town, beating the pants off your down-and-out local heroes and converting your best friends to their cause. But who on earth could hate Roger Staubach?