Roger Staubach, Tony Romo and how Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks symbolize AMERICA. Also featuring a punter, some country music stars, Jack Ruby and a hypnotist.
He won 85 regular season games, 11 playoff games, reached four Super Bowls and won two, was a 6-time Pro Bowler (including all 5 of his final seasons) despite not being established as THE starter until his age 31 season. It's unfathomable to think what he might have accomplished if he'd either played football out of college or if Landry hadn't been so reluctant to make him the starter.
Also, Mike didn't mention that once Landry made the decision to go with Staubach over Morton in the 1971 season the Cowboys, 4-3 at the time and headed toward nowheresville, went 10-0, outscoring opponents 260-95 (avg of 26 - 9). The team went from mediocre to absolutely unstoppable (they won their three playoff games by a combined score of 58-18).
Further, the next season Staubach suffered a severely separated shoulder in pre-season by - get this - attempting to tackle a defender returning an INT during a pre-season game. That kind of stuff happened all the time back then; unthinkable now. The injury put Staubach down for most of the reg season (he threw 20 passes in mop up duty). Morton played well enough but then again crapped the bed in the playoffs and was relieved by Staubach. Down 15 points, on the road, to the 49ers midway through the 4th quarter, Staubach engineered his signature comeback win that, finally, made him THE established starting QB of the Dallas Cowboys.
Oh yeah, and after winning the Heisman, fulfilling his Naval duties, winning two Super Bowls, being named SB MVP and being a first ballot NFL Hall of Famer, he started a construction company after he retired.
He would sell his company with offices around the world for $700M in 2008.
I don't believe in "heroes" who haven't been deeply involved in my life (like my parents). But Staubach comes about as close as there is. Watch any teammate or even opponent talk about Staubach and you won't hear a single bad word.
Oh, and to the poster asking about Clint Longley. What happened is Longley has his "Mad Bomber" TGiving moment vs the Redskins in 1974. THe next season they brought in Danny White to compete for backup QB. Longley didn't like it and took out his frustrations by sucker punching Staubach, who slammed his face/head on a bench in the lockerroom. Lot of blood allegedly. Staubach was ready for revenge and the story goes Longley ran out to the parking lot, jumped in his car and was never seen again.
I wonder whether it might actually have been to Staubach’s benefit to have really gotten going at a later age. We see now that QBs can play into their 40s if they have injury luck and the football smarts to work around their physical declines. Back then, sports medicine and surgery were nowhere near where they are now, so coming into his prime at 31 may have kept miles off the odometer so to speak, so he still physically was in good shape at a more mature age.
Then again, Staubach probably was a pretty mature guy in his 20s, too. A stint in the military also probably helped.
It's possible. But man...he also spent four years with Cowboys before getting the permanent starting gig. And he did retire due to concussions and it's possible had he started earlier he'd have been forced into retirement earlier.
But he's a guy I'd love to have seen in his prime and playing with today's rules and willingness to use the QB as a rushing option. He'd be even more effective today IMO.
Also, I just can't let an Eagles fan slander my team like this without comment:
"But we can all agree that a very borderline call went against the Cowboys, something which never happened, not a single time (that this lifelong Eagles fan can recall) from 1970 through 1995."
The litany of Cowboys gutpunch losses in the playoffs is lengthy and sobering. MANY include ridiculous calls that make you wonder:
In Super Bowl V the Cowboys outgained the Colts by 115 yards, forced 7 turnovers, allowed only 69 rushing yds on 31 attempts and somehow lost. Why? Because a Cowboys fumble on the Colts goalline was awarded to the Colts despite no Colts having ever even touched the ball AND a 75-yard TD pass for the Colts tipped off multiple players, including what appeared to be a Colts player, which under rules of the day would have nullified the play.
In SuperBowl X, between Dallas and Pittsburgh, the Steelers were assessed zero penalties, despite engaging in such actions as throwing opponents to the ground ten seconds after a play ended. The Steelers were the most penalized team in the NFL that season.
SuperBowl XIII:
1. Phantom DPI on Benny Barnes is key play in Steelers TD drive despite Barners: having his back to the receiver; being between the receiver and the QB and never putting his hands on the receiver.
2. An illegal motion penalty wipes out a sack of Bradshaw on 3rd-and-10 that would have pushed Steelers out of FG range. On ensuing play, Franco Harris runs for a 35 yard TD on a play where the key block is delivered to Charley Waters by the referee.
I'm not bitter, honestly. It's not like I can cite this stuff from memory because it's been seared into my DNA and I'm helpless to forget it. Nope, not at all.
1 HOF TE Jackie Smith dropping an easy, uncontested TD pass.
2. Bogus DPI call on Barnes
3. Drive-ending sack negated by a PITT penalty
4. Ref throwing key block on TD drive
5. Pitt K Gerela slipping and muffing the ensuing KO...which ends up in the hands of Randy White, the only guy on the field wearing a cast on his wrist, who promptly fumbles...
What had been the best Super Bowl ever played between two of the best teams to ever face off turned into a circus. One of those things going against the Cowboys...that happens. Two....that's bad luck. Five? Preposterous.
The randomness of chance means, yeah, sometimes you crap out five consecutive times. As far as I'm concerned, this is just evidence of a benevolent and loving god.
1) You’re right about the Duane Thomas (RIP) fumble at the goal line. Walt Garrison wrote about that in his book that the ref started signaling Colts ball before the play even finished. And in the actual play, you see center Dave Manders holding the ball with a bewildered look on his face as to why the Colts were being awarded the ball.
2) Mel Renfro tipped the ball after it bounced off Ed Hinton, before Mackey caught it. I’ve seen that NFL films recap dozens of times.
3) The Benny Barnes bogus DPI against Lynn Swann was called by Fred Swearingen, who was the head referee that made the ultimate decision on the Immaculate Reception.
This is probably the franchise with the deepest list so far. I'm used to thinking "what, THAT guy made the list" for 6 through 10, but for the Cowboys it was more like, "yea, that guy was pretty good!"
just love football history and yet I almost always learn something new in these top 5s. I never realized the depth of the Staubach Morton indecisions. It does remind me a bit of how it took years for Terry Bradshaw to finally become QB1 for the Steelers
Wasn’t there some sort of story where Staubach punched out Clint Longely?
Always felt Danny White was somehow underrated.
Finally….to continue the QB/punter history through the 1980s-1990s, we have Randall Cunningham and Tom Tupa. I wonder if there are any more since Tupa?
I was going to bring up Tupa as well. He always consider himself a quarterback first and a punter second. The NFL disagreed but he did hang around as a punter/3rd string quarterback for a long long time. He is the las punter combo I can recall
Tupa was the last one, and he only QB'd under some ridiculous circumstances for the Cardinals. Randall was drafted as a QB/P and had both the 91-yard punt and some "quick kicks" on 3rd-and-1000000. Some QBs, like Roethlisberger, were their team's emergency punters.
My real welcome to being a Jets fan moment was waking up like it was Christmas Day when I was 10 years old on the first Sunday of the 1999 NFL season and my New York Jets were Sports Illustrates pick to be Super Bowl Champions. Elway was retired, Kelly was long gone, Marino was in terminal decline. The AFC was wide open for the Big Tuna to take the roster that he had now fully built out to the Super Bowl in his 3rd season as coach/God Emperor who the faithful were in rapture of for he had delivered us in 2 seasons from Rich Kotie’s 4-28 to a blown half time lead in the AFCCG from deliverance. Local boy (now old man) Vinny from Floral Park was to be the steady hand at QB. I’m 35 and I really can still step back in time and remember how giddy I was when I woke up that day. And after approximately 20 minute of actual game play I was watching (extreme Longuyland accent) Tom Fuckin’ Tupa playing QB.
Seriously I don’t remember if you ranked Ray Lucas (a new local hero!) in the Jet Top 10 QBs but if you did not you f’d up because if Parcells had gone to him sooner that team and I believe this in my heart of hearts makes the Super Bowl. Jeff Fisher isn’t out coaching Bill Parcells in the playoffs and that Jets roster was stacked.
I'm a Lions fan, and I'm seeing a lot of similarities between the 2023 Lions and the 1998 Jets: blown lead in the conference championship game, media darlings in the next offseason, very little competition in their conference. I'm scared....
Tupa was the opening day starter for the 1991 Cardinals (I don't recall if it was due to injury or if he somehow won a training camp batter). The Cards started 2-0, and it was a big story...I remember reading Sports Illustrated article about Tom Tupa. It said he won those games by "playing within himself", which I guess is what they called a game manager back then? Anyway, Tupa and the Cardinals fell back to earth and finished the season 4-12.
a basically career ending inury to Timm Rosenbach. That was also the season they got Stan Gelbaugh out of the office park, he had been working for Xerox. It doesn't always end up like Kurt Warner.
Having seen Meredith from the first Packer-Dallas NFL championship game, I wanted you to write more than a few sentences on Meredith: his early career, losing the playoff games that led to his retirement and the TV career on Monday Night Football, especially with Cosell and Gifford. There is at least as much material on Meredith as there is for Romo.
Meredith has always gotten short shrift. The guy RETIRED after being named MVP for the 1968 season at the age of 30. It is generally understood that one of the main reasons for his retirement was the hostility he received from Cowboys fans who blamed him for the team's perennial playoff collapses. His final game the 1968 Cowboys - arguably the best Cowboys team in history - got blown out by Cleveland as Meredith went 3-for-9 with 3 INTs. It was a miserable ending for one of the original great Cowboys.
Meredith was a heck of a quarterback, but I feel comfortable with him at #6. Also, the further back I go, the more reliant on old issues of SI and NYT. I don't always have the research bandwidth to dive deeply into multiple pre-Internet guys.
I'd put Meredith ahead of White but I'm not debating your rankings. Just wanted to weigh in on Meredith, who cowboys fans mistreated badly. Feel his premature retirement was a reflection of him just getting tired of it. And bc his last game was such a disaster he's sort of forgotten. QBed a team that went 27-9-1 over his final seasons and his reward was to basically get run out of town.
Somebody at Substack must be a Cowboys fan because that Dez Bryant "caitch" video was not available--though the video block does state it is available on YouTube, which, I immediately went to and enjoyed re-living. Ahhhhh, memories.
Yep! But I tend to leave some of them in, rather than just making them links, because it's easy to ignore a link, but the big empty rectangle just BEGS you to click off to YouTube and see what was going on.
Dan Reeves was a player on the 1971 Cowboys. In 1992, no doubt influenced by Landry and scrambling in the wake of an injury to John Elway, Reeves resorted to having the immortal Tommy Maddox and sublime Shawn Moore alternate plays in a few games. You’re not going to believe this, but combined, neither was as good as Staubach or Morton.
Reeves apparently was very vocal about Landry picking a QB when he was a player. He had Landry's ear (he would soon join the staff) and pushed him to stop fooling around. Odd that he would later make a similar mistake, but ... in truth he had no QBs with Elway hurt.
1) I saw Aikman's entire career--through, admittedly, green-tinted glasses--and I still don't think he was THAT good. He played with one of the very best OLs in league history and Irvin was allowed to mug CBs with impunity.
2) Dez didn't catch it.
3) That 44-6 game was downright pornographic.
4) The sight of Romo sitting slumped on the field gets funnier every time.
5) Man, Berman was annoying. Why did we enjoy that?
I think I'd prefer "gee-whiz histrionics ever more tiresome. Romo, talented and successful in so many ways, is now as much a caricature as a broadcaster as he was as a quarterback, even though he was really quite good in both roles. "
Over "and/or a vague assumption that a bland color commentator could not have been that great a quarterback?"
Romo at least tries to be interesting, Ol' mush mouth just drones on.and on.
Hey ... any thoughts about a Dr Z style review of broadcast duo's (some trios maybe?).
Mr. Tanier, now that we're several postings into your Substack site, several "uns" have come to my mind about it now that you are on your own sans editor. (And, by the way, I had to do a correction of Substack's spellcheck as it attempted to change that "uns" into "ins".) To wit: unleashed, unfettered, unencumbered, unexasberated (depending on the team), and while there are several more that could be listed, I'll end with this "un": unhinged.
As a QB, certainly. As a Cowboys QB he led 4 victories for a stacked team by scores like 20-10, 23-14 and 25-14. In Eagles terms, he was more like AJ Feeley than Nick Foles.
The 1991 Cowboys were only 6-5 when they went into RFK to face the eventual SB champion and, at the time, 11-0 Redksins. Cowboys immediately fell behind 7-0 on an Aikman pick-6. Aikman then got injured.
So for Buerlein to take that team and...
1. Lead a comeback over the Redskins (1 of only 2 Washington losses that season)
2. Consecutive wins over pretty good Pittsburgh and NO teams
3. Go into Philly in frigid December and defeat the Eagles, who had been abusing the Cowboys for years and had the team with the best defensive DVOA of all-time to secure the Cowboys first playoff birth since 1985
4. Complete a 5-0 run by winning the final game of the season
5. QB the team's first playoff win vs the Bears
Buerlein wasn't a savior but that was a pretty impressive run. And the offense was very good in 1991 but the defense was mediocre (got badly exposed in the division round by...Eric Kramer!).
I can talk about this Cowboys era forever so forgive me. Buerlein gave the team confidence to go into 1992 without having to worry if Aikman got hurt the team would totally collapse. Which was important as Aikman had missed games in each of his first 3 seasons.
I'm not much of an Elton fan but that is a very productive run there.
70s were wild in that bands were expected to release an album every year and then tour all over US/Europe/Japan for 250 days of the year. They were like indentured artists.
Several notes on Staubach:
He won 85 regular season games, 11 playoff games, reached four Super Bowls and won two, was a 6-time Pro Bowler (including all 5 of his final seasons) despite not being established as THE starter until his age 31 season. It's unfathomable to think what he might have accomplished if he'd either played football out of college or if Landry hadn't been so reluctant to make him the starter.
Also, Mike didn't mention that once Landry made the decision to go with Staubach over Morton in the 1971 season the Cowboys, 4-3 at the time and headed toward nowheresville, went 10-0, outscoring opponents 260-95 (avg of 26 - 9). The team went from mediocre to absolutely unstoppable (they won their three playoff games by a combined score of 58-18).
Further, the next season Staubach suffered a severely separated shoulder in pre-season by - get this - attempting to tackle a defender returning an INT during a pre-season game. That kind of stuff happened all the time back then; unthinkable now. The injury put Staubach down for most of the reg season (he threw 20 passes in mop up duty). Morton played well enough but then again crapped the bed in the playoffs and was relieved by Staubach. Down 15 points, on the road, to the 49ers midway through the 4th quarter, Staubach engineered his signature comeback win that, finally, made him THE established starting QB of the Dallas Cowboys.
Oh yeah, and after winning the Heisman, fulfilling his Naval duties, winning two Super Bowls, being named SB MVP and being a first ballot NFL Hall of Famer, he started a construction company after he retired.
He would sell his company with offices around the world for $700M in 2008.
I don't believe in "heroes" who haven't been deeply involved in my life (like my parents). But Staubach comes about as close as there is. Watch any teammate or even opponent talk about Staubach and you won't hear a single bad word.
Oh, and to the poster asking about Clint Longley. What happened is Longley has his "Mad Bomber" TGiving moment vs the Redskins in 1974. THe next season they brought in Danny White to compete for backup QB. Longley didn't like it and took out his frustrations by sucker punching Staubach, who slammed his face/head on a bench in the lockerroom. Lot of blood allegedly. Staubach was ready for revenge and the story goes Longley ran out to the parking lot, jumped in his car and was never seen again.
I wonder whether it might actually have been to Staubach’s benefit to have really gotten going at a later age. We see now that QBs can play into their 40s if they have injury luck and the football smarts to work around their physical declines. Back then, sports medicine and surgery were nowhere near where they are now, so coming into his prime at 31 may have kept miles off the odometer so to speak, so he still physically was in good shape at a more mature age.
Then again, Staubach probably was a pretty mature guy in his 20s, too. A stint in the military also probably helped.
football is the only sport on earth where you can suggest that doing two tours in vietnam was the safer long term play.
Haha
Never heard of boxing?
It's possible. But man...he also spent four years with Cowboys before getting the permanent starting gig. And he did retire due to concussions and it's possible had he started earlier he'd have been forced into retirement earlier.
But he's a guy I'd love to have seen in his prime and playing with today's rules and willingness to use the QB as a rushing option. He'd be even more effective today IMO.
If you can't tell I stan for Staubach.
Also, I just can't let an Eagles fan slander my team like this without comment:
"But we can all agree that a very borderline call went against the Cowboys, something which never happened, not a single time (that this lifelong Eagles fan can recall) from 1970 through 1995."
The litany of Cowboys gutpunch losses in the playoffs is lengthy and sobering. MANY include ridiculous calls that make you wonder:
In Super Bowl V the Cowboys outgained the Colts by 115 yards, forced 7 turnovers, allowed only 69 rushing yds on 31 attempts and somehow lost. Why? Because a Cowboys fumble on the Colts goalline was awarded to the Colts despite no Colts having ever even touched the ball AND a 75-yard TD pass for the Colts tipped off multiple players, including what appeared to be a Colts player, which under rules of the day would have nullified the play.
In SuperBowl X, between Dallas and Pittsburgh, the Steelers were assessed zero penalties, despite engaging in such actions as throwing opponents to the ground ten seconds after a play ended. The Steelers were the most penalized team in the NFL that season.
SuperBowl XIII:
1. Phantom DPI on Benny Barnes is key play in Steelers TD drive despite Barners: having his back to the receiver; being between the receiver and the QB and never putting his hands on the receiver.
2. An illegal motion penalty wipes out a sack of Bradshaw on 3rd-and-10 that would have pushed Steelers out of FG range. On ensuing play, Franco Harris runs for a 35 yard TD on a play where the key block is delivered to Charley Waters by the referee.
I'm not bitter, honestly. It's not like I can cite this stuff from memory because it's been seared into my DNA and I'm helpless to forget it. Nope, not at all.
Nope. Those were all good calls to me.
THe stupid sequence from SBXIII:
1 HOF TE Jackie Smith dropping an easy, uncontested TD pass.
2. Bogus DPI call on Barnes
3. Drive-ending sack negated by a PITT penalty
4. Ref throwing key block on TD drive
5. Pitt K Gerela slipping and muffing the ensuing KO...which ends up in the hands of Randy White, the only guy on the field wearing a cast on his wrist, who promptly fumbles...
What had been the best Super Bowl ever played between two of the best teams to ever face off turned into a circus. One of those things going against the Cowboys...that happens. Two....that's bad luck. Five? Preposterous.
I see nothing here to complain about.
The randomness of chance means, yeah, sometimes you crap out five consecutive times. As far as I'm concerned, this is just evidence of a benevolent and loving god.
Nah, that proof came with James Bradberry's holding call.
A backbreaking penalty in the Super Bowl is never going to be something you have to worry about.
Literally cited a major, indisputably bad one above but...go on.
Lot to unpack in this one, but:
1) You’re right about the Duane Thomas (RIP) fumble at the goal line. Walt Garrison wrote about that in his book that the ref started signaling Colts ball before the play even finished. And in the actual play, you see center Dave Manders holding the ball with a bewildered look on his face as to why the Colts were being awarded the ball.
2) Mel Renfro tipped the ball after it bounced off Ed Hinton, before Mackey caught it. I’ve seen that NFL films recap dozens of times.
3) The Benny Barnes bogus DPI against Lynn Swann was called by Fred Swearingen, who was the head referee that made the ultimate decision on the Immaculate Reception.
This is probably the franchise with the deepest list so far. I'm used to thinking "what, THAT guy made the list" for 6 through 10, but for the Cowboys it was more like, "yea, that guy was pretty good!"
just love football history and yet I almost always learn something new in these top 5s. I never realized the depth of the Staubach Morton indecisions. It does remind me a bit of how it took years for Terry Bradshaw to finally become QB1 for the Steelers
Wasn’t there some sort of story where Staubach punched out Clint Longely?
Always felt Danny White was somehow underrated.
Finally….to continue the QB/punter history through the 1980s-1990s, we have Randall Cunningham and Tom Tupa. I wonder if there are any more since Tupa?
I was going to bring up Tupa as well. He always consider himself a quarterback first and a punter second. The NFL disagreed but he did hang around as a punter/3rd string quarterback for a long long time. He is the las punter combo I can recall
Tupa was the last one, and he only QB'd under some ridiculous circumstances for the Cardinals. Randall was drafted as a QB/P and had both the 91-yard punt and some "quick kicks" on 3rd-and-1000000. Some QBs, like Roethlisberger, were their team's emergency punters.
Not just the Cardinals.
My real welcome to being a Jets fan moment was waking up like it was Christmas Day when I was 10 years old on the first Sunday of the 1999 NFL season and my New York Jets were Sports Illustrates pick to be Super Bowl Champions. Elway was retired, Kelly was long gone, Marino was in terminal decline. The AFC was wide open for the Big Tuna to take the roster that he had now fully built out to the Super Bowl in his 3rd season as coach/God Emperor who the faithful were in rapture of for he had delivered us in 2 seasons from Rich Kotie’s 4-28 to a blown half time lead in the AFCCG from deliverance. Local boy (now old man) Vinny from Floral Park was to be the steady hand at QB. I’m 35 and I really can still step back in time and remember how giddy I was when I woke up that day. And after approximately 20 minute of actual game play I was watching (extreme Longuyland accent) Tom Fuckin’ Tupa playing QB.
Seriously I don’t remember if you ranked Ray Lucas (a new local hero!) in the Jet Top 10 QBs but if you did not you f’d up because if Parcells had gone to him sooner that team and I believe this in my heart of hearts makes the Super Bowl. Jeff Fisher isn’t out coaching Bill Parcells in the playoffs and that Jets roster was stacked.
I'm a Lions fan, and I'm seeing a lot of similarities between the 2023 Lions and the 1998 Jets: blown lead in the conference championship game, media darlings in the next offseason, very little competition in their conference. I'm scared....
Hope you have a good back up QB in that case.
It will either be Nate Sudfeld or Hendon Hooker....the good news is that neither are converted punters!
Tupa was the opening day starter for the 1991 Cardinals (I don't recall if it was due to injury or if he somehow won a training camp batter). The Cards started 2-0, and it was a big story...I remember reading Sports Illustrated article about Tom Tupa. It said he won those games by "playing within himself", which I guess is what they called a game manager back then? Anyway, Tupa and the Cardinals fell back to earth and finished the season 4-12.
a basically career ending inury to Timm Rosenbach. That was also the season they got Stan Gelbaugh out of the office park, he had been working for Xerox. It doesn't always end up like Kurt Warner.
None of this makes me eager to do the Cardinals All Time Top 5s
Having seen Meredith from the first Packer-Dallas NFL championship game, I wanted you to write more than a few sentences on Meredith: his early career, losing the playoff games that led to his retirement and the TV career on Monday Night Football, especially with Cosell and Gifford. There is at least as much material on Meredith as there is for Romo.
Meredith has always gotten short shrift. The guy RETIRED after being named MVP for the 1968 season at the age of 30. It is generally understood that one of the main reasons for his retirement was the hostility he received from Cowboys fans who blamed him for the team's perennial playoff collapses. His final game the 1968 Cowboys - arguably the best Cowboys team in history - got blown out by Cleveland as Meredith went 3-for-9 with 3 INTs. It was a miserable ending for one of the original great Cowboys.
Meredith was a heck of a quarterback, but I feel comfortable with him at #6. Also, the further back I go, the more reliant on old issues of SI and NYT. I don't always have the research bandwidth to dive deeply into multiple pre-Internet guys.
I'd put Meredith ahead of White but I'm not debating your rankings. Just wanted to weigh in on Meredith, who cowboys fans mistreated badly. Feel his premature retirement was a reflection of him just getting tired of it. And bc his last game was such a disaster he's sort of forgotten. QBed a team that went 27-9-1 over his final seasons and his reward was to basically get run out of town.
Somebody at Substack must be a Cowboys fan because that Dez Bryant "caitch" video was not available--though the video block does state it is available on YouTube, which, I immediately went to and enjoyed re-living. Ahhhhh, memories.
The NFL doesn't like to make their videos embeddable, so we get those redirections to YouTube.
Yep! But I tend to leave some of them in, rather than just making them links, because it's easy to ignore a link, but the big empty rectangle just BEGS you to click off to YouTube and see what was going on.
they show up unencumbered in the emails, for the record.
Yeah, which is weird.
What! No love for the brilliant Steve Pelluer?
Nope. Gary Hogeboom either.
I have you beat.......Ryan Leaf
Dan Reeves was a player on the 1971 Cowboys. In 1992, no doubt influenced by Landry and scrambling in the wake of an injury to John Elway, Reeves resorted to having the immortal Tommy Maddox and sublime Shawn Moore alternate plays in a few games. You’re not going to believe this, but combined, neither was as good as Staubach or Morton.
Reeves apparently was very vocal about Landry picking a QB when he was a player. He had Landry's ear (he would soon join the staff) and pushed him to stop fooling around. Odd that he would later make a similar mistake, but ... in truth he had no QBs with Elway hurt.
1) I saw Aikman's entire career--through, admittedly, green-tinted glasses--and I still don't think he was THAT good. He played with one of the very best OLs in league history and Irvin was allowed to mug CBs with impunity.
2) Dez didn't catch it.
3) That 44-6 game was downright pornographic.
4) The sight of Romo sitting slumped on the field gets funnier every time.
5) Man, Berman was annoying. Why did we enjoy that?
Glad I have an ally in my bald-faced Cowboys slander.
You're nicer than me. I would called Quincy Carter #1 and moved down from there.
If this were about the Eagles you'd be correct. Although Ty Detmer, Bubby Brister and Bobby Hoying might provide some competition.
I think I'd prefer "gee-whiz histrionics ever more tiresome. Romo, talented and successful in so many ways, is now as much a caricature as a broadcaster as he was as a quarterback, even though he was really quite good in both roles. "
Over "and/or a vague assumption that a bland color commentator could not have been that great a quarterback?"
Romo at least tries to be interesting, Ol' mush mouth just drones on.and on.
Hey ... any thoughts about a Dr Z style review of broadcast duo's (some trios maybe?).
It occurs to me to wonder who was a better quarterback: Tim Tebow or Tom Matte.
Mr. Tanier, now that we're several postings into your Substack site, several "uns" have come to my mind about it now that you are on your own sans editor. (And, by the way, I had to do a correction of Substack's spellcheck as it attempted to change that "uns" into "ins".) To wit: unleashed, unfettered, unencumbered, unexasberated (depending on the team), and while there are several more that could be listed, I'll end with this "un": unhinged.
Beuerlein was better than, and deserves to switch places with, Quincey Carter.
As a QB, certainly. As a Cowboys QB he led 4 victories for a stacked team by scores like 20-10, 23-14 and 25-14. In Eagles terms, he was more like AJ Feeley than Nick Foles.
Just more context.
The 1991 Cowboys were only 6-5 when they went into RFK to face the eventual SB champion and, at the time, 11-0 Redksins. Cowboys immediately fell behind 7-0 on an Aikman pick-6. Aikman then got injured.
So for Buerlein to take that team and...
1. Lead a comeback over the Redskins (1 of only 2 Washington losses that season)
2. Consecutive wins over pretty good Pittsburgh and NO teams
3. Go into Philly in frigid December and defeat the Eagles, who had been abusing the Cowboys for years and had the team with the best defensive DVOA of all-time to secure the Cowboys first playoff birth since 1985
4. Complete a 5-0 run by winning the final game of the season
5. QB the team's first playoff win vs the Bears
Buerlein wasn't a savior but that was a pretty impressive run. And the offense was very good in 1991 but the defense was mediocre (got badly exposed in the division round by...Eric Kramer!).
I can talk about this Cowboys era forever so forgive me. Buerlein gave the team confidence to go into 1992 without having to worry if Aikman got hurt the team would totally collapse. Which was important as Aikman had missed games in each of his first 3 seasons.
This is awesome content! I am still ranking poor Quincy 9th.
While Beuerlein didn't blow out teams, Quincey was just downright awful.
My favorite EJ album. The title track is also my favorite EJ song.
Between April of ‘70 and May of ‘75, John released:
Elton John; Tumbleweed; Madman; Honky Chateau; Don’t Shoot Me; Yellow Brick Road; Caribou; Capt. Fantastic.
Nice little burst of creativity!
I'm not much of an Elton fan but that is a very productive run there.
70s were wild in that bands were expected to release an album every year and then tour all over US/Europe/Japan for 250 days of the year. They were like indentured artists.
Fantastic! My favorite write up of Top 5s!
Thanks!