Why Are Horrible Stories of Nineties Dallas Cowboys Only Surfacing NOW?

The Game Room
#1

Jeff Pearlman’s new book, “Boys Will Be Boys,” has revealed some truly horrifying, scary stories about the Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s.

The Cowboys trained here in Austin, back then, and fans would hear rumors of drugs or lurid sex or violence (like Michael Irvin’s stabbing of Everett McIver), but almost nothing ever made it to the newspapers or TV sports programs.

Now, it’s NOT as if the Dallas Cowboys played in some backwater town with no media. There were countless reporters around the Cowboys 24/7. And yet, practically NONE of the stories Jeff Pearlman is now revealing ever saw print.

How can things like this go on in plain sight for so long without ANYONE writing about it? Were Dallas reporters lazy? Cowardly? Too friendly with the players? How could any reporter just SIT on such explosive material for so many years?

#2

Jeff Pearlman was on the Dan Patrick Show last week, and–regarding the incident in which Irvin tried to stab his teammate with the barber’s scissors–the Cowboys had to cover that up because Michael was on probation and that, obviously, would have been a violation. So they may have done a really good job of keeping that quiet.

Other than that, I don’t know. I haven’t read the book yet, so I don’t know many of the other stories, but it’s very possible that there won’t be many more earth shattering stories. I think everyone knew how dysfunctional that team was, as we have already heard about Irvin’s love for prostitutes/strippers and Nate Newton’s drug trafficking.

#3

None of them will be able to top Lance Rentzel, though.

#4

I’ll say that Irvin and Newton seem to have cleaned up pretty well recently.

Irvin has his own show on the local ESPN affiliate, and Newton guest hosts pretty often. Seems like he’s turned his life around pretty well.

#5

I think it was well known that some wild stuff happened - years ago there was a joke like “So the Cowboys met for training camp this week and Michael Irving snorted the sideline” - and we all knew Jimmy Johnson was a jackass. Why the rest of it stayed quiet, I don’t know. People didn’t want to hear it and the team did a good job of keeping it quiet, I guess.

#6

What makes you think the Dallas Cowboys were really any different than any other NFL team?

#7

The way I remember the joke was:

Why do the Cowboys play on Astroturf?

Because they smoked all the grass and snorted all the sidelines.

#8

Michael Irving? Oops.

#9

Irvin was arrested a couple of years ago when the cops found a crack pipe in his car. He claimed it “belonged to a friend” who he’d been picking up or dropping off at a rehab center but I think the general consensus was that his story was rather specious.

#10

I live in Austin and I’m certain this story got out. Sure, it was “Irvin accidentally cuts teammate or some nonsense,” but that story sounds familiar.

As others have stated I don’t think anybody was mistaking the Cowboys for Boy Scouts back then. It seems that you had enough good guys (Aikman, Novacek, Johnston, Smith) to balance out the aspiring felons. And of course this is Texas. Everybody loves a winning football team and I doubt anyone was up for disrupting that.

I wouldn’t put it past Jerry Jones to have your legs broken for talking shit about his team, either.

I find Irvin to be one of the most reprehensible players of the modern era. A real hypocrite and asshole all around, and consummate liar. How he managed to swing a gig with ESPN is beyond me, not to mention his entry into the HOF before a guy like Art Monk. [/bitter Redskins fan]

#11

Irvin was a cornerstone on a 3 SB winning dynasty team. That goes a long way in the sports world to overlooking any off-field issues.

On the other hand, Art Monk is just getting hosed by the HoF commitee.