Enough hate to drag you out for only your 2nd post in 4 years…that’s a hater! 
Curses to Hal and the hamsters for colluding to beat me to the punch.
I’m a die-hard Cowboys fan, but I figure a lot of the hatred comes from the following:
-
America’s Team. People just get upset that the Cowboys have the moniker, either because it’s just annoying to them or because they’re jealous that it’s not their team.
-
5 Super Bowl victories. As mentioned earlier, there are teams that have 5 that aren’t as hated, but it’s fairly easy to dislike a team (that isn’t yours) just being that good. The Cowboys were the team of the 90’s, so if you happen to like Green Bay, or - especially - Buffalo, you’ll just hate them. Right now, the team that’s easy to hate is New England, for the same reason - they’re the team of this decade. If you’re not a New England fan, it’s pretty easy to hate 'em.
-
The Cowboys are much more likely to be the nationally televised team, and, as such, have more fans spread across the country than most teams. There’s always a pretty large percentage of Cowboy jerseys in the stands when we travel to away games, and I guess it irks people that a guy in Miami is a Cowboys fan over a team that geographically closer.
-
Big personalities. Aikman, Smith, Irvin, Sanders (during my formative years) and Landry, Staubach, Walker, and so on…right up to T.O. and Jerry Jones today. People especially don’t like The Playmaker, probably because he showed up in their end zones so much.
-
They’re the richest team in the NFL (and, IIRC, any sport.)
-
People hate Texas. (Fuck y’all.
)
I’ve got a similar story but I go back even farther than you. When I started following football in the early 70’s, I lived in the Bay Area. This of course meant I formed my early fan allegiances with the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders. In the 1971 and 1972 NFL seasons, the 49ers made the play-offs only to be eliminated both times by the Dallas Cowboys. (The 1972 loss was especially heartbreaking). At that early age, I began to hate the Cowboys with every fiber of my being. That hate only grew season after season as the Cowboys continued to make the play-offs every damn year while the 49ers went into a coma that lasted until the arrival of Joe Montana. (Were it not for the Raiders, being a football fan living in Northern California would’ve been a painful experience indeed.) Then there was the whole “America’s Team” hype that seemed to be designed to make Cowboy-haters feel like filthy-commie-rat-traitors. That’s why the 49ers’ victory over the Cowboys in the 1982 NFC Championship Game was so satisfying to me even though I’d stopped following the team once I moved back to the Pacific Northwest.
-
The America’s Team nonsense.
-
Okay, this isn’t really why I hate them, but more like an example of me hating them – Leon Lett’s attempt to prance over the goal line in the first of the two Cowboys-Bills Superbowls (disclaimer: I’m a Buffalo fan, so the whole topic is pretty dismal), only to have the ball smacked out of his hand by Buffalo’s Don “I’m going to keep playing at 100% even though it’s the 4th quarter and Dallas is up by about fifty million points” Beebe. While rationally I know that plenty of Dallas fans, and frankly, probably plenty of the Dallas bench, agree that Lett’s move was solidly in the realm of moronic, emotionally it sums up how I feel about the Cowboys – they’re winning and they’re still acting like tools.
-
I don’t even have a #3, I’m overcome by boiling hate.
I hate the Dallas Cowboys because of their historical rivalry with the Steelers.
I hate the Cowboys because their owner is an unmitigated douchebag who unceremoniously fired the only coach in the history of the team immediately upon purchase.
I hate the Cowboys because they employed Nate Newton, Leon Lett, Michael Irvin, Mark Stepnoski, and Troy Aikman.
I hate the Cowboys because the hole in the roof of Texas Stadium is not there so that God can watch his team, it’s there because the architect jacked up the design and didn’t finish their POS stadium.
I hate the Cowboys because Jerry Jones paid off the Steelers’ scumbag quarterback to throw Super Bowl XXX.
I hate the Cowboys because the Steelers were originally offered the appellation “America’s Team” and the Rooneys turned it down because they have humility, something sorely lacking anywhere in Texas.
I hate the Cowboys because the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders are nothing but white trash exhibitionists, and the Steelers again outclass the 'Girls because they don’t need cheerleaders.
I hate the Cowboys because of that stupid line reset they used to do.
I hate the Cowboys because they had coaches named Johnson, Switzer, and Parcells, douchebags all.
I hate the Cowboys because they showed their lack of institutional integrity when they signed T.O. without a second thought after he publicly showed them up by celebrating on the star (which I loved by the way).
I hate the Cowboys because the only player with any sort of integrity that they had in the last 20 years ended his career in Arizona.
I hate the Cowboys because they don’t even play in Dallas.
Mostly, though, I hate the Cowboys because Robin likes them, and so my ire is refueled every weekend when she puts on her damn blue rag.
Nothing, not even the total collapse of the Ravens, would make me happier than if Dallas lost every single game. I take that back-the only thing better would be if they both went winless.
Wow, has it been that long since I registered? I’ve been meaning to start posting…I guess I got a little sidetracked
I think this is my fist moved thread ever. I thought sports questions were not governed by CS and fell under the other categories based upon the nature of the topic at hand.
Your confusion is well founded. Sports threads are the Bedouins of the Dope, forever to wander through forums, always visiting moving upon the whim of a mod. There have been multiple calls for a Sports & Games forum but TPTB don’t think it’s “necessary.”
Hub has been a fan of the Green Bay Packers since he was 13 years old. He’s a secondary Colts fan since we live in the great state of Indiana. He’s a die-hard Cowboys hater. He proclaims the following:
-
He describes the team as made up of “dirty ballplayers” that don’t know how to play fair.
-
They are the “luckiest bastards” on the planet when it comes to referee decisions.
-
The egos of the players/owners/coaches/ad infinitum are bigger than the state of Texas.
I’ve heard that there was a conscious decision in the early 70s to promote a bogus Dallas/DC rivalry to enhance value of both teams. I wasn’t aware that Cowboys haters weren’t a local phenomenon.
Why all the Texas hate?
(Oh wait, I read the newspapers, nevermind.)
I hate the Cowboys b/c I live in Houston. Not a native Texan but moved here in 79. And for anyone in other parts of the country? Houston hates Dallas. Dallas hates Houston.
Plus I don’t even like football, and moving here from Kentucky, I couldn’t understand people being into football. It was Luv Ya Oiler Blue Time, I remember being surprised about this sport. (I was young.)
For me after several visits, I do not like the city of Dallas. And I like to root for underdogs.
In football, my favorite team is “I don’t have one, but maybe the packers” and anyone playing Dallas.
To borrow a phrase from Bill Simmons in reference to the Yankees:
Rooting for the Cowboys is like rooting for the house in blackjack.
I’m really not a huge football fan (though I follow the Seahawks), so I don’t really “hate” the Cowboys. But I don’t like them, either. For me, it’s mostly the “front runner” issue. Around here, it seems that the people who call themselves Cowboys fans also happen to be Yankees or Red Sox fans, and Bulls or Lakers fans. These front runner types tend to also be the most vocal when it comes to running down the “local” teams (in my area, the Seahawks, Mariners, and Sonics).
Couldn’t have said it better myself. That, and the Cowboys’ oft-undeserved arrogance really gets to me.
Of all the teams you could’ve gone to after retirement, Bill Parcells…
Reason 1: I’m a lifelong Atlanta Falcons fan, so I hate the Cowboys because of this game. That was right when I was getting old enough to understand playoffs and Super Bowls and other important things, and it still stings. (Yes, I hate the Broncos too.)
Reason 2: In the mid-90s, I saw a promo for some sitcom. A guy is sitting on the couch watching TV (which we don’t see). His buddy walks in. Buddy: “How’s the game going?” Guy: “Great! It’s almost halftime and none of the Cowboys have been arrested yet!”
Reason 3: Dude, everybody hates the Cowboys.
But mostly Reason 1.
Count me in with one of you guys that hates the Cowboys. They’re a very hatable team, prone to bandwagon fans and such. The Patriots are trying to take over that top position, though. I still don’t think I could dislike the Patriots more, though.
I hate Jerry Jones and Barry Switzer for being the two biggest scumbags in all of sports and TO for being a selfish attention whore…
But I freakin’ love The Cowboys. They’ve given me soooo much to cheer about over the years and they’ll survive even this thought he could buy class owner.
Go Cowboys!
I couldn’t tell you the name of a single current Dallas Cowboys player, or coach, or owner. I follow football in a desultory fashion: I check the news on Sunday or Monday to see if we (the Seahawks) have anything to brag about, in case it comes up in conversation. Knowing the fortunes of the local football and basketball team is just a piece of information I like to carry around in my head. Other teams, outside the division? Not so much. I’m much more diligent at following baseball.
So I can’t say I hate the Dallas Cowboys, because I don’t really know a damn thing about them. Didn’t they have a bunch of players in the 1990s who got busted for cocaine possession? Yeah, that was probably them.
However, I’m sick to death of hearing about the Cowboys. There’s even Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader calendars on sale in the Pacific Northwest, in regular stores, where you can’t even get Seattle Seagals calendars.
So I hate seeing crap about the Cowboys because I tend to resist what advertisers and marketers tell me is Good and Right. Tell me “America’s Team! Everybody loves the Cowboys! Check out the hooters on those cheerleaders!” and I’ll go, “So what? Give me a reason.” I’ll dig in my heels, because I hate to be sold to. I resist the Cowboys media hype in the same way I resist slogans like “Dodge: Ram Tough!” and Pepsi: Choice Of A New Generation, and My Country Right Or Wrong. I resent that kind of marketing come-on.
Growing up in Texas, you get force-fed football. But I’ve tried to remain immune. (I only happened to be in a neighborhood restaurant last Sunday. One with TV’s. Against my will, I got drawn in by the Texans game. Playing the ex-Oilers, no less. But it was all in vain…)
There’s little love for the Cowboys down here.
I used to hate the Cowboys when Michael Irvin played for them. I’m not sure if he ever made a single reception that wasn’t offensive pass interference.