The way I heard it, Dallas' owner Tex Schram annointed the Cowboys "America's Team" before one of the Super Bowls. NFL Films brass went to Art Rooney Sr. and asked him what he thought about Dallas' new nickname, Rooney replied 'We don't want to be America's team, we're Pittsburgh's team.'
That said, It's inexplicable why there aren't more Cowboys in the HoF. Like it or not, Bob Hayes has been black balled because of his drug problems in the 70s. Perhaps Cliff Harris and Charlie Waters weren't as good as Cowboy fans remember. Hayes, Rayfield Wright, Drew Pearson, Lee Roy Jordan are absolute HoFers, and deserve to be there as does Troy Aikman. Michael Irvin...?
I just watched the 'Boys win in Super Bowl XII over Denver on NFL network. I'm surprised Morton didn't get killed that night.
Bum Phillips in 1979 after the Houston Oilers defeated the Dallas Cowboys:
"They might be America's Team, but we're Texas's Team."
That had to sting a little. ;-)
Emmitt Smith. Remember him?
The way I've always heard it is that NFL Films noticed wherever they went, there were a large number of people wearing Cowboys attire. No matter which stadium they were at, Cowboys clothes-wearing people were there. It got NFL Films wondering about that. They looked at NFL Properties and found that the Dallas Cowboys, at the time, was number one in merchandising. Jerseys, hats, trinkets, whatever. Dallas was it. So, when the title of the Cowboys season video was due to be named, they came up with "America's Team". Dallas loved it and everyone else got to hate it.
Contrary to popular belief, Tex Schramm didn't start it. But he loved the name and made a mint off it.