Posted on 09/08/2014 3:37:26 PM PDT by 11th_VA
ARLINGTON, Texas The swaths of red, San Francisco 49ers red, spread and leached through the stands at AT&T Stadium. It was all over the end zones. It dominated the third deck and standing room areas. It even scattered through the most expensive club seat sections.
Red here. Red there. Red everywhere.
It didn't just speak to the traveling might and national appeal of the Niners. It wasn't just about the power of a Super Bowl contender that would cruise to a 28-17 victory that was far more lopsided than the score suggests.
It also said plenty about the willingness of Dallas Cowboys fans to unload their tickets, or never bother to buy them, for the opener of a season that seems to carry so little promise.
Fifty-percent red? Sixty-percent red? Whatever it was, the number was big, shockingly big for the first game of the season when seemingly every team has hope and the excitement of a live game and a full tailgate is in full swing.
Jerry Jones said he didn't notice.
"Did you count," he asked of the number of Niners fans in attendance?
He owns the Cowboys and owns the building so he was getting paid no matter what. There were 91,174 here, so it was a good day for business.
He's also the team's general manager, so from his luxury box where he entertains friends and business contacts, he says he's watching like an actual football executive and that requires tunnel vision.
"I just pay attention to the field," he said.
Maybe it affects his hearing because in the first quarter as the Niners kept taking Dallas turnovers and scoring touchdowns, the roars for the visiting team were, you'd think, impossible to ignore 7-0 just 54 seconds in 14-3 with 5:54 to go in the first quarter 21-3 not 90 seconds later 28-3 just before the half
"I didn't have my eye on the crowd," Jones said. "I had my eye on those turnovers I don't have any knowledge or information about red shirts or anything."
What Jones can't seem to see or hear or fathom that this Cowboys season appears bleak and long and hopeless his fan base has apparently come to accept.
It isn't unusual for customers to bail on a loser and save money for an autumn, but Dallas hadn't lost a game yet when the fans decided to stay home or go fishing or just not care.
Of course, their lack of faith was rewarded by the dreadful start that saw a fumble returned for a touchdown followed by three Tony Romo interceptions, each seemingly worse than the last, that killed any fleeting hope.
Not a Dallas fan but no. Sam had no association with the team when season tickets went on sale. With their last SB win 20 years in the rear view mirror, and 2 whole playoff wins since, coming off 3 8-8 seasons in a row even the mighty Cowboys marketing machine is going to have problems selling tickets.
Let’s call ‘em the Brokeback Cowboys ...
Jones needs to look across town at The Ballpark at Arlington.
Last year, the Rangers went to the World Series. They dumped many of their good players ‘to reorganize’. This year they are the bottom team in both the American and National leagues.
Watch their next home game and count the EMPTY seats and entire sections of empty seats.
Fans may not matter much with all the big money in TV rights, etc., but if those home seats go empty too long, those TV moneys shrink also. No major network wants to play an evening game if one or both teams are losing their season.
Never been to Jerrys new house.
The old stadium was exposed to sun and wind.
You were sweating yer arse off or freezing it off.
I wont pay the money Jerry wants to see his crappy team anymore.
Manziel hasn’t had a chance yet.
Prolly wont get it in Cleveland.
Hoyer sure looked good in the 2nd half yesterday.
Lets call em the Brokeback Cowboys ...
” I wish I knew how to quit you.”
Texas is full of steers and queers...used to be the joke about Tx. I’m sure real Texans don’t like it.
Lots of San Francisco fans at that game means that lots of Cowboy fans dumped their tickets. Some may have done so in response to the Michael Sam signing.
This fan blames the sports media, too. Jones at least set up a private meeting with Landry. The media, who had been running standouts at airports and the Corp. offices, knew who was being interviewed and ambushed Landry in the parking lot on the way in.
But, the root of the problem is Jones wants to make money and doesn't care about winning. He cares only about profits and team valuation.
He seeks players, like Sam, that give him headlines and publicity. He has made a fortune with over a decade of mediocre performance. The Cowboys regularly beat the Super Bowl champs in merchandise sales, even when they have an 8-8 year.
He needs to focus on what he’s good at - groping strippers and getting lap dances. Schmuck.
Dere ya go.
Yea it’s an old joke that we don’t like. . . and now we can thank JJ for making sure people don’t forget it.
0-16!!
No, it’s not Sam. He’s irrelevant, a footnote.
It’s Jerry, and has been for years.
Sorry ‘bout that.
The New York Giants used to have a waiting list for season tickets that stretched out for decades (not just years). Fans would put their children's names on the list in the hopes that they might get to the top of the list by the time they were adults.
That's all gone now. Once they built the new stadium in the Meadowlands and forced their fans to pay thousands of dollars for "personal seat licenses" in order to buy tickets, the waiting list disappeared. You can now buy single-game tickets for a Giants game -- something that was unheard-of in the old stadium since it opened in 1976, and prior to that in Yankee Stadium back to the late 1950s.
Which is one reason why the Cowboys are over the cap every off season, and then have to give already overpaid veterans contract extensions with massive signing bonuses, but with a reduction in annual salary after the signing bonus, for an extended period of years, so that when the signing bonus is prorated over a period of years far longer than the guy is actually going to play, it frees up space under the current year's cap. Of course when the guy retires or gets cut all of the signing bonus that was prorated into future years hits the current year's salary cap, causing the Cowboys to be over the cap, and the whole process to repeat.
One of the worst things said to me ever was “You remind me of Jerry Jones”
Jerry wants $75 dollar to park if you tailgate.
The NFL gives home teams the option to wear their "colors" or their "whites." For some reason the Dallas Cowboys have a much better record over the years when they wear their white uniforms, so that's what they prefer to wear at home. Conversely, many of their opponents wear their white uniforms when they host the Cowboys -- because they also know about the white/blue record differential for the Cowboys over the years.
Go figure.
No reason for you to be sorry.
JJ will be the one who is sorry.
I will go out on a limb and say that after that politically charged stunt he won’t get any relief even after Sam is gone.
It doesn’t matter if he fires him or not.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.