One Sunny Mornin' We'll Rise I Know
After finishing up Jeff Pearlman's excellent Boys Will Be Boys on Sunday, I was thankful for at least one thing: the obliviousness that is part and parcel of being a child.
As I discussed the book with numerous friends over the past few weeks, we all came to a collective agreement that we were glad that we didn't fully understand just how loathsome our childhood "heroes" could be off the gridiron while playing so well on it. I'm not sure if it's possible to retroactively lose your childhood innocence, but I came awfully close.
For kids growing up in Texas in the mid-90's, there was nothing bigger, or better, than the Dallas Cowboys of Aikman, Smith, and Irvin, and like all of those kids, I fell for America's Team hook, line, and sinker. I got an Aikman jersey for Christmas in 1993, I wept at halftime of Super Bowl XXVIII when the Boys were trailing the Bills 13-6, and I had the Cowboys-themed birthday cake when I turned 11.
Little did I know that almost all of those players that I cheered for on Sundays were womanizing, drug-abusing, self-aggrandizing blowhards. I would call them hypocrites, but they probably never held themselves out to be anything other than what they truly were.
P.S. Besides the fact that he associates himself with Joe Buck, Troy Aikman is still #1 in my book, whatever that's worth.
As I discussed the book with numerous friends over the past few weeks, we all came to a collective agreement that we were glad that we didn't fully understand just how loathsome our childhood "heroes" could be off the gridiron while playing so well on it. I'm not sure if it's possible to retroactively lose your childhood innocence, but I came awfully close.
For kids growing up in Texas in the mid-90's, there was nothing bigger, or better, than the Dallas Cowboys of Aikman, Smith, and Irvin, and like all of those kids, I fell for America's Team hook, line, and sinker. I got an Aikman jersey for Christmas in 1993, I wept at halftime of Super Bowl XXVIII when the Boys were trailing the Bills 13-6, and I had the Cowboys-themed birthday cake when I turned 11.Little did I know that almost all of those players that I cheered for on Sundays were womanizing, drug-abusing, self-aggrandizing blowhards. I would call them hypocrites, but they probably never held themselves out to be anything other than what they truly were.
P.S. Besides the fact that he associates himself with Joe Buck, Troy Aikman is still #1 in my book, whatever that's worth.
Labels: Boys Will Be Boys, Dallas Cowboys, Jeff Pearlman, Troy Aikman
posted by Justin @ 1/20/2009 08:16:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Ya know what Scott? I read that book too and let me tell ya, I don't know what all the fuss is about.
I mean, who hasn't thrown dirty TP in their coaches face during a film session? Who hasn't rented a house on the nice side of town for a little entertainment from strippe...I mean, female aquaintances?
Honestly, the stuff the 'Boys did is child's play compared to the locker-room shenanigans of the 2000-2002 Belton Tiger varsity basketball team.
Maybe I should write a book, I'll call it "Tigers will be Boys: The inside story of a good-not-great basketball team featuring mostly white guys."
Tell me this wouldn't kill the NY Times bestseller list.
Lancelot,
The world needs to hear the story of the 2000-2002 Belton Tigers varsity basketball team.
Don't let their (heroic?) deeds go into the trash-heap of history unnoticed and unrecounted.
This is your duty, sir. Do not disappoint us.
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