Archive for the ‘Dallas Cowboys’ Category

Dallas-based Neiman Marcus revealed the 82nd edition of its annual Christmas catalog Tuesday and it includes a Texas-sized offering for any Dallas Cowboys fan.

For only $500,000, one lucky Cowboys fan can take ownership of an end-zone from Texas Stadium. For that price, the buyer also receives the full VIP treatment for the last game in Texas Stadium, including a post-game party with the world-famous Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

Team owner Jerry Jones is donating the entire $500,000 purchase price to the Salvation Army.

Terrell Owens caught the long pass in stride, cruised into the end zone and began showing off.

With a shimmy in the direction of the Philadelphia Eagles, then some arm-flapping like he used to do when he scored for them, the final Monday night game at Texas Stadium was off to a wild start.

And it kept going from there.

After seven lead changes, the game fittingly came to a close with a pass that included two laterals. Dallas stopped it, then walked away with a memorable 41-37 victory.

The wackiness included Tony Romo following one flub with another, leading to Philadelphia touchdowns 14 seconds apart; Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson losing an apparent touchdown because he flicked the ball away in celebration before he actually scored; and, ultimately, there was Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook wasting great performances by fumbling a fourth-quarter hand-off exchange.

The game was decided cleanly after that turnover — a crisp Romo-led drive capped by Marion Barber’s 1-yard touchdown run, lifting the Cowboys to a victory that certainly will be remembered by anyone who saw it.

For anyone who didn’t, think back to Romo’s great escape in Buffalo on a Monday night last year, or to Romo’s playoff goof in Seattle two years ago, or McNabb’s great escape on a scramble three years ago or even Leon Lett’s premature touchdown celebration in the January 1993 Super Bowl. This game had plays reminiscent of all those.

Most of the action came in the first half, but the game was decided late - of course. The Dallas Cowboys have always been a 4th quarter team.

Philadelphia led 30-24 at halftime, but Dallas moved in front on a 17-yard touchdown catch by Barber. The Eagles came right back, with McNabb overcoming a second-and-21 by scooting out of two near collisions, avoiding an ankle tackle and zipping the football like a fast-pitch softball to Westbrook. The drive ended with Westbrook churning into the end zone for his third touchdown and a 37-31 lead.

Dallas got close with a 47-yard field goal from Nick Folk, but Philadelphia was driving for a lead-padding score when McNabb put the ball on Westbrook’s hip instead of in his belly. The Cowboys recovered at the 33 and Romo moved them all the way to the go-ahead score, the big play being a 32-yard pass to Jason Witten.

Philadelphia hardly threatened on its final two tries. Its final two-lateral play was shoved out of bounds.

Romo was 21-of-30 for 312 yards with three touchdowns, plus a lost fumble and an interception. Owens had 89 yards on three catches, two going for touchdowns. He had the early 72-yarder and a 4-yarder, although he didn’t catch a pass in the second half. His first TD moved him into second place on the NFL’s career receiving touchdown list; he finished at 132, well behind Jerry Rice’s record of 197.

McNabb was 25-of-37 for 281 yards with a touchdown and four sacks, two on the final series. He also matched Ron Jaworski’s club mark of 175 career TD passes.

Jackson caught six passes for 110 yards, becoming only the second player in NFL history to open his career with consecutive 100-yard games. The other was Don Looney, also for Philadelphia, in 1940.

Westbrook ran 18 times for 58 yards for two touchdowns, and caught six passes for 45 yards and another score.

Galveston Island, as of Friday morning, should be a ghost town. State officials are concerned that storm surges up to 20′ could hit the low lying coastal areas and ordered mandatory evacuations of the entire island. Island officials have shut off electricity and water services ahead of the storm. Galveston was the scene of the nation’s deadliest hurricane in the 1900 when approximately 6,000 people were killed.

>>>>> To keep track of Hurricane Ike’s approach, click here.<<<<<

Ike is currently a Category 2 storm with 105-mph winds and likely will come ashore late on Friday or early on Saturday as a potentially dangerous Category 3 storm on the five-step intensity scale with winds of more than 111 mph, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center .

The State of Texas has issued this map showing the Gulf Coast escape route with areas noted that might be implemented with contraflow. I-45 between Houston & Dallas could have all lanes northbound as far north as Ennis (which is just 20 miles south of downtown Dallas).

In the first game of the final season that marks Texas Stadium as the Dallas Cowboys home, da ‘Boys played their first game on the road against Cleveland.

Tony Romo’s bloodied chin needed stitches and an X-ray, and Marion Barber’s ribs were badly bruised. The Dallas Cowboys absorbed more than a few hard knocks on Sunday. Not as many as they landed, though.

Picking apart Cleveland’s secondary with ease, Romo passed for 320 yards, Terrell Owens caught a 35-yard touchdown pass and Barber scored on a pair of 1-yard runs as the Cowboys opened a season they expect to end in the Super Bowl by overwhelming the out-of-sync Browns 28-10.

Coming off a 13-win season, which ended with a bitterly disappointing playoff loss at home to the New York Giants, the Cowboys lived up to all their preseason hype with a solid all-around performance. They’re the team to beat in the NFC, and after one game, it’s hard to argue there’s any better.

With all day to throw, Romo completed 24 of 32 passes as Dallas’ offense racked up nearly 500 yards, controlled the clock and strung together four long touchdown drives. The defense held one of the AFC’s most potent offenses to 205 yards, and except for some silly penalties, the star-studded Cowboys, whose training camp was profiled on HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” had a knockout debut.

Dallas Cowboys and Pro Bowl safety Ken Hamlin have agreed on a long-term contract extension.

Named the Cowboys’ franchise player before free agency, Hamlin signed a six-year deal worth $39 million with $15 million guaranteed.

It’s crazy to hear the kind of money these guys earn. When I was a kid, my best friend’s dad, Mac Percival, was the kicker for the Cowboys. To make financial ends meet, he sold promotional items in the off season!

The Cowboys placed the tag on Hamlin to not only secure his rights for 2008, but to help them re-sign left tackle Flozell Adams as well as cornerback Terence Newman, Marion Barber and Terrell Owens.

Hamlin joined the Cowboys last year as a free agent after spending his first four seasons in Seattle. He quickly established himself as a defensive leader and earned his first Pro Bowl trip. He finished last season with 102 tackles, five interceptions and 14 pass deflections.

With Hamlin’s deal done, the Cowboys can turn their attention to their six draft picks. The team generally waits until the week before training camp before talks heat up. The Cowboys fly to Oxnard, Calif., on July 24.

Terrell Owens‘ food was stolen by a gaggle of models over the July 4 weekend.

The Dallas Cowboys star was at the Grey Goose Manor in East Hampton, where he sat waiting for a Gorgonzola cheeseburger with special sauce cooked by former “Top Chef” contestant Cynthia Sestito.

Before it could be served to him, Sestito lost the tray of cheese and sauce. A witness stated that she looked everywhere and finds three 6-foot-tall models hunched in a corner eating the entire plate of cheese.

Cynthia improvised and whipped up a ‘Terrell burger,’ which he loved.

Note: This fantastic article about the legacy of the Dallas TV show is copyrighted and was written by Jake Batsell of The Dallas Morning News.

He hangs his hat almost 5,000 miles from Southfork, but Colin Hunter has rounded up a huge herd of fans still infatuated with Dallas.

Never mind that the iconic television show has been off the air since 1991. Each day, some 23,000 people visit UltimateDallas.com, the fan site Mr. Hunter produces out of his north London home.

“There are people from everywhere — Romania, Japan, the U.S., Indonesia,” Mr. Hunter, 36, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve got this whole new fan base, some people as young as 12 and 13.”

Three decades after J.R., Sue Ellen and company began bickering on prime-time TV, Dallas remains an unstoppable force in popular culture.

The show that epitomized American grandeur and greed during the Reagan years is still syndicated in dozens of countries. Southfork Ranch in Parker draws more than 300,000 visitors a year. Diehards and new fans devour episodes on DVDs and cable soap channels.

“Dallas is not a phenomenon of 30 years ago, but actually is continuing to bring in new viewers,” said Janet Staiger, curator of Dallas: Power & Passion on Primetime TV, a new exhibit at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin.

The exhibit, which runs through Sept. 14, chronicles how the show’s memorable characters, scandalous storylines and TV firsts — most notably the “Who shot J.R.?” cliffhanger — spawned a global juggernaut that continues to fascinate legions of fans.

Boosters of modern Dallas, meanwhile, often cringe at the show’s over-the-top stereotypes and the lingering perception that the city remains a mecca for big hair, 10-gallon hats and cutthroat capitalism.

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” said Phillip Jones, president and chief executive officer of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The show’s persistent popularity makes it more challenging to promote Dallas as a progressive, ethnically diverse city with plentiful options for culture, dining and commerce, Mr. Jones said.

On the plus side, he said, “everywhere you go in the world, people know Dallas.”

“The curse is, everywhere you go in the world, people know Dallas from 30 years ago,” he said. “People think if they come to Dallas, they’re going to see J.R. Ewing walking down the street.”

First of its kind

When the show first aired on CBS in April 1978, Dallas chiefly was known as the site of the Kennedy assassination. The Dallas Cowboys, fresh off their second Super Bowl victory, weren’t even America’s Team yet.

Then came the TV series, which suddenly recast Dallas as a glitzy universe of shimmering skyscrapers, slick oil barons and gorgeous women clad in fur coats and showy jewelry.

“It was, of course, not a totally accurate image,” said Dr. Staiger, a professor of film and television studies at the University of Texas at Austin. “Not all women dress as beautifully as beautifully as Pamela Barnes and Sue Ellen did when they went to lunch. But it gave Dallas an image of richness.”

By the end of the second season in spring 1980, the show gave America its first prime-time cliffhanger when an unknown assailant gunned down J.R. Ewing in his office.

The scheming, sharp-tongued oilman — played by Fort Worth native Larry Hagman — had a long list of enemies. A prolonged actors strike forced fans to wait eight months before finding out the answer to the now-historic marketing slogan: “Who Shot J.R.?”

In November 1980, roughly 360 million viewers worldwide finally discovered who pulled the trigger. At the time, it was the most heavily watched event in television history.

The success of Dallas also elevated the soap-opera plot formula — serial narratives featuring multiple, intertwined story lines — into prime time.

“Now, you can hardly find a drama on prime-time that doesn’t have this format,” Dr. Staiger said.

The show inspired a crush of merchandise, some of which is on display at the Austin exhibit — puzzles, albums, even J.R. beer in pull-top cans.

Hollywood’s efforts to remake Dallas into a movie have sputtered. Janis Burklund, director of the Dallas Film Commission, said studio executives recently told her that the project is still alive but on hold as writers rework the script.

Actors still pleased

Susan Howard-Chrane accepts that her public persona will always be intertwined with her Dallas character, Donna Krebbs.

George W. Bush, then governor, appointed Ms. Howard-Chrane to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in 1995. During her confirmation hearing, the room went silent when Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, accidentally called her Donna.

“It wasn’t any big deal,” said Ms. Howard-Chrane, a Boerne resident who now serves on the Texas Commission on the Arts and is still constantly recognized by Dallas fans.

“I am never offended by someone calling me Donna — ever,” she said.

Ms. Howard-Chrane said viewers kept tuning in to Dallas because they related to the personal stories of each character — a rare occurrence in today’s prime-time lineup of reality shows and crime dramas.

“It was probably the last of its kind,” she said. “It primarily was a show to entertain, and to showcase actors and pretty clothes and attractive people and relationships. It was entertainment. I think we’ve kind of gotten away from that.”

The show’s success surprised actor Steve Kanaly, who played Ray Krebbs, Donna’s husband and the Ewings’ ranch foreman. Mr. Kanaly, who now grows avocados and citrus crops in Ojai, Calif., said he expected a quick exit after filming the first five episodes.

“I never believed the show had a chance to be successful,” he said. “I did five shows with everybody and thought, ‘Well, this is great; it’s been fun working with you, see you later.’.”

In retrospect, Mr. Kanaly said, the show may have caught on because it provided an escape from real-world issues like inflation, unemployment and the Iran hostage crisis.

“There were a lot of negative things going on,” he said. “And then this show pops up that doesn’t have anything to do with anything except a bunch of rich people in Texas and their crazy, mixed-up lives.”

Worldwide reach

Shady deals, boozy carousing and messy family politics may have been off-putting to some, but the program showed the world that America was a land of big dreams, Cadillacs and swimming pools.

Just ask Tomas Spilacek. During a visit to Southfork last month, Mr. Spilacek remembered watching Dallas in communist Czechoslovakia 20 years ago.

“Every person was watching this movie because Dallas is like all life in the U.S.,” he said. “Over there, communism. Over here, Dallas. Every Saturday night watching this movie is beautiful.”

Sally Peavy, the ranch’s tourism sales manager, hears stories like that all the time. Roughly two-thirds of the visitors who show up to tour Southfork are international.

“I would’ve thought that maybe it would have died down by now,” Ms. Peavy said. “But it’s amazing to me that people are still intrigued about the show, want to come see it, want to come experience it.”

Colin Mallon, a Southfork visitor hailing from Kent in the United Kingdom, said he got hooked on Dallas in the 1980s because “the storyline was brilliant, had a good laugh in it. It’s just something that made you watch every week.”

“Some of the things that happened in the show were just kind of bizarre,” added Angie Green of Wapakoneta, Ohio. “You couldn’t wait until the next week to see what was going to happen with J.R. and Cliff and all the characters.”

Still holds up

On UltimateDallas, the Web site Mr. Hunter started with two friends in 1997, fans interview the show’s stars, debate old plot twists and answer poll questions like: “Which forbidden love would you have liked to see?”

Mr. Hunter runs the site and attached fan forum with help from fellow fans in London, Canada and the United States. He said interest in the show has endured because its human storylines held such universal appeal.

Viewers could relate to Bobby and J.R.’s sibling rivalry, Sue Ellen’s alcoholism, Pam’s insecurity about her inability to have children and the family squabbles between the Ewing and Barnes clans.

“It was a character-driven show in a way we don’t tend to get now,” Mr. Hunter said. “It still kind of holds up, even nowadays.”