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The Dallas Cowboys are the most popular, celebrated, and talked about franchise in professional sports. Sure, in basketball, the Lakers and Celtics come close, and in baseball, the Yankees and even the Red Sox and Dodgers put up a fight, but in terms of media and marketing, the Dallas Cowboys’ star is the most recognizable logo in sports.
You can travel anywhere on the planet and you will see fans sporting Dallas Cowboys merchandise. In addition, whether the team is winning or losing, they regularly appear in the A-block of most mainstream sports television programs.
Maybe it’s their history – dubbed by NFL Films as America’s Team. Maybe it’s the long list of Hall of Fame players. Maybe it’s their omnipresent owner Jerry Jones, a man who has never passed by a television camera without looking into it and saying something he should or shouldn’t.
Whatever it is, the Cowboys’ mystique has traveled through the worlds of football, fashion, and finance. Add one more world to that list – sports media. We all know about a few celebrated ex-Cowboy broadcasters beginning with Don Meredith, the Monday Night Football pioneer and icon, Troy Aikman the 3-time Super Bowl winning quarterback who now graces the MNF broadcast booth, and Tony Romo, who almost immediately became one of the best game analysts in the business at CBS.
This Cowboy/media connection, however, includes some other fine personalities – slightly less trumpeted, but no less talented than the aforementioned triumvirate. Here are a few sports TV talkers who have become stars after working for the Star.
There are a lot of adjectives you could use for ex-Cowboy head coach and current NFL on FOX studio analyst Jimmy Johnson. When he was coaching at the University of Miami and then in Dallas, words like arrogant, stubborn, hot-headed, cut-throat, and even self-centered were, at various times, appropriate. The word likeable often was not. Times have changed.
On television, all of Johnson’s edge, old-school mentality, and grit come to life in a positively enthralling manner. Johnson pulls no punches and is very direct in criticizing players, coaches, schemes, and organizational failures. You can always count on him to delve into the X’s and O’s, but his strength is getting to the heart and soul of the game.
Johnson has openly declared his love for his FOX cohorts, and he plays off of this talented crew beautifully. His repartee with fellow grizzled gridiron greats Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long is epic. On air, Johnson is both a protagonist and an antagonist. He’s just really fun to watch and never wastes his breath. You have to hear what he’s saying.
If ever there was a coach and broadcaster who is the complete antithesis to Johnson, it is NBC’s Jason Garrett. Let’s start with coaching. As the Cowboys’ head coach, Garrett was a polar opposite to the firecracker that was Jimmy Johnson. In his years coaching the Cowboys (2010-1019), I don’t think I ever heard Jason Garrett yell even one time in a press conference.
Remember those adjectives that described Johnson as a coach? Well, how about these for Garrett: stoic, staid, affable, cordial, polite, and understated. As the saying goes, Garrett’s kindness was often mistaken for weakness, but if you talk to anyone in the NFL, they will tell you that Jason Garrett owned one of the smartest football minds during his NFL quarterbacking and coaching career.
Despite this, the last thing I thought Jason Garrett would ever do post-football was television. In truth, he has been an absolute revelation. Garrett is terrific on NBC’s Football Night in America and Sunday Night Football. As a dissector of the quarterback position and offense in general, I liken him to ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky and ex-ESPN’er Matt Hasselbeck.
Garrett not only offers great chalkboard stuff, but he is really good at taking the wealth of experience he has in the game, both good and bad, and communicating it to an audience. The only thing that Garrett has in common with Jimmy Johnson is that he is also one of those guys who merit your complete attention. One last point, Garrett excels in any assignment. It doesn’t matter if it is college or pro football, or with whom he is on screen. He remains articulate and informative.
If there is a former Dallas player turned broadcaster who emulates the understated style of Jason Garrett, it is FOX’s Daryl “Moose” Johnston, the erstwhile Cowboys’ fullback from the Super Bowl years of the early and mid-1990s.
As a player, Johnston was an absolute beast. Emmitt Smith is the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, and he often emotionally credits teammate Johnston for many of those record-setting yards. Johnston appeared to be another one of those guys who would never traverse into media. He was quiet and self-effacing as a player but has truly come out of his shell since trading blocking for broadcasting.
Johnston is meticulous in his analysis. Over the years, he has worked alongside a number of different play-by-play announcers and has lifted the collective games of everyone around him. Just as he opened up holes for Emmitt Smith, Johnston opens up new avenues of discussion for his broadcast partners.
Slimmed down since his playing days, Johnston has also set trends with his sartorial splendor. His suits, sport coats, jackets, and overall attire have placed him in the upper echelon of gridiron garb.
One thing I really like about Johnston’s style is that he never gets too high or too low in commenting on the action. He has a consistent demeanor in the broadcast booth, similar to his consistency as a player. Fullbacks don’t seek the limelight. They often work in near anonymity, bringing fame and attention to others.
That’s what Johnston is all about in the broadcast booth. For him, it is all about the play and the players. He is not the show. I compare Johnston to Pat Summerall, he of the near monotone style that made him perhaps the greatest football broadcaster of all time. Johnston gives you a little bit more inflection and emotion, but not much. He possesses a consistently strong voice with even stronger analysis.
Jimmy Johnson won two Super Bowls as the Cowboys’ head coach. Jason Garrett won two titles backing up Troy Aikman, and Moose Johnston took home three rings in Big D. All three of these broadcasters made their names when the Cowboys ruled the NFL standings.
Marcus Spears was in a different situation altogether. In his eight years as a Cowboy defensive end (2005-12) Spears played on some good, mediocre, and bad teams, but never hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. He was a solid player in Dallas, but never became a champion thereby moving his name into the national consciousness. On television, however, Spears has done just that.
With his distinctive voice, emotional expression, and high football IQ, Spears is at the head of the tremendous class of ex-NFL defenders turned ESPN stars including Ryan Clark, Bart Scott, Chris Canty, and Dominique Foxworthy. Spears combines toughness with talent, experience with eloquence, and decibels with depth.
He gets emotional and sometimes angry and is easily egged on by the pesky likes of Stephen A. Smith and Dan Orlovsky. There is a certain morality, honor, and ethic to Spears. You get the feeling that he truly respects the game and knows the right way to do things.
I love his back-and-forth with Clark, Mina Kimes, Laura Rutledge, and Orlovsky on ESPN’s NFL Live program. The best thing about Spears isn’t the way he talks, but the way he listens. When the cameras have a multi-shot with all of the panelists on screen at the same time, you can see that Spears is listening to his colleagues and plotting his retort. That is a strength.
Like his former head coach Jason Garrett, Spears doesn’t say things for the sake of hearing himself talk. He responds to and initiates interesting topics consistently. And of course, being a former defensive end, he’s partial to the big guys in the NFL trenches and voices this partiality in a boisterous and jovial way.
Indeed, Don Meredith started the trend of Dallas Cowboys successfully transitioning to TV stardom, but there is a difference. Back in the day during blowout games, Meredith would often sing the Willie Nelson song, “The Party’s Over.” With terrific Dallas-rooted broadcasters like Jimmy Johnson, Jason Garrett, Moose Johnston, and Marcus Spears, the party has just begun.
John Molori is a weekly columnist for Barrett Sports Media. He has previously contributed to ESPNW, Patriots Football Weekly, Golf Content Network, Methuen Life Magazine, and wrote a syndicated Media Blitz column in the New England region, which was published by numerous outlets including The Boston Metro, Providence Journal, Lowell Sun, and the Eagle-Tribune. His career also includes fourteen years in television as a News and Sports Reporter, Host, Producer working for Continental Cablevision, MediaOne, and AT&T. He can be reached on Twitter @MoloriMedia.
