Our heroes have always been Cowboys

From the editor's desk

They don’t have this problem in Denver or Philadelphia or Green Bay, Wis.

Newspapers in those towns focus their coverage on the Broncos, Eagles and Packers, respectively, and no one could seriously dispute that most fans in those cities want to read about the home team more than any other.

But which National Football League team does Clovis like the most?

For that matter, which major college football team? Which pro basketball team? Are we mostly rooting for the Cubs or Marlins; the Red Sox or the Yankees?

It’s anybody’s guess.

Because of our geographic location — a day’s drive from just about any pro sports city — Clovis does not collectively follow any professional sports franchise … with one possible exception: I’m guessing we have more Dallas Cowboys football fans in Clovis than we have fans of the other 31 NFL teams combined. That’s why we try to give readers two or three Cowboys stories every week, even if the rest of our NFL coverage is limited to standings.

A caller forced the issue last week, complaining the Clovis News-Journal is too heavy on its coverage of the Cowboys and does not devote nearly enough space to his favorite team, the Broncos.

I know Clovis has a lot of Broncos fans. It also has St. Louis Rams fans, Oakland Raiders fans and probably even Buffalo Bills fans. But if every area NFL fan had to pledge their allegiance to a single team, I’m betting the Cowboys would come out on top.

Here’s why:

I grew up around here in the days of Tom Landry and Roger Staubach, when George Allen and the Redskins were dirty words, and preachers all over the place would halt their Sunday morning sermons 10 minutes before game time.

Residential streets were clear for the three hours the Cowboys were on TV. Local parks were empty until 10 minutes after the games, when they would suddenly fill with kids pretending to be Bullet Bob Hayes or Chuck Howley. I once wrote a newspaper story in which local police claimed that crime was down when the Cowboys were playing.

I know things may have changed some in the 20-plus years I’ve been mostly gone from this neighborhood, but I also know that change comes slowly on the High Plains.

Owner Jerry Jones may have angered a number of lifelong Cowboys fans when he booted Landry out the door after the 1988 season, but you can’t bleed silver and blue for decades, then suddenly start cheering for the San Diego Chargers for crying out loud.

I don’t think the Cowboys still have the following they had when Bob Lilly and Mel Renfro were household names in the 1960s and ’70s, but I’m confident Clovis still cheers for the Cowboys over any other team … and that’s why they’re the focus of our newspaper’s NFL coverage.

If I’m right, please send me an e-mail.

If I’m wrong, please send me an e-mail.

Please do not call me with your votes. I will be too busy to talk to any of you nutty football fans for the next couple of weeks because I’ll be watching the baseball playoffs.

Quincy Carter may or may not be the new Donovan McNabb, but he falls a little short of Pudge Rodriguez and Pedro Martinez when it comes to drama on the big screen, if anybody wants my opinion.

From the Editor’s Desk is a weekly memo to CNJ readers. David Stevens can be reached at 763-6991, extension 310, or by e-mail: [email protected].