Home field no advantage for Cowboys

by Nathan Wall, staff writer

For me, there is nothing like going to your favorite team’s football game and being a part of a loud crowd.

However, as a diehard Cowboys fan who has been to seven games so far, including four this season, I have yet to experience that loud crowd. To sum up the performance this season of Texas Stadium in one word, I would have to choose pathetic.

Now, I know it’s hard to get up for the St. Louis Rams, a game the ‘Boys won 35-7, but I can’t understand why you wouldn’t make some noise when the undefeated Patriots come to town, or when the hated Redskins stomp on the star, as they did during pre-game on Nov. 18.

Cowboys fans like to point out the popularity of their team. Number one in jersey sales and number one in the fan polls, but they can’t yell for their team. You’d figure, with all the fans they have, they could make just a little bit of noise.

I found it quite irritating when the 14 Redskins fans sitting behind me could make more noise for their team, on our turf, than all of the other Cowboys fans sitting in my section.

I’m a guy who likes to yell on every down, because that’s what going to the game is for. That’s a part of home-field advantage, but I don’t think the rest of Texas Stadium gets it yet.

Former Cowboys coach, and legend, Jimmy Johnson once went on a radio show in 1993, before a NFC Championship game against the 49ers, and promised a win. Johnson, when asked after the game about his promise, said his team would need every advantage it could get, including fan noise. And the only way he knew how to get the fans at Texas Stadium to be loud was to promise a win. Isn’t that sad?

Shouldn’t fans want to yell for their team no matter what? Shouldn’t they make some noise just like they do in Philadelphia, in Seattle, or wave those terrible towels like they do in Pittsburgh? Even in Indianapolis, they will go out of their way to pump in artificial crowd noise. Shouldn’t Cowboys fans want to make their home-field advantage worth something?

Last year, a year full of promise, the Cowboys went a measly 4-4 at home, on the way to a 9-7 record. Do the math. That’s terrible, that a team plays better on the road than in the comfy surroundings of their home field.   

Maybe I don’t want the Cowboys to have home-field advantage over the Green Bay Packers, because history suggests that they’d be better going somewhere else to play that all-important playoff game.

I’ve gone to college games and have heard stadiums thunder with the sound of screams. So why can’t it be that way in pro sports? Why can’t it be that way for America’s team, the most popular team in all of pro sports? That’s right, the Cowboys are more popular than the Yankees, according to an ESPN poll done last September.

So, if you want to sit on your backside, be quiet, and complain because the guy in front of you is trying to create some home-field advantage, then maybe you should stay at home like the wannabe fan you are. But if you want to get rowdy, yell for the silver and blue, and prove you’re a diehard fan, then show it.

Until Texas Stadium fans get loud and prove their commitment, they’re just a bunch posers hopping on the 10-1 bandwagon.