By Mike Kahn
CBS SportsLine Executive Editor
Sept. 14, 1998

Now we know the bad karma thing wasn't ALL Barry Switzer's fault.

Just two games into the Chan Gailey era as the fourth coach in the history of the Dallas Cowboys, and he lost quarterback Troy Aikman for about eight weeks with a broken collarbone. Granted, that makes nine quarterbacks who have been knocked out of the lineup in this young NFL season, which should make the loss of Aikman no huge surprise.

Troy Aikman has always been a major media focal point in Big D. (Allsport)

It is just tough not to focus on Aikman, a star quarterback in every sense of the definition. But attention is not solely devoted to him. When something happens to any of the Cowboys, it automatically becomes national news. Everybody postulates about whether or not they are for real. Consider the ramifications.

Are they overrated just because they are the Cowboys?

Or, maybe they are underrated for precisely the same reason.

LET'S FACE IT, THE COWBOYS are the NFL's version of Notre Dame without the religious overtones. Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, football fans all over the country have an opinion on these guys. Apathy just doesn't play when it comes to the Cowboys.

And this hasn't happened over night. It was long before Bonehead Barry Switzer replaced Helmet Hair Jimmy Johnson as coach in 1994. This took place before Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys from Bum Bright in 1989, and the only coach in franchise history, Tom Landry, retired so Jones could bring in his (then) friend Johnson.. It was also the same year they pushed venerable team president Tex Schramm out of the picture.

And just for the record, the sale of the club came just two years after the original owner of the Cowboys since 1960 -- Clint Murchison Jr. -- had died.

Now that this brief overview of the management history of the Dallas Cowboys is complete, let's consider why the Cowboys are the team the fans love (or hate).

It began some 30 years ago when the Cowboys were compelled to refer to themselves as America's Team. This was before Ted Turner bought the Atlanta Braves and made them baseball's rendering of the Cowboys. Despite the obvious implications, this is not about ownership -- although bodacious attitudes in the front office often translate onto the field.

Often, they matter little.

THERE WAS NO MORE RELIGIOUS and spiritual leader in sports than Tom Landry. Behind closed doors, there was this side of him the public did not see. He was, in every sense of the word, a football coach. To those players who knew him well, he was cold and aloof to personal problems.

The team's answer to that -- led by quarterback Dandy Don Meredith -- was to party their brains out. The details all exploded in the book North Dallas Forty, written by Cowboys wide receiver Pete Gent. Gent took great pains to have fictitious names, but made just as great an effort to make their personalities so pronounced, that there was little doubt who he was talking about.

That was the first time the rest of the country realized how crazy the Cowboys of the 1960s really were. They played hard on the field and played even harder once the games were over. Replete with booze and drugs, it was one great rollicking party from the time training camp began to the final game of the season.

And in the off-season, we could only imagine.

For 30 years now they have been one great dichotomy of exceptional football talent challenging for championships despite a plethora of extracurricular after-hours distractions.

THE IRONY IS, AIKMAN AND Emmitt Smith, certainly two of the best players the Cowboys have had in this decade or any other, can probably be characterized as two of the straight-laced superstars that have ever donned the silver helmets.

There was never a problem with either one of them off the field, with the exception of some verbal jabs from time to time that Aikman hurled (and rightfully so) at Bonehead Switzer. Nonetheless, Smith had been wearing down physically the past couple of seasons as he continued to set new all-time rushing records. Surprisingly, he has rebounded this season after Jones booted Switzer from the fold and hired offensive wiz Gailey away from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Then came Sunday's 42-23 loss in Denver. Midway through the second quarter, as the Broncos were on their way to touchdowns on their first five possessions, Aikman was crushed -- breaking his collarbone. He will be out at least a month, probably two.

There is no guarantee when it comes to the future of his backup, young Jason Garrett. He actually looked pretty decent. He has the necessary physical tools, and they showed. Only mental mistakes forced the Garrett-led Cowboys to settle for field goals.

So we still wonder -- while caught in sympathy for Aikman's pain one day after having his clavicle shattered -- is this just one of the breaks of the game or the return of some bad karma built up after years of turmoil?

Then again, this is also about Texas, where everything is distorted -- especially the Cowboys. Maybe it is about time we just let it go and accept the Cowboys for the mediocre team they have become. Actually, the prospect of them not being in the playoffs for a second year in a row is rather refreshing, isn't it?