Ed "Too Tall" Jones faced two main obstacles during his 15-year career with the Dallas Cowboys. One was playing his entire career when the chop block was legal (it was finally outlawed the year after Jones retired). The other was the "America's Team" label that forever changed the Cowboys' franchise.
Jones, a former All-Pro defensive end and a current spokesperson for Sportcane, said the nickname created an unnecessary obstacle for himself and his teammates.
"That America's Team thing made us bulletin board material," Jones said in a recent interview with CBS Sports. "We didn't start that as players. The media started that because the Cowboys sell more memorabilia than any other team in the league, even to this day even though they haven't won anything in 20-some years. They're still No. 1.
"We were a target every time we stepped on the field. We got teams' best. I remember players saying coaches told them, 'If you don't beat nobody else, beat Dallas.' Now picture having to deal with that every Sunday. That's not easy."
History certainly supports Jones' claim that, while the nickname was surely well intended and undoubtedly increased their popularity and marketability, it may have contributed to the Cowboys' shortcomings during the second half of Tom Landry's legendary coaching tenure in Dallas.
NFL Films gave the Cowboys the "America's Team" nickname in 1979, when Dallas was fresh off its fifth Super Bowl appearance in nine years. Legend has it the Cowboys were given the nickname after the Steelers -- who had just defeated the Cowboys in the Super Bowl -- declined it.
With their new nickname in tow, the Cowboys were still a very good team. But they were not able to duplicate the same level of success that they had enjoyed in prior years.
Starting in 1979, the Cowboys suffered five consecutive gut-wrenching, season-ending losses in the playoffs. Especially painful was three consecutive NFC Championship game losses that included ones against divisional rivals Philadelphia (1980) and Washington (1982).
Sandwiched in between those losses was perhaps the most crushing defeat of all, when Dallas fell to the 49ers after Joe Montana hit Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone on a play that will forever be regarded as "The Catch."
After Montana completed the pass, Clark once said that Jones looked at Montana and said, 'You just beat American's team,' to which Montana responded with, 'Well, you can sit with the rest of America and watch the Super Bowl.'"
"The right receiver was at the right place at the right time, Dwight Clark."
— NFL (@NFL) September 21, 2019
This is "The Catch" that lifted the @49ers to victory in the 1981 NFC Championship. @chrisbharrison
📺: #NFL100 Greatest series continues Friday on @NFLNetwork pic.twitter.com/ujUdRnZ9zV
As you can see, there is certainly a parallel between when the Cowboys were branded as "America's Team" and when they appeared to lose their level of dominance, especially over the rest of the NFC. But that wasn't the only reason why the Cowboys started to slip.
Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach's retirement after the 1979 season was a Texas-sized blow to the Cowboys. His replacement, Danny White, played well in his own right, but the Cowboys were simply not the same team with "Captain America" no longer leading the way.
Dallas also started to slowly lose the players who had been foundational pieces to their Super Bowl teams in the '70s. Having players with big-game experience, Jones said, certainly helped.
"What separates good players and good teams is teams who have players who can go to another level in big games," Jones said. "Every general manager in the league should be out trying to pick up a guy that gets cut or something that's been to a Super Bowl and put him in that locker room. It makes a big difference."
Jones can't go back in time to try to reverse the outcome of some of those games. He has, however, found a way to largely combat the impact of playing when the chop block was legal. Jones does so with the help of his Sportcane, a newly imagined walking aid developed by leading engineers and orthopedic surgeons. Sportcane after it exponentially improved Jones' quality of life by allowing him to continue to live life on his terms.
"Just my daily activities, it makes all the difference in the world," Jones said. "I don't know what I would do if it wasn't for the Sportcane as far as being able to get around and still not letting anything hinder what I do in life."
