Here in San Antonio, one of the local Cowboys homers has his radio show syndicated to another Texas city. His name is Mike Taylor, and the name of the show is changed from “Sports Talk San Antonio” to “The Mike Taylor Show.”
I want to talk about Mike Taylor’s show a bit. I don’t really care about his personal life; that’s all on him. And we’re certainly not going to begrudge him for his show’s routine. It’s what puts food in his family’s mouths and that’s the best a guy can do. I actually give him props. It gets him GREAT ratings here. But San Antonio sports talk is horrendously bad. Taylor is the best of a bad lot. Geoff Sheen is pretty smart, but he’s dealing with people who expect him to be the giant Cowboys homer Taylor is. The Sports Grind is the best sports talk show, hands-down, but they are on in hours where the average person can’t listen to them.
Mike Taylor came here from Dallas and almost all of his routine surrounds the Cowboys. Of course, there’s the claim he talks about all sports relevant to South Texas, such as the Aggies, Spurs, Longhorns…that’s about it. He also believes people tune in to listen to various entertainment-related pieces. Once in a while, he’ll talk about soccer in glowing terms. As if a sport where flopping were rewarded more than it is in basketball has some redeeming features.
Taylor is a tremendous Cowboys homer, who doesn’t consider himself a homer. People, including Taylor believe a homer is someone who thinks The Team is always right. Not so. Maybe they should review the BSP definition of a homer:
Homers aren’t people who put blinders on as if everything their team does is “right”. Homers are the ones who tell you no one watches your team, their team is the most popular, and nothing else matters.
Taylor’s perpetual Cowboys talk feeds the notion from the locals the Cowboys are still relevant to the overall NFL. The Cowboys represent about 50 percent of his show. The Cowboys could do this or that or the other thing to win and bring back the glory days. Most of the time, its how the Cowboys idiot owner, coaches and players conspire to keep HIS team from achieving greatness. He loves to bring up Jimmy Johnson too. I get a kick out of it. Like another owner/GM/coach is going to provide the Cowboys assets like they received from the Herschel Walker trade, the worst trade in the history of sports. I look at Jimmy Johnson and I saw what he did in Miami with one of the all-time great quarterbacks in NFL history. He promptly changed their game to emphasizing the great running back, Karim Abdul-Jabar. Uh-huh. This is the salary cap era. Hardly a team is going to be able to stockpile huge numbers of quality players like the Cowboys did back then.
Unfortunately, myopic Cowboys fan doesn’t know that. Myopic Cowboys fan has no idea, because people like Taylor keep telling them this mistake or that mistake by ownership is keeping the team from winning. Taylor leaves the impression its easy to win in the NFL. Not true. Its damn hard to build a championship contender in the NFL. San Francisco was bad for a long time before Harbaugh. Seattle has slid from title contender to also-ran back to almost competitor. Now the best team in the league plays in their division. New England has been trying to get over the hump to win a title again, despite having the best quarterback in the sport. The Bears fire their coach, despite a 10-win season. Meanwhile, Taylor’s getting these people down here to believe the Cowboys should be a dynasty, all the while drafting in the middle to lower half of the 1st round.
The Cowboys do have pathetic ownership and general manager. Another thing I find amusing is the fact Cowboys fan and Taylor don’t like to criticize Jones the owner since he makes a ton of money off them. They do criticize him but mostly for being a GM. As if Jones couldn’t go out and find a competent GM. They manage the team as if its a fantasy-league squad, bringing in a ton of skill players but falling way short on line play. Jones was showing some signs of actually drafting with some sense but then after astutely trading down in the first for #32 overall, he promptly reached for a center, a need. Perfect.
I like things the way they are. Taylor continues fooling Cowboys fan into thinking they should be this great dynasty when really, the Cowboys are just like every other consistently .500 team. Don’t believe me? Take away the four years of real success they had in the mid 90’s. You have a record of futility stretching back from 2012 to the early 80’s. Its been more bad than good, Cowboys fan. But myopics like Taylor won’t let you demand real change.
Off the top of my head, here are a few NFL teams that have been to Super Bowls since the Cowboys last went:
-Oakland -Arizona -Green Bay (three times) -Pittsburgh (three times)
– Seattle – Chicago – Atlanta -Philadelphia -New England (six times)
-Tennessee -St Louis (twice) -Indianapolis (twice) -NY Giants (three times)
– San Francisco -Charlotte
At least a third of those teams, Taylor would call bad franchises. Those are all teams that LOST at least one of their appearances. I didn’t even include Tampa Bay, New Orleans or Baltimore who won their appearances. That would make more than half the league. It’s hard to win a Super Bowl. And Cowboys fan myopia–dreaming they are the only team in the NFL because of homers like Taylor–makes it even harder to get there, much less win it.
Dallas is a bad franchise. If it takes sports most lopsided trade ever to put you over the top, and once that run’s over, you win one playoff game in 17 years, you’re a bad franchise. No other way to put it, unless you’re a unabashed homer, myopic or fantasy footballer.
