Product Description

Includes an exclusive audio CD featuring interviews with Dallas Cowboys greatest players.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #304199 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 158 pages

From the Publisher
"To me, Tom Landry is the greatest coach in the history of the game." --Roger Staubach

"Roger Staubach was the epitome of what Landry thought a quarterback should be. He was the most dedicated guy you'll ever be around. If somebody did a hundred sit-ups, Roger was going to do a hundred and one. --Walt Garrison

"You couldn't kick dirt up. You couldn't move it. Your cleats couldn't sink into anything. It was like walking in a pair of cleats on concrete." --Cornell Green, on the Ice Bowl

"You could make more money investing in government bonds, but football is more fun." --Clint Murchison Jr.

From the Inside Flap
When Clint Murchison Jr. purchased an NFL expansion team in 1960 for the then-whopping sum of $600,000, he never could have imagined that his Dallas Cowboys would one day become one of the most famous and celebrated franchises in all of sports. Known around the world as "America's Team," Dallas legends like Tom Landry, Roger Staubach, Tex Schramm, Troy Aikman, and Emmitt Smith have become synonymous with football excellence.

"Then Landry Said to Staubach..." chronicles more than four decades of the greatest Cowboys stories ever told, from the team's early beginnings as the Dallas Rangers to the 2006 battle of wills between coach Bill Parcells and temperamental wide receiver Terrell Owens. Written and compiled by former Cowboys running back Walt Garrison and author Mark Stallard, "Then Landry Said to Staubach..." gives you an insider's view of the most important people and moments in Dallas history, and sheds new light on the relationship between head coach Tom Landry and quarterback Roger Staubach, two of the most complex and often misunderstood men in NFL history.

Even Cowboys fans who know their team inside and out will find something new within the pages of "Then Landry Said to Staubach...." Get the true story behind the Ice Bowl, how the players really felt about Tom Landry, how Jerry Jones changed the franchise's culture, and everything else that makes the Dallas Cowboys "America's Team"--now and forever.

About the Author
Walt Garrison played college football at Oklahoma State University before joining Dallas in 1966. He is the coauthor of Once a Cowboy, a memoir of his life as a quintessential Cowboy.

Mark Stallard is the author of more than 10 books, including Echoes of Oklahoma Sooners Football. He lives in the Kansas City metropolitan area with his wife Kathleen and their two sons.

Customer Reviews

Then Landry Said to Staubach: The Best Dallas Cowboys Stories Ever Told
This might be the worst "book" I've ever read. I am a lifelong Cowboys fan... a real homer's homer... and I couldn't stomach this thing. From its disjointed content to its grammatical errors to its shameless reprinting of pages upon pages of other players' Hall of Fame speeches, this book offers its reader an endless supply of disappointments. I'm not even going to mention the gratuitous vulgarity, which would be less offensive if this book hadn't been written at a second grade level. I didn't expect much out of the read, either... just some entertaining timefill for a sucker for all things Cowboys. Even so, I found myself in stunned disbelief that a product this poorly constructed could be released to a wide audience.

For a Cowboys fan looking for a fun, informative read, try Tales from the Dallas Cowboys by Cliff Harris and Charlie Waters.

Good Stories But Very Familiar
A large part of this book is made up of excerpts from other books on the Dallas Cowboys. That makes it hard for me to decide how many stars to give this book. I'm giving it four, because the excerpts are good and the audio CD extra is a nice addition.

However, if you've read the books that are the sources for Then Landry Said to Staubach, you'll probably want to pass up on this book. A lot of the material comes from Walt Garrison's 1988 book "Once a Cowboy." It isn't just the stories being used again, but it's word for word as to how it appeared in the earlier book. I also recognized several long quotes from Peter Golenbock's "Cowboys Have Always Been My Heroes" and Jeff Meyers's "Dallas Cowboys." But there is some original material and also about 20 pages of text from various Hall of Fame speeches.

The CD extra, which is 55 minutes in duration, consists of portions of the audio from the actual CBS television broadcast of the Cowboys win over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI. It's not a suspenseful game, but as Dallas's first Super Bowl win, it is a cherished memory of long-time Cowboy fans. You get to hear announcers Ray Scott and Pat Summerall make the calls for some of the more important portions of the game. In addition you get to hear Tom Brookshier and Summerall as they conduct their brief post-game interviews with many of the Cowboy starters from the game as well as Coach Tom Landry and owner Clint Murchison Jr. One of the more memorable moments is Duane Thomas breaking his media silence to be interviewed by Brookshier. That Thomas had former Cleveland Brown great Jimmy Brown with him helping him through the interview makes this moment even more odd. However, if one already has the DVDs containing almost the entire TV broadcast- audio and visual- this CD won't be of much interest. (Yes, these DVDs do exist and include the post-game interviews).

Anyhow, if you are interested in anecdotes about the Dallas Cowboys, especially from the `60s and `70s, but aren't already familiar with them, then I'd recommend this book. Or you might want to track down a copy of "Once a Cowboy", which is even better.

Rockman
First, this book is worth every penny. Keep that in mind as you read on.

This is a great collection of Cowboy ancedotes by Walt Garrison and others. Watt's stories appear to be recounted verbatim, in a folksy, comfortable language. Here are my observations.

1. I wish there was more, but referring to the first sentence above, then it would probably cost more.

2. I wish it was better organized. This is likely an editorial critique.

This book comes with a CD of comments from Super Bowl VI. I haven't listened to it because:

a. I am afraid to damage the book by opening the CD pocket.

b. I am not sure how a "39-year-old" guy could justify remembering watching this game and being moved by a recap.