Editor’s note: This post has been updated.
For me, the winners were the thousands who voted in the “Who Is Mr. Cowboy” 64-player bracket and spent hours on the SportsDay site over the last three weeks. For everyone else, the landslide winner is a guy named Roger Staubach.
And that’s fine. It’s not like I was expecting an upset.
I will say that Staubach’s defeat of his former teammate Bob Lilly (the real Mr. Cowboy, many will confirm) was more thorough than I might have imagined — 70% to 30%. But that’s how the entire bracket went for Capt. America, whose appeal four decades after retirement seems to never lose any steam.
The fun part — and the truly difficult part — was picking the right 64 Cowboys and figuring out where to seed them. And I’m sure I failed on that front, to some degree. Daryl Johnston and Dat Nguyen probably should have made the bracket. Others could have argued for higher seeds. Some were incensed that I made Tony Romo a 9 seed, squaring off against fellow quarterback Danny White in the first round.
Romo handled White just fine (64-36%), but he did run into Lilly in the second round and went out, 86-14%.
Staubach was merciless but, again, that’s not a surprise through the early rounds. He beat Byron Jones, Jay Novacek and DeMarcus Ware all by a count of 99% to 1%. Then he ran into his Hail Mary tag-team partner and eliminated Drew Pearson, 96% to 4%. Pearson can hang his hat on the fact he knocked off 11-time Pro Bowler Larry Allen, 65-35% in the third round to advance to the Elite Eight.
Others questioned the fact I made Troy Aikman a 2-seed. With Staubach, Lilly and the league’s all-time rushing leader Emmitt Smith entranced on the top row, I had to choose between Aikman and Randy White. How does one even make such a selection?
It was easier for the voters and it went the other way. Aikman beat the Manster, 66-34%. But then it was the battle of the Super Bowl quarterbacks, and the extra ring didn’t help Troy. Staubach took him out, 85-15%. I wouldn’t have anticipated that much of a blowout, but, as opponents knew, once Roger escapes the pocket and gets rolling, there’s not much stopping him.
Some of my favorite close calls: Don Perkins over Tony Hill, 51% to 49%; Billy Joe DuPree over Dez Bryant, 51% to 49%; George Andrie over safety Roy Williams, 53% to 47%; Bob Hayes over “Too Tall” Jones, 52% to 48%.
And if you’re wondering, I put a five-year minimum in place really just because it’s impossible to make an assessment of where players such as Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott belong in the bigger picture.
All of these results indicated that there was no recency bias in the voting. It was almost like the older the legend, the better. A couple of notable exceptions were Michael Irvin over Lee Roy Jordan in the Round of 16, 64% to 36%, and Tony Dorsett over Mel Renfro by a surprising 75% to 25%.
“It’s very, very hard to make choices when you’ve got a lot of good players,’’ said Hall of Famer Gil Brandt, who drafted or signed half the field. “It’s a lot easier when you’ve got a bunch of bad ones.’’
Bracket winner: Roger Staubach, QB
Original post follows...
It’s March and you’re mad with no brackets to fill out. Luckily, we are here to help.
We will save the college basketball picks for another year. By the way, the winner was going to be Seton Hall — a team I refer to as “my Pirates” since we lived about 10 miles from South Orange during my formative New Jersey years.
Instead, we offer this. Who is the real Mr. Cowboy?
A 64-man bracket has been produced by yours truly (as the No. 3 seed in the Brandt region generally refers to himself). But if you don’t like these seedings, just blame it on the committee. It’s what we do with March Madness every year, anyway.
The great news is you can cast your votes in each round. We will see whether or not upsets happen or if the strength of the field has been properly established.
Two things to note: One is that players needed five years of experience in Dallas to be included. I don’t see any way to put Dak Prescott or Ezekiel Elliott in this bracket. They haven’t done enough yet, but who knows how they might finish? Let time settle that one.
In addition, a player like Deion Sanders is a No. 7 seed based on the five years he played here. If we took his entire career into consideration — all those game-changing plays made elsewhere — clearly he would be much higher. But this is a Cowboys bracket.
The other is that I honestly didn’t go out of my way to create matchups like the 8-9 quarterback contest in the Landry region or the 5-12 best friends battle in the Murchison region. They just happened.
Some of you may note that a three-time winning Super Bowl quarterback is not a 1-seed. Could that be a mistake? Of course it could. And you can decide if he should win his bracket and march into the Final Four.
I have done the best I could. Now you decide who is Mr. Cowboy!
Create your own: Print out the bracket below to choose your own “Mr. Cowboy.”
Voting schedule (voting has concluded)
Round of 64: March 19-22
Round of 32: March 23-25
Sweet 16: March 26-28
Elite 8: March 29-31
Final 4: April 1-3
Finals: April 4-6
*voting ends at 11:59 p.m. on the final day of each round
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