HISTORIC DAY: Dallas Cowboys Drew Pearson, Charles Haley, and Larry Allen honored
It’s the first time the Cowboys have inducted players into the Ring of Honor in the three-year history of Cowboys Stadium.
There are a total of 20 people in the Ring of Honor.
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The Triplets — Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin — all members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, were the last players honored for the Ring of Honor back in 2002.
Pearson, nicknamed the Original 88, made the All-Decade team of the 1970s and was a three-time All-Pro and Pro Bowler. His signature play came in 1975 when he caught a deep pass, later named Hail Mary, from quarterback Roger Staubach to beat the Minnesota Vikings in a playoff game. Pearson ranks second in franchise history in catches (489), third in receiving yards (7,822) and third in touchdown receptions (48).
“I waited and I prayed,” Pearson said after receiving a silver bowl and putting on his blue blazer with the Ring of Honor patch. “I always believed that one day this day would come.”
Haley’s selection signifies the Cowboys celebrating one of their best defensive players. He won three Super Bowl titles after he left the San Francisco 49ers to join the Cowboys and he changed the power structure in the NFC in the 1990s.
Haley has won five Super Bowl titles — including two with the 49ers — and is considered one of the dominant pass-rushers of his time. He has been eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame since 2005 but has not been selected.
After thanking his family and the fans, Haley said, “This is great and this is one of the greatest things that happened to me in my life.”
Allen, who former Cowboys offensive lineman Nate Newton called one of the great linemen of his time, was an 11-time Pro Bowler and six-time All Pro selection. He was also named to the All-Decade team of the 1990s. He’s eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame next year.
Allen, a soft-spoken man, was brief in his remarks to the fans.
Pearson’s name and years played is displayed next to Tex Schramm on one side of Cowboys Stadium, basically the Tom Landry era.
Allen and Haley surround The Triplets, on the other side of Cowboys Stadium.
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Charles Haley proud to be inducted into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor.
DALLAS COWBOYS RING OF HONOR: Emotional day for Drew Pearson, Charles Haley, and Larry Allen
After waiting many years for his place in the Dallas Cowboys’ Ring of Honor, Drew Pearson didn’t know what to do Sunday once he put on that blue jacket.
“It was like a feeling of satisfaction, it was a climax to a journey,” Pearson said. “It’s a very emotional time. If I wasn’t so vain, I probably would have cried out there. But the tears were definitely flowing inside.”
Offensive tackle Larry Allen and defensive end Charles Haley joined Drew Pearson as the three inductees into the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor during halftime of Sunday’s game against Seattle.
Drew Pearson, 60, was inducted into the Ring of Honor 28 years after he retired from the NFL.
“It doesn’t bother me because it’s now,” Pearson said. “It’s nice to be going forward where you don’t have to be asked that question anymore … why aren’t you [in the Ring of Honor]?”
“My kids thought that was my first name for a long time, because everybody comes up to me [and says] ‘why aren’t you in, why aren’t you this?’”
Charles Haley also was emotional during the post-Ring of Honor news conference. He said he’s not thinking about whether joining the Ring of Honor will help him make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“I’m thinking that Jerry Jones is a great man right now, that’s what I’m thinking,” said Haley, who played for the Cowboys from 1992-’96. “I’m not thinking about tomorrow. You can write and think about tomorrow. I’m thinking about today and how great today is. I’m enjoying this moment and I hope you help me enjoy this moment.”
Larry Allen also was enjoying his moment.
“Before every game I would look up there [at the names of the other Ring of Honor inductees] the most,” he said. “At a certain point of games, I would just look up there…. try to find a way to get up there.’’
On Sunday, Larry Allen finally made it “up there’’ in the Ring of Honor. So, too, did Drew Pearson and Charles Haley.
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RELATED: Dallas Cowboys add three players to Ring of Honor
ARLINGTON — The Dallas Cowboys stayed in the playoff hunt with a win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, but the big story at the game came at halftime, as three of the team’s greatest players were added to the Ring of Honor.
It’s been six years since the Cowboys inducted new members into the Ring, when the “Triplets” — Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith — saw their names unveiled at the old Texas Stadium.
On Sunday, Larry Allen, Charles Haley and Drew Pearson joined them.
Allen was a domanant offensive guard who played for the Cowboys from the mid-1990s into the 21st century. He made 11 Pro Bowl appearances during his career in Dallas and played on their Super Bowl XXX team.
“I’d like to thank Jerry [Jones] and his family; the Cowboys organization; my beautiful wife; my three great kids; I’d like to say thank you for playing for the greatest fans in America,” Allen said.
Haley played on that team, too, and on the other two Cowboys championship teams from the 90s. Haley also won a couple of Super Bowls in San Francisco.
“This is not a right, but a privilege, and God knows… this is one of the greatest things that’s happened in my life,” Haley told the cheering crowd.
Drew Pearson is the one we’ve been waiting for… but not as long as he’s been waiting. His last season with the Cowboys was in 1983.
“I waited. I prayed. And because I prayed, I always believed that this day would one day come,” Pearson said. “And I am so happy and so proud to be a part of this distinguished Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor!”
The three added Sunday are all very deserving and bring the total number of Cowboys in the Ring of Honor to 20.
Courtesy: TED MADDEN | WFAA Dallas
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Backup link to video: http://www.wfaa.com/sports/football/Cowboys-add-three-to-Ring-of-Honor-133333238.html
DALLAS COWBOYS HISTORY: DeMarcus Ware’s big day overshadowed by tough loss in Philly
Dallas Cowboy DeMarcus Ware - The Boys Are Back blog
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In the minutes after his four-sack performance against Michael Vick and the Eagles, DeMarcus Ware gave the impression of a man who felt his career game had been wasted.
The Cowboys outside linebacker took down Philadelphia’s scrambling dynamo for a two-yard loss on the first play from scrimmage, and from there things quickly spiraled out of control for the Cowboys. The Eagles would score touchdowns on their first three possessions to take a 21-0 lead, and added field goals on their next two, the outcome of the tame barely in doubt for five minutes at the beginning.
DeMarcus Ware would eventually post a sack in each quarter, dropping Vick and the Eagles for a total loss of 23 yards. It wasn’t enough to matter, though, as they compiled 495 yards of total offense.
“I think it really doesn’t even matter, to think about that,” DeMarcus Ware said of his big game. “We were able to get some pressure on him, but we’ve just got to go back this week and watch the film, and correct the things we need to correct and get better for the next game. You can’t sort of harp on how things went this week. You’ve got to get better and, you know, it’s just one game.”
Through just seven games, DeMarcus Ware already has 12.0 sacks on the year, only a half-sack behind league-leader Jared Allen of Minnesota, who has played one more game.
DeMarcus Ware surpassed his previous career high of three sacks in a game, which he has had seven times, and tied Ed “Too Tall” Jones and Charles Haley for second in the team record books for most sacks in a game, behind Bob Lilly and Jim Jeffcoat, who each had five.
The big night allowed DeMarcus Ware to reach double-digit sacks for a sixth consecutive season, however, getting the Cowboys back on the winning track is a more primary focus for him now.
“It has to be,” Ware said. “Because we have a long season and we’re just getting started.”
So long, the season is, that Ware is on pace for more than 27.0 sacks, which would smash the league record.
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Dallas Cowboys, 49ers face off again in storied rivalry
Credit: WFAA
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JANIE McCAULEY – WFAA Dallas/Ft. Worth
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Jason Garrett and Jim Harbaugh were NFL quarterbacks during some of the best days in the storied Dallas-San Francisco rivalry. Garrett witnessed it firsthand with the Cowboys, Harbaugh watched from afar.
The glory days of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Roger Craig … Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, and Emmitt Smith.
Epic NFC title matchups for a shot at the Super Bowl.
Now, Garrett and Harbaugh are two young coaches trying to make their own marks. Their teams face off Sunday at Candlestick Park in different positions: Harbaugh’s 49ers riding high after a commanding 33-17 win against division rival Seattle, and Garrett and his Cowboys trying to bounce back after blowing a late 14-point lead in a 27-24 loss to the Jets.
Back in the day, everybody enjoyed beating “America’s Team.”
“I thought those were unbelievable games to be a part of,” Garrett said. “Clearly one of the best rivalries of that generation, maybe any generation. Both those teams were so good during the 90s and it was also fun getting a chance to play against those guys. They had a team littered with Hall of Famers, as did we. Each of those teams won Super Bowls. You’re really getting the best of the best. I think each of the sides really enjoyed the competition playing against each other. The games were always great.”
Garrett played on three Super Bowl winners and won six division titles with Dallas. The Cowboys made him interim head coach midway through 2010 to take over a group that began 1-7 but bounced back to go 5-3 the rest of the way.
Garrett has reached out to fellow Dallas alums to help build the Cowboys back up, while Harbaugh had already established a solid Bay Area fan base after turning around the Stanford program right up the freeway from his current office.
He has his work cut out for him turning around this once-proud franchise.
These teams have faced off in the NFC championship game six times, with the winner going on to capture a Super Bowl title in five of those.
“Remember two great football teams going at it,” Harbaugh said. “It seemed like yearly, like the way the Cowboys and the Dolphins used to go at it and the Steelers and the Packers, those two teams were ones that were meeting at the end of the year to decide who was going to the Super Bowl.”
They met in three straight NFC title games from 1992-94, with Dallas beating the Niners on the way to back-to-back Super Bowl wins in 1992 and ’93 — then San Francisco returned the favor in ’94 en route to the title. The Cowboys won it all again in 1995, getting through Green Bay that year.
Of the Cowboys’ 14 NFC championship games, the six meetings with the Niners are their most against any opponent. Dallas is 4-2 in those games.
Perhaps the most memorable Cowboys-49ers matchup came in the 1981 NFC championship game. The Niners trailed 27-21 with less than 5 minutes to play and Montana drove his team 89 yards for the go-ahead score — a high pass to the back of the end zone on third down that Dwight Clark leapt to retrieve in his fingertips for a touchdown with 51 seconds left.
“The Catch” as it so famously became known. It’s considered among the greatest moments in NFL history.
“I obviously came out after the stuff in the old days but I know I love reading about the game and hearing about the history,” Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo said. “I know all about the great games in the 80s and 90s. Hopefully we’ll be able to resurrect that one day.”
Sunday’s game hardly can compete with some of the history-making performances of the past. But players on each side still appreciate this longtime rivalry and the history behind it.
Quarterback Alex Smith and San Francisco’s offense likely will have to do a lot more this time. The 49ers beat the defending NFC West champion Seahawks in Week 1 getting Smith’s short touchdown run, four field goals by David Akers and two long kick returns by Ted Ginn Jr. — a 102-yard kickoff return for a TD and then a 55-yard punt return for a score.
“I feel like it’s a Monday night game. We get to play the Dallas Cowboys. Everybody loves the Dallas Cowboys,” 49ers tight end Vernon Davis said. “It’s going to be a good one.”
Romo is ready to make things right for his team after last week’s collapse. He arrived home Monday morning at 5:15 a.m., then was back at work by 10 a.m. preparing for the 49ers.
Romo went 23 of 36 for 342 yards and two touchdowns in Week 1 but lost a crucial fumble that aided New York’s comeback.
“I have to come out and play my best game this week and make sure that what happened last week doesn’t happen again, and I’ll do that,” he said.
The Cowboys will stand for nothing less than getting back on track with a key road win — an 0-2 start wouldn’t be acceptable. The 49ers haven’t been to the playoffs or had a winning record since 2002.
Dallas, meanwhile, hasn’t dropped its first two games in consecutive seasons since 2000-01.
“I’m pretty sure they’ll be pretty mad,” 49ers defensive tackle Ray McDonald said. “I only saw highlights of it. Dallas is a good team and they’re going to come here ready to fight.”
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