The Dallas Cowboys

July 30, 2012
In this superbly detailed, obsessively researched, and equal parts serious sports scholarship and outrageous laugh-out-loud reporting about the Dallas Cowboys, Patoski (Willie Nelson: An Epic Life) focuses in part on Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who spent $1.2 million on a new stadium (“aka Jerry World; aka the Death Star”) into which the Statue of Liberty could fit standing up, as well as the Empire State Building laid on its side. Patoski starts with the Death Star as a way into viewing the ups and downs of the 50-plus–year history of professional football in Dallas, from its inception as a popular amateur team sport in the 19th century, speaking to “Texas’s legacy as a republic that had won its independence from Mexico by fighting hard and using whatever means necessary,” through the team’s professional start under the direction of businessman Clint Murchison and coach Tex Schramm, to its various championships and its controversial sale to Jerry Jones, who brought in the equally controversial head coach Jimmy Johnson. But Patoski’s supreme ability to capture the intricacies of the team’s history doesn’t get in the way of his equally impressive and cleverly sly portrayals of the many wacky players throughout Cowboys history, from quarterback Don Meredith to the players living and partying in “the White House” in the Dallas suburbs, about which offensive lineman Nate Newton famously said, “We’ve got a little place over here where we’re running some whores in and out, trying to be responsible.”

September 1, 2012
Texas journalist and author Patoski (Willie Nelson: An Epic Life, 2008, etc.) delivers an oversized history of one of sport's greatest franchises. The Dallas Cowboys' on-field achievements--five Super Bowl wins, 10 conference championships, 21 division titles and 30 playoff appearances in their 52-year history--have arguably been overshadowed by their impact on professional football and popular culture in general, earning them the nickname "America's Team." Patoski's in-depth study gives readers everything they want to know about "The Boys" and much more, from the field to the front office, the media and, of course, the famous Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. The author also tracks the parallel development of the city of Dallas, with a focus on business and politics. For a book about a football team, there's surprisingly little football, though the author briefly recaps the triumphs and tragedies of star players like Don Meredith, Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith. Patoski barely mentions the subpar teams of the 1980s, though he does document the most recent edition's struggles, highlighted by the drama surrounding talented and camera-friendly quarterback Tony Romo. Patoski spends a surprising amount of time discussing the media coverage of the team, but the majority of the narrative belongs to the ownership and front office, with the first two-thirds dominated by the man most responsible for the Cowboys' success and for much of what an NFL franchise looks like today, team president and general manager Tex Schramm. Schramm and legendary coach Tom Landry got pushed out when "reptilian" Arkansas oil-and-gas baron Jerry Jones, a cartoon villain of a franchise owner, purchased the team in 1989, beginning the modern era of the Cowboys and keeping them in the headlines with controversy and equal measures of success and failure on and off the gridiron. A fittingly exhaustive history of a larger-than-life franchise.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2012

This immense history of the Dallas Cowboys differs in focus from other team chronicles. Titles like Peter Golenbock's Cowboys Have Always Been My Heroes and Jeff Pearlman's Boys Will Be Boys looked primarily at the players and coaches. Patoski, however, broadens the scope and examines many more peripheral but noteworthy aspects to the team: its front-office machinations and finances, the Cowboys' innovative computer setup in the 1960s, the image and impact of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, and, finally, the history and culture of Big D itself. There are occasional trivial factual mistakes in the galleys, but Patoski provides a comprehensive record of everything to do with the iconic franchise of America's Team. VERDICT Cowboy fans and football historians will find this volume an appealing addition.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2012
The Dallas Cowboys have sometimes been called America's Team not so much lately, but like an aging rock band whose last creative surge was 20 years ago, the Cowboys still have their devotees. Patoski presents the whole history of the Cowboys in one volume. Others have covered different Cowboy eras (see Eisenberg's Ten-Gallon War), but this is the whole shootin' match. Patoski begins with background on the Murchison family, the team's original owners. He segues to the Tom Landry years, from initial success through Super Bowl triumph, to the last, sad seasons in a 29-year coaching reign. Then Jerry Jones bought the team, and a new golden era of Cowboy football began with coach Jimmy Johnson. Patoski moves seamlessly and entertainingly from season to season with great anecdotes and insider game accounts.The only negative one can muster is that there are so many other books about the Cowboys, meaning that most of the information is available elsewhere. Still, this volume will certainly appeal to Cowboy Nation, which has sleeper cells all around the country.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)