{"id":193524,"date":"2025-09-02T07:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T07:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/193524\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T07:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T07:21:10","slug":"why-netflixs-new-documentary-on-the-dallas-cowboys-is-better-than-the-last-dance-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/193524\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Netflix\u2019s new documentary on the Dallas Cowboys is better than The Last Dance | NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of all the unflinching moments in the new Netflix<\/a> blockbuster, America\u2019s Team: the Gambler and his Cowboys, one stands out more than most. It comes after the Dallas Cowboys\u2019 former star receiver Michael Irvin is asked about the White House, the secret mansion where some players would unwind while winning three Super Bowls during the 1990s. \u201cI was the president of the White House,\u201d Irvin says with a cackle, his eyes lighting up. \u201cIt was a safe place for camaraderie.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this, it turns out, was a very different style of team building than going down the pub.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had five rooms and whatever you liked you were going to mingle with your like,\u201d Irvin says. \u201cIn that room you may be smoking weed, in this room they may be doing ecstasy, coke, whatever. There\u2019s a group of girls in each room and you just kind of bounced from room to room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another player says: \u201cWe played hard, then we played hard.\u201d A third confesses to getting locked up \u201ctwo or three times\u201d and being let loose by cops \u201cmaybe 100 times\u201d. Then the Cowboys\u2019 fixer appears, to explain how he would clean things up.<\/p>\n

At this point two thoughts come to mind. This is a far grittier and, yes, better sports documentary than The Last Dance, the Michael Jordan hagiography that bewitched us during lockdown. In fact, I am not sure I have seen a more complete portrayal of the rise and fall of a sports dynasty, in all its glory and grubbiness. But also: can we have more of this, please?<\/p>\n

Imagine a Netflix epic on Manchester United that had Sir Alex Ferguson unloading on every topic under the sun, Rio Ferdinand on his missed drugs\u00a0test, and\u00a0the Glazers taking you into the heart of their takeover. This is, in essence, the NFL<\/a> equivalent.<\/p>\n

Early in the documentary, we see old footage of the former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson shouting at one of his players after he collapses during a running test. \u201cYou\u2019re on the wrong field to have asthma,\u201d Johnson tells him, before promptly cutting him. After a defeat by Washington, Johnson refuses to let his players eat on their flight home. \u201cJimmy was a complete asshole,\u201d one player says. But this tough love, combined with drafting a team of future superstars, turned the Cowboys into back-to-back Super Bowl winners. But then Johnson left after feuding with Jerry Jones, the Cowboys\u2019 owner and general manager, over who deserved the most credit for the team\u2019s success and the two have been fighting over their legacy almost ever since.<\/p>\n

That dispute lies at the heart of the Gambler and his Cowboys. But it still finds fresh ways to reopen old wounds. Jones, for instance, reveals for the first time that he had cancer \u2013 a stage four melanoma that required multiple surgeries. But rather than dwell on his mortality, he then tells the story of how his doctor told him to make a list of 10 people who made his blood boil and to wish them success while meditating.<\/p>\n

\u201cNumber one, I wrote down the name Jimmy Johnson,\u201d Jones says. \u201cBut then I went back to my doctor: \u2018I can\u2019t get past that first motherfucker.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, announces the appointment of Jimmy Johnson as coach in 1989. Photograph: Bettmann\/Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

While the two men reconcile eventually, it is refreshing to hear such honesty, especially as so many sports documentaries are compromised. We all know there is usually a price to pay for access. Questions unasked. Thorny topics\u00a0skirted over. But in a world where most documentaries feel as airbrushed as a Vogue cover shoot, the Gambler and his Cowboys bucks the trend.<\/p>\n

So why is that? Why were these people willing to unburden their souls and tell stories we haven\u2019t heard before? Part of that is the skill of the documentary makers. They ask the tough questions. And they are so diligent they even get the prosecutor and judge in the case that led to Irvin being fined $10,000 for cocaine possession to talk about it.<\/p>\n

Want to know what it is like to be concussed? Well, the Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman explains the sensation better than anyone I have ever heard. At one point he also talks about blood coming from his ear. In another, he admits not remembering playing in an NFC\u00a0Championship game. \u201cI\u00a0watched the game the next day and I played well,\u201d he\u00a0says. That is a skill, too.<\/p>\n

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Maybe part of it is also an age and generation thing. Johnson and Jones are 82. They won\u2019t be around for that much longer. The players also come from a time when media training wasn\u2019t designed to strangle their personalities.<\/p>\n

It was also just a very different era. The Hall of Fame star Charles Haley, for instance, joined Dallas from the San Francisco 49ers after reportedly walking into the 49ers general manager\u2019s office, pulling out his penis, urinating on his desk and said: \u201cThis is how bad I want out of here.\u201d Players don\u2019t do things like that any more.<\/p>\n

The Dallas Cowboys\u2019 coach, Jimmy Johnson, confers with defensive end Charles Haley during the NFC championship game against the San Francisco 49ers in 1994. Photograph: Linda Kaye\/AP<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t it be great if we were able to watch something as unvarnished and raw about some of the great British teams? The Liverpool side of the 70s and 80s, perhaps, as well as United in the 90s? There is surely a great documentary also on the rise and fall of England\u2019s Rugby World Cup winners, including the horrific concussion stories and the tabloid tales of dwarf-throwing contests?<\/p>\n

Certainly the Cowboy and his Gamblers lays down the template. Towards the end of it, Irvin talks about being left temporarily paralysed after hitting his neck on the ground and calling his wife from the ambulance to tell her. It leads to him having to retire. Yet he also admits that such was his bond with his teammates that, if Cowboys were still in their prime, he would have risked coming back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all imperfect people,\u201d Irvin says, with a sagacity of someone who has been there and done it all. \u201cAnd each of us has at least two of us in all of us. That person you show everybody. And that person that you never show anybody.\u201d The trick this documentary pulls off is to reveal those deeper truths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of all the unflinching moments in the new Netflix blockbuster, America\u2019s Team: the Gambler and his Cowboys, one…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":193525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-193524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-tx","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115133501193328807","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}