Cowboys Mailbag: Live From Boston
Plenty of questions to consider from the Cowboys offseason decision-making process
It is time for us to gather together and talk a little Dallas Cowboys with a periodic mailbag day to get a few things out there for everyone to ponder as we continue to bring you all of that Dallas Mavericks content here during the NBA Finals. Also, just so everyone is up to speed, I do plan on a final Dallas Stars piece this week that will be a playoff evaluation and a look ahead to the offseason. But that will probably be a few days away.
Regardless, let’s get down to business with the Cowboys.
A few days ago, the great Larry Allen passed away at the very early age of 52. He was on vacation with his family in Mexico, and when you are growing up, you definitely hear media guys say someone has left us way too soon, and you get used to hearing that sort of thing.
Well, now I am turning 52 this month, and I must tell you that losing someone like Larry, who was among the greatest Cowboys I have ever actually covered live, is much too soon.
It would be a massive stretch to say I knew him because, frankly, it was tough to get the impression from Larry from my perspective as “knowing him” because he was tough to know from our position on the outside. He was often a man of very few words, and while he may recognize you a bit, he never really let on that he could tell you your first name or anything. But in terms of guys who you sort of felt were superhero-like, he was high on that list.
Some of the others, Troy, Michael, Emmitt, Woodson, etc., were far more “knowable,” and therefore they seemed like just famous athletes. But Larry? There was something legendary about him because he was this man you would never know. So, somehow, the fascination grew.
I studied him closely in the last decade at The Athletic for a few different projects, and the one I am most proud of is the “19 for 19” series we did in 2019. I was pretty much allowed to write a long piece about Allen and do whatever I wanted, so naturally, I decided I wanted to go back and break him down as best we could with the TV copies of some of his most famous games.
If you want to read it in its full form still at the NY Times archives, here it is, but you are probably going to require the full paid sub to see that.
Here is a passage from that:
But every team that allowed Larry Allen to fall to the draft’s 46th pick would admit that their guy was no Larry Allen. Odds are that some teams were quite skeptical about the talent he faced at Sonoma State and others downgraded him due to a shoulder that required some medical review.
Allen would be selected by the Dallas Cowboys and then be named to an absurd six First-Team All-Pro squads, make a ridiculous eleven trips to the Pro Bowl and start for 13 seasons, destroying opponents like no man has ever done before.
Brad Sham, in his 2003 book Stadium Stories, made the claim that Allen is the greatest draft pick in the history of the franchise. Sham eliminated those who were taken particularly high and were supposed to be great, arriving at his answer in a way that is quite defensible but also quite subjective. The Cowboys have made some superb picks over the year and Jason Witten’s third-round selection in 2003 certainly can’t be far behind. Yet, I see where Sham is coming from here. You should never get what many suggest is the best guard ever with pick 46, and the team selecting someone that special should never be coming off back-to-back Super Bowl wins.
Yet, here we are. Just 27 days after Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones divorced, the Cowboys traded up to select Shante Carver with pick No. 23 by sending the 49ers their first- (#28) and second-round (#62) selections. But with the NFL introducing compensatory picks for the loss of free agents in 1994, Dallas was awarded another Day 2 pick: No. 46.
Describing Larry Allen with words can become difficult when hyperbole is thrown around with such routine for every player that comes along. If everyone is “special,” the truly special players have their value diminished. But to those who played with and against him, the dominance and fear of Allen is something this sport has rarely seen. You will seldom, if ever, find a guy who left foes resorting to such hushed tones of reverence when speaking his name.