Cowboys taking a different tack this year
By Ron Reid / Knight-Ridder Newspapers
PHILADELPHIA - Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, ever concerned about
the well-being of his hired hands, promised to take the rough
edges off training camp this summer and let his players concentrate
on football rather than world travel.
Dallas played in Tokyo in 1992, London in 1993, Mexico City
in 1994, Toronto in 1995 and Monterrey, Mexico, in 1996, but
this year the Cowboys will be stay-at-homes and will not cross
a foreign border to play an exhibition game.
Jones rejected NFL offers to play in another American Bowl.
Indeed, the team will play only four exhibition games, just like
your basic NFL team such as the Eagles, and the Cowboys will
venture out of Texas only once, for a game at New England on
Aug.8.
One other trip will find the Cowboys in the west Texas town
of El Paso for a July 26 scrimmage against San Diego. When the
'Boys scrimmaged the Oilers in El Paso last year, they sold out
the 51,000-seat Sun Bowl and made a ton of money.
For some reason, Jones wants to do that again.
The rushin' is coming. The Cowboys this season will carry
11 defensive linemen on the roster, rather than the nine of a
year ago.
Because Leon Lett will sit out until November because of his
drug suspension, and since Charles Haley's back problems probably
will force his retirement, Dallas no longer has a great lineman
or pass rusher.
So the Cowboys will try to do with quantity what they used
to do with quality, and generate a pass rush by using fresh bodies
as much as possible.
"This could be our best defensive-line rotation in eight
or nine years," said Jones, obviously forgetting 1992.
That was the season when the Cowboys rotated Russell Maryland,
Tony Casillas, Lett and Jimmie Jones at defensive tackle, and
Haley, Tony Tolbert and Jim Jeffcoat at end - on their way to
their first Super Bowl victory of the 1990s.
All content copyright 1996, AP, The Abilene
Reporter-News and Reporter OnLine
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