"Where Have You Gone Jackie Smith?"

When it comes to pro football….I am lost.

I am confused and cannot become loyal to one team because I have been betrayed so many times.

Consider my youth…. I was raised just outside of St. Louis. For you youngsters, that means I could only see away football games of the St. Louis Football Cardinals on local television. They were the only team I could watch live on Sundays when they were under the Arch. This is the equivalent of being a Cub fan in baseball. Lots of hype….lots of emotion….always coming up just short….lots of drunks in the stands Even when the Big Red were good….in the early 1970s….they could never get over the hump.

I remember those long November afternoons at Busch Stadium. First you had to chip the ice out of your seat. Then you would see the fans pelt the owner, Bill Bidwell with the ice from their seats. Next, the Cards would fold late when Roger Staubach would pull some remarkable pass out of his butt and you would go home depressed. Don Coryell made things interesting, but never did we even host a playoff game. There were some great players…and I met many of them and admired them. I loved tight-end Jackie Smith. Ahhhh…Jackie Smith….now there was a great football player. If only I could find a team today that had a Jackie Smith type on it. Then I could bond with the NFL and one particular team for life. Sort of like marriage….

Later in his career Jackie got traded to the Cowboys. They still spit in West Texas when I mention his name as one of my boyhood heroes. Smith signed with the Cowboys in 1978 after fifteen seasons with the Cards and dropped a pass from the aforementioned Roger Staubach which would have tied Super Bowl 13 for the Cowboys late against the Steelers. I found strange and wonderful irony in that drop. I remembered my frozen Busch Stadium a$$ from many seasons before….and smiled that Super Sunday in ’78.

As they say…revenge is a dish best served cold.

My marriage to the Football Cardinals ended much like my first marriage. There was a great betrayal. Bidwell turned his fat backside on all of us and scampered down to Arizona.

Good riddens. For five years I only rooted for the team that played against the Arizona Cardinals. It was satisfying but not like the summer and winter when I could root FOR the baseball Cards or the Kansas Jayhawk basketball team.

I was lost. The appearance of the Rams helped get me close to finding a relationship. The Super Bowl seasons were fantastic but then the male lambs slipped into mediocrity and have pretty much stayed there. I remember always watching the first half of games in Fairfield and then going out for a long walk rather than scream and ruin my Sunday afternoon as they deteriorated. Then I moved….to the home of the Cowboys. Oh brother….How could I ever put my childhood behind me? How could I pull for the enemy? The folks who had ruined Jackie Smith?

Actually, it has been pretty easy not getting sucked into that whole “How About Them Cowboys?” mentality because they have pretty much resembled the old St. Louis Football Cardinals for the last couple of seasons. I watch them. I watch them because I don’t have any other choice in Snyder, Texas. And I watch them so I can join in the water cooler talk the next day. I can offer up poignant observations like:

“I don’t think Romo’s mind is on the game. Who is he dating now?’

“Worst offensive line play I’ve ever seen,” And this one….which is a favorite around the old cooler on Monday mornings…..

“I wish we could fire Jerry Jones.”

I always get a bunch of bobbing heads on that one.

If only the Cowboys could be good and I could bond with them. I need a relationship with an NFL team. And the ‘Boys are the only girl in town (if you know what I mean?).

Paul Simon asked the musical question: “Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?”

I ask this---

Where have you gone Jackie Smith?

Even though you are 69-years-old…and they still don’t like you here in Texas…..I will always remember you.

For all the balls you caught….

And the one you dropped.