Below is a 10-question e-mail exchange with Jeff Pearlman that was conducted over several days last week. We thank him for his time. His book, m“Boys Will Be Boys, the Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty,a” is a wild ride and a compelling read for fans who followed the Cowboys of that era.
I read your book on Barry Bonds. Are you finding some similarities in personality types at the highest level of sports n— that most are raging egomaniacs? Who ’s more antisocial, Bonds or Charles Haley? I havenh’t yet read your Mets book, The Bad Guys Won. Are there any comparisons you can draw between the ‘86 Mets and the 1990s Cowboys champions?
Any lingering philanthropic intentions dissipated in the mid-1980s, when a linebacker named Eugene Lockhart took charge of the Hoopsters and ran the operation less like a goodwill tour and a bit more like a Hollywood agent. The Hoopsters began demanding exorbitant appearance fees for their participation. Instead of COME OUT AND SEE THE COWBOYS RAISE MONEY FOR A GOOD CAUSE! promotional signs should have read COME OUT AND SEE THE COWBOYS RAISE MONEY FOR A GOOD CAUSE— MINUS THE $30,000 WE’VE GOTTA PAY THEM TO BE HERE, THE FOOD WE’RE REQUIRED TO SUPPLY, AND THE FIRST- CLASS HOTEL SUITES THEY PROBABLY WANT, TOO. “Lockhart was not a good guy,” says Anthony “Paco” Montoya, who managed the Hoopsters and worked as a gofer for several players through the 1990s. “He was a bully who did things the wrong way.”
While I read this book months ago, I just got it back from a friend and am considering it as a time filler and overall good read as I wait for baseball to start back up. The book paints the behind the scenes Cowboys just as weo’d expect them b– wild, crazy and with enough blow to put Columbia to shame. Definitely check it out.
