On Saturday I will board a flight to Los Angeles to cover my 17th consecutive Dallas Cowboys training camp. A lot has changed over the years, but Jerry Jones remains the one constant. My first training camp in 2003 in San Antonio was also the first for Tony Romo and Jason Witten. I thought we’d closed the door on that era, but Witten will return to the practice field Saturday.
I was a beat writer for the Dallas Morning News in 2003, and one of my many thankless tasks was tracking Larry Allen on a daily basis. He butted heads with Bill Parcells from the first day, and he spent much of training camp on an exercise bike because he couldn’t pass the conditioning test. I would walk off the field with him every day until he finally took mercy on me and started giving me one- or two-sentence answers. Based on his history, this was quite a breakthrough. We built a solid relationship right up until the time in 2004 when an editor ordered me to show up at Allen’s front door to find out why he was skipping Parcells’ “voluntary” offseason program.
“Reporters are coming to our house,” his wife said in horror. I left the scene briskly.
About that time, the Cowboys had a rookie wide receiver named Zuriel Smith in training camp. I had been assigned the task of doing “two-minute drills” with players every day to find out semi-interesting nuggets about their personal lives. My ears perked up when Zuriel said he wanted to be a pediatrician. Pressed for why he wanted to choose this path, he said, “Because I LOVE animals.”
I didn’t have the heart to correct him. And as far as I know, Smith never became a pediatrician or a veterinarian.
A couple seasons later, the Cowboys had signed Parcells’ old Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe. Drew Henson and Tony Romo were vying for the backup job during that training camp. We had briefly left Oxnard, Calif., for the Cowboys to play a preseason game against the Cardinals. I was having lunch with fellow beat writer Todd Archer when quarterbacks coach David Lee suddenly sat at our table and began opening up about Bledsoe, Romo and Henson. Todd and I were stunned because neither of us really new Lee. We decided to file our newfound information away and use it as background in our stories.
When we returned to Oxnard for practice two days later, I was interviewing Terence Newman when Lee walked up and said, “What are you doing?”
I explained that I was doing some reporting for my newspaper.
“Oh, shit,” Lee said, his eyes widening. “I thought you were the team doctor!”
David Lee and I went on to forge a great friendship, maybe in part because I had the goods on him.
During that same era, Parcells once had a fan removed because he believed him to be a spy for another team. I was not always great at charting 7-on-7 drills, but camp espionage was in my wheelhouse. I went to work trying to track down the alleged spy. I was soon told the guy showed up wearing a Kansas City Chiefs golf shirt, which seemed to me like an odd touch. I observed Parcells in the next two practices constantly scanning the crowd. The man rarely missed a beat, but his spy allegation didn’t stick.
It was also a time that Oxnard was having trouble with gang activity. And adding to the problem was the fact one particular gang wore Cowboys gear. This became tough to police while the Cowboys were attempting to sell as much merchandise as possible to fans. I pestered the gang unit until some of the officers let me trail them for a few hours. It was the one time folks in Raiders jerseys weren’t the ones being monitored.
I used to approach training camp as a time to whip myself into shape by jogging several miles along the beach in Ventura. Now, I’m lucky to make time to rent a bike with a basket on the front and ride a few miles. This year’s training camp will be defined, at first, by whether running back Zeke Elliott shows up. If he doesn’t, it will be a feeding frenzy for the first few days. If he does, we’ll move on to the next storyline.
I’m anticipating a lot of talk about second-year receiver Michael Gallup and rookie running back Tony Pollard. We’ll hear a lot about how the Cowboys want Pollard to help complement Elliott. It will seem like a great idea in the preseason, but the Cowboys will barely use Pollard during the regular season. That leaves the status of Jason Garrett as perhaps the biggest story of camp.
Will knowing he’s headed into the final year of his contract force him to take a different approach? It’s hard to imagine him breaking from his robotic ways, but I anticipate him playing a much larger role in the offense. We will grill him with questions about playcalling, but it will probably be Jerry Jones who clarifies. It’s the Cowboys way.
Just know that PressBoxDFW will be on the scene. And hopefully I’ll have a few more stories to tell.
