Fear No Evil by Charles Haley

Author:Charles Haley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Triumph Books
Published: 2016-09-22T04:00:00+00:00

7. Going Back-to-Back with the ’Boys

San Francisco is a beautiful city, and the fans there couldn’t have been nicer to my family and me. Heck, Karen and the kids didn’t want to move when I was traded; it took them almost a year to join me. The people are chill, relaxed, and knowledgeable. I don’t have a negative thing in the world to say about San Fran.

It’s just that, and this isn’t a bad thing, the day-to-day trials and tribulations of the 49ers aren’t the biggest things in anyone’s lives out there—except for maybe the players and coaches. The fans want the 49ers to win, but on Monday, it’s back to their world, their jobs, their families.

In Dallas, and really Texas in general, the Cowboys are the lead story 365 days a year. I have never seen anything like it. There was no place I could go during my playing days there without being recognized and asked for an autograph. I mean, homeless dudes were asking me and I’d say, “How about $10 instead?” and they were like, “Nah, I’ll take the autograph.”

My old college assistant coach, the man who recruited me and changed my world, Danny Wilmer, came to visit me in Dallas. I think he was coming to the game, and so we went out for dinner Friday night. I told him that it wasn’t a good idea, that we should order takeout, but he wanted some authentic Tex-Mex, so off we went.

We were there five minutes, hadn’t even gotten the chips and salsa yet, and I’m signing for 80-year-old women, kids who were still pooping their diapers, and everyone in between. We left after an hour without eating. It was just bedlam. And I was a freaking defensive end. Imagine what Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, or Michael Irvin went through.

Someone told me that first year that the three most popular sports in Texas in order are high school football, college football, and the Dallas Cowboys. That sounds about right. They are obsessed with their football. And in 1993, for like two months, the lead story on every television, radio, and newspaper was Emmitt’s contract holdout. Presidential elections don’t receive the kind of coverage this did. It was mind-boggling. It only intensified after we lost our first two games, the latter of which came against the Buffalo Bills in a rematch of the previous Super Bowl. What happens next depends on who you ask.

The version that went viral, at least what was considered viral back then before the Internet, was that I threw my helmet at Jerry Jones as I walked into the locker room and said, “We’re trying to defend the world championship with a rookie running back and one of the greatest ever is sitting at home watching on TV.”

My helmet, and this part is true, made quite a hole in the wall, which was visible to the media when they were allowed in a few minutes later. That story was nice and neat, makes for good copy—Haley loses his mind again.

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