Show Us Your Team

Despite not being truck people, we'd love to have a
vehicle like this one!

Going through my G-Reader late last night I saw lots of you were taking part in this Football link-up hosted by Running Down a Dream and decided I'd jump in too, since we're big on NFL football in our house!

For us, we're Dallas Cowboys fans living in Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packer territory (ah the joys of living just a short distance from the IL/WI stateline!).

Nope, neither of us have ever lived in Dallas or Texas for that matter...

Not sure why hubby became a fan really - no one in his immediate family was ever really into football when he was growing up, but he's been a Cowboys fan since before we ever met (so at least 14 years ago!). For me, I remember being in 4th or 5th grade back in the mid-90s and Starter Jackets were all the rage and back then and you either liked the 49ers or the Cowboys. I always rooted for the Cowboys when we watched the games during Thanksgiving so naturally I decided I'd be a Cowboys fan, even though I wasn't really that big on football at the time.

In high school, my high school sweetheart was a HUGE Bears fan and during the 3 years we dated we'd always watch the games together on Sunday, however I'd always check-in on my Cowboys and see how they were doing as well and of course root for them when we weren't rooting for the Bears. The guy I dated next for several years in college wasn't big on sports at all so I didn't watch much football for the next 3 years until hubby and I finally started dating, and him being a Cowboys fan too, well, I finally got to watch my team's games and cheer em on and keep up with them much easier than I had before.

My college roommate moved down to Dallas a few years ago for her own reasons and we decided we would go visit her at some point. Hubby requested we go during football season so we could catch a home game while we went and so we did - we went to the Monday Night Football game at the end of October against our rivals the New York Giants a few days before hubby's birthday, saying it was his birthday present!

Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX from the outside of the parking lot

Gotta say, being in Cowboys Stadium (the NEW stadium!) it was pretty cool! I've been to Solider Field several times but Cowboys Stadium was just... wow! And with the world's largest HD TV hanging above the field... that thing is A BEAST! The game was pretty exciting and we only lost by like a touchdown despite The Giants giving our quarterback a season ending injury (which was hard to watch - you could see Romo on the sidelines nearly begging them to put him back in, despite them saying he had a cracked collarbone or whatever).

Hubby enjoying his birthday present!

Me in my homemade Cowboys maternity, 5 months pregnant

We went back the following day and took the VIP tour of the stadium which included a visit to owner Jerry Jones' private suite (which has an elevator in it!) as well as the both the players and cheerleaders locker rooms and a trip onto the field, getting our picture taken on the big Cowboys star in the center of the field.

Us sitting in Jerry Jones' private suite on the 50-yard line

Getting our picture taken on the giant Cowboys star in the center of the 50 yard line

Favorite players... Tony Romo obviously, as he's our quarterback, Miles Austin, Jason Witten, DeMarcus Ware (aka D-Ware), Felix Jones, Dez Bryant... I am partial to Doug Free (and formerly Sam Hurd) as they both played college football for NIU when I was there, so seeing them continue their careers into the NFL and on my team was neat! I also really liked Marion Barber too but he sadly won't be playing for us this season either... our kicker - Dave Buehler - is pretty awesome too, as he's known for also tackling people - how many people can say their team's kickers do that?? 

I wore my homemade Cowboys maternity tee to the game too, as I was 5 months pregnant with Jay at the time and couldn't find any "official" ones I liked. I got quite a few compliments on it from staff members at the stadium though! I have a t-shirt and a hoodie, but I am hoping for my birthday this year to get an actual jersey (a Romo one since Barber and Hurd are now playing for the Bears - grrrrr). We got quite a bit of Cowboys loot when we were down there, as you can pick it up at Walmart not to mention in the mall down there they have an actual Cowboys pro-shop with all the official NFL gear for sale - we got the Fox NFL "Cleatus" robot too, as those NFL robots crack us up (not to mention I prefer watching the games on Fox too) among some baby stuff for Jay to wear this year! Our goal is that when he starts talking is to teach him how to say "football" "Cowboys" and "touchdown" so he can yell em out while watching football with daddy! hehe...

 

I'm soooo glad the NFL lockout is over and the preseason is about to get underway this week - I don't know what we would do each week with no football this fall - it'd be worse than the year there was no baseball when I was a kid!

The 1st Sunday Night Football game is the Cowboys vs the Jets and since we have a rec room in our new house hubby insists we host a football party! Should be fun!

Also, while out at the mall last week I stopped into one of the sports shops after work to try on jerseys to figure out what size I want and came across this awesome official Dallas Cowboys snowman family! It was 50% off too so obviously I couldn't pass it up, not to mention with the 2 big snowmen and the baby snowman it's PERFECT for our family! I can't wait to display it this winter!