As a spinoff to our popular feature, Movies You Missed the First Around, we'll post some occasional book reviews here. For today's installment we finally got around to Jeff Pearlman's account of the 1990s Dallas Cowboys, Boys Will Be Boys.

                                  

Synopsis (from Amazon):

In similar fashion to his New York Times bestseller The Bad Guys Won!, about the 1986 New York Mets, in Boys Will Be Boys, award-winning writer Jeff Pearlman chronicles the outrageous antics and dazzling talent of a team fueled by ego, sex, drugs—and unrivaled greatness. Rising from the ashes of a 1–15 season in 1989 to capture three Super Bowl trophies in four years, the Dallas Cowboys were guided by a swashbuckling, skirt-chasing, power-hungry owner, Jerry Jones, and his two eccentric, hard-living coaches, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer. Together the three built a juggernaut that America loved and loathed.

But for a team that was so dominant on Sundays, the Cowboys were often a dysfunctional circus the rest of the week. Michael Irvin, nicknamed "The Playmaker," battled dual addictions to drugs and women. Charles Haley, the defensive colossus, presided over the team's infamous "White House," where the parties lasted late into the night and a steady stream of long-legged groupies came and went. And then there were Emmitt Smith and Deion Sanders, whose Texas-sized egos were eclipsed only by their record-breaking on-field perfomances.

With an unforgettable cast of characters and a narrative as hard-hitting and fast-paced as the team itself, Boys Will Be Boys immortalizes the most beloved—and despised—dynasty in NFL history.

DSB Review:

When Boys Will Be Boys first came out in hardcover back in 2008, I remember the two takeaways people couldn't stop talking about were Barry Switzer's $100,000 liquor tab during Super Bowl week and Charles Haley's exceptionally large penis. Just know that those aren't the only sordid tales from the Cowboys' dynasty that Pearlman reveals. Not by a longshot. But this book is much more than a bunch of salacious stories strung together to satisfy the celebrity-driven society we currently live in. Instead Pearlman deftly lets the real stories, like Jerry Jones' ascension from Arkansas oil driller to Cowboys' owner and de facto general manager, come to him.

All the big names and big stories are here as you'd expect: Jones, Jimmy Johnson, Aikman, Emmitt, Irvin, Deion. But forgettable players like Clayton Holmes, Kevin Smith, and Robert Jones are as integral to the story to make it a comprehensive look at the Cowboys' dynasty. If you thought you've heard it all before, you haven't. I had no idea how close each of the Big 3 were to being cut or traded during the early years. I would have never guessed that Switzer's easygoing "good ol' boy" nature hid a difficult, unforgiving upbringing and painful memory of his mother's suicide. You'll be shocked by some of the revelations.

But for my money, the heart of this book and really the embodiment of those Cowboy teams is Michael Irvin. The book begins with his scissors attack on Everett McIver and ends with his Hall of Fame induction weekend. In between, we see Irvin as one of the more compelling and complex sports figures of the late twentieth century. Highly religious, but a serial cheater and drug abuser. A highly respected team leader, but also the ringleader of many illicit activities with the Hoopsters basketball team and at the Cowboys Sports Cafe. No one partied as hard and as late as Irvin, but he was also the first one and the hardest worker on the practice field the next day. Pearlman does a masterful and thorough job humanizing a man I wrote off long ago as little more than a bombastic analyst one routine police stop away from prison or rehab.

Few teams move the needle as much as the Dallas Cowboys. For as many fans that love America's Team, there are millions that despise them. That's the culture of winning in America today. But Boys Will Be Boys is a fascinating must-read for any sports fan as it chronicles the path from the franchise's darkest days to their highest highs and the beginning of their descent back to mediocrity.

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