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| Football HOFer
Roger Staubach |
ROGER STAUBACH won the Heisman Trophy in ‘63 as the quarterback for the U.S. Naval Academy, and then served four years of active military duty before joining the Cowboys, who had drafted him in the tenth round in ‘64. In 11 years with the Cowboys he never experienced a losing season. Known for his late-game heroics, Staubach rallied the Cowboys 23 times in the fourth quarter, including 14 in the final two minutes of regulation, to produce victories. He led the Cowboys to four NFC crowns and two Super Bowl titles. Upon his retirement in ‘79, he had the NFL’s No. 1 career passer ranking. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in ‘85. Staubach spoke recently about football and life after football with SportsBusiness Journal New York bureau chief Jerry Kavanagh.
Q: A couple of things about you that I just learned. You were the cover subject for Life magazine in late November ‘63 when the issues were recalled after JFK was assassinated.
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| Original Cover Of The Nov.
29, 1963 Issue Of Life |
Staubach: That’s correct. That Friday afternoon, they were on their way out, and [Life] pulled them back. I have a few copies, but most of them were destroyed, and they just redid the whole cover.
Q: You were the original choice for the Mean JOE GREENE role in the Coke commercial. What happened there?
Staubach: Some creative guy must have evaluated the concept and said, “Hey, we need a mean guy. It would be better to have Joe Greene than Staubach because Staubach’s a nice guy.” It probably made more sense, gave a more cuddly feeling to it, to have this big old, tough football player give his jersey to this little boy. It turned out, I guess, it was the right decision, but I would have loved to do it.
Q: You are also credited with the first “Hail Mary” pass. How did that come about?
Staubach: That term had never been used by the press or anybody else. In the past, if you threw a pass at the end of the game, it was called the alley-oop or the bomb. We were playing the Vikings in a playoff game and were behind 14-10. DREW PEARSON made a heck of a catch — it wasn’t a great throw - and went in the end zone and we won 17-14. After the game the press asked me what I was thinking at the time. When I threw the ball I got hit. So I said, “I just closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.” The next day, the headlines read “Hail Mary Pass Wins Game.”
Q: What was the key to your football success?
Staubach: Having great teammates and a coach for 29 years who ... was something special. We had good preparation and developed a never-say-die attitude. The games I quarterbacked ... we lost some very tough games, but we never gave up. We won our share. We won more than we lost by a great margin, and it had to do with the caliber of the players and the commitment to each other. There are always agendas. But we really tried to put our personal agendas second for the team.
Q: You founded The Staubach Company in ‘77, a commercial real estate business. How did that come about?
Staubach: They didn’t pay quarterbacks as much then as they do today. We had three children who were born in the navy. I was a 27-year-old rookie when I joined the Cowboys in 1969. I needed something in case I got hurt or if some linebacker took my head off. So, I went to work in the offseason. I worked for a real estate firm. And a few years before I retired I started our company with a partner. We’ve grown our business since I retired. I really got started in real estate in 1970 with the HENRY MILLER Company.
Q: You have pledged your support for a proposed new Cowboys stadium in Arlington. What will a new sports facility mean to the area?
Staubach: This was difficult. I didn’t want to do something politically that I didn’t believe. I wasn’t doing this for JERRY JONES or the Cowboys. I really believe that a new complex in the Metroplex will be a positive thing, and we will get a Super Bowl here. I didn’t get into the total economics, but there are going to be intangible benefits and tangible benefits. Arlington is kind of in the middle of the Metroplex here and it is growing like crazy. I think the city of Dallas could have made it work, but there was no way they would have got it on the ballot in time. So it became an opportunity for Arlington. I think it will be great for this whole Metroplex, not just for Arlington.
Q: You have said, “In business, you’ve got to have leadership, and the ability to discipline people. The same goes for sports.” What’s your definition of a leader?
Staubach: Leadership has to encompass integrity and being truthful to what you believe in. A leader knows his strengths and weakness and has the ability to get people to understand his vision. He is someone the rest of the team believes can get it done and gives everything it has on his behalf because of that belief. A leader knows how to handle things personally, in business or on the athletic fields, and wins the trust of the people that he deals with.
Q: SportsBusiness Journal named PAUL TAGLIABUE the most influential person in sports business. What’s your impression on the job he’s done as NFL commissioner?
Staubach: I think Paul Tagliabue is really special. When you have 32 owners, businessmen who have agendas, and you keep them focused on what’s best overall for the NFL, that has got to be one of the toughest business challenges for any CEO. He has done a phenomenal job. The NFL is the best-run business, with the way they share revenues and their TV contracts — the whole deal. Tagliabue, when he took over for PETE ROZELLE, has done one heck of a job.
Q: Can the other professional sports leagues learn anything from the NFL?
Staubach: Yeah, but it might be difficult. Look at what hockey is going through now to get a salary cap, which football got — and that was a very long and arduous process. Basketball has got somewhat of a cap. Baseball really doesn’t have a cap and hockey’s right in the middle of it. Their whole season could be destroyed because the owners do want a cap.
The owners, you’d like to say they should be able to control their spending, but it doesn’t really happen that way. You need some cooperative issues where everyone realizes that this is best for the sport. Football has been able to get probably a better cooperative spirit between the owners and the players. It’s hard to make changes. Football was able to do it. But the labor issues are a constant battle in all business, and sports are no different with all the money that’s involved.
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| Staubach Feels Incentive Clauses
Are A Little Excessive |
Q: Incentive clauses: Do millionaire players need them?
Staubach: I’m amazed at some of these incentive clauses. You have a $10 million contract and then you get an incentive clause to make the Pro Bowl. What is that? Players have agents, and these agents overall do a great job for them. I go way back to the old days. I kind of was my own person, and I wish I would have had an agent, to be honest with you. I did everything myself, and that wasn’t that smart, really. As a businessman, I’ve always learned from my mistakes, and I wish I would have had an agent. But putting incentives and doing all this when you get a really strong contract, it just seems like you’re supposed to do these things if you’re going to get paid a lot of money.
Q: You’re a big sports fan, aren’t you?
Staubach: I’m into sports. I enjoy football and I love baseball, especially the playoffs. I still play basketball and I go down to watch the Mavericks games. I’ve recognized, too, that sports are an outlet. I appreciate the fan more since I’ve been a businessman because I like an outlet, too. I’m working hard and I like to go and watch a game and just forget about what took place at the office that day. Sports are really a part of people’s lives.
Q: What’s the best thing about sports?
Staubach: The hard work that goes into being successful. They can pay MICHAEL JORDAN all the money in the world, but he’s going to fight and practice and work hard. TIGER WOODS is out there making big bucks, but he’s got to work on his game. In sports, you can’t be successful without working at it.
The other thing is perseverance. I think that in life, when you get knocked down, you’ve got to pick yourself back up. When you’re knocked down, though, you don’t cook the books, you don’t give up on your faith, you don’t change up on your values. You just continue to fight. Sports taught me that, taught me a lot about resilience and perseverance, and those are all important things in business.
You’ve got to expect the unexpected and that challenges and difficulties happen. And when they do, you’ve got to fight through them and still maintain your values. You find out the best in people when things are difficult, and sports teach you that, too. There are just a lot of great things in sports that are transferable into business.
Q: What’s the last book you read?
Staubach: I’ve got “Ghost Soldiers” and “Flyboys” going at the same time.
Q: What’s your favorite type of music?
Staubach: I love country-and-western music. I work out every morning to CMT. I’m a TOBY KEITH fan, MARTINA MCBRIDE, FAITH HILL, GRETCHEN WILSON. MARK WILLS wrote a song, “19 Something,” in which he remembered being Roger Staubach in the back yard running around. That became my favorite song.
Q: What’s your favorite movie?
Staubach: I love comebacks. My favorite movies — there are two of them - are kind of corny: “Hoosiers” and “The Sound of Music.”
Q: What’s your favorite vacation spot?
Staubach: Our kids live real close here. We’ve got five kids and we’re expecting our eighth, ninth and tenth grandchildren. So we try to get down to Horseshoe Bay, near Austin, where it’s convenient for everyone.
Q: What athlete do you most enjoy watching?
Staubach: PEYTON MANNING. He’s a hard worker and a great kid. I like to watch the quarterbacks play, and I’m a big fan of TOM BRADY, DONOVAN MCNABB and MICHAEL VICK. And BRETT FAVRE is an old favorite. He’s still playing great football.
