Tony Romo's five-pick night against the Chicago Bears in Week 4 was further soiled by another slap in the face at Cowboys Stadium: The steady sound of cheering for the Bears.
Chicago's faithful showed up in force and could be heard over the Dallas ticket-holders, especially on Jay Cutler's 31-yard touchdown strike to Brandon Marshall late in the game.
Troy Aikman, the Cowboys' legendary quarterback, blames the culture of Dallas sports.
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"I've always said Dallas isn't so much a sports town as it is a winner's town," Aikman told KTCK-AM, via The Dallas Morning News. "And that's not that unique. Most towns are like that. There are very few towns like Chicago where you can go out there and go 4-12 and they're (still) selling out stadiums. That's pretty unique. But Dallas, they pull for their winners."
Aikman wasn't finished.
"I don't think Dallas has ever really had a great home-field advantage," he said. "... I think for a large part -- and the fans don't want to hear this -- a lot of the people that attend sports in this town, they're there because it's kind of just a place to be seen. I didn't know anybody who went to Rangers games, and then when they started winning and going to World Series, everybody's wearing Rangers hats and saying, 'Oh yeah, I'm a big Rangers fan.'Â "
Aikman's Cowboys enjoyed a run of success that few teams -- and few fan groups -- will ever know. For much of the 1990s, there was plenty to cheer about as the Cowboys sliced through opponents and played endless playoff games at home en route to three Super Bowl titles under owner Jerry Jones.
Even with all the success, Aikman pointed to the raucous environments in Philadelphia and New York as stadiums where the fans impacted the opponent. Dallas never came close. Lambeau Field, this is not.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.
