Wednesday, March 2, 2005

10:45 AM Did I Play for the Dallas Cowboys? Thousands wait breathlessly to hear the answer. This morning Marlene and I were eating breakfast in the Dining Room at Word of Life Florida when a gentleman approached my table with a question: “Did you play football?” “No.” “I thought you played football for the Dallas Cowboys.” He was totally serious. No, I never played for the Cowboys. He said he thought I played football so he Googled “Ray Pritchard” and “Dallas Cowboys” and up popped a quote from Tom Landry saying, “He slept a lot,” presumably referring to me. Well, it’s true that in my life I’ve slept a lot, which means I must have slept through a bunch of team meetings and practices, and by the way, if I played for the Cowboys, where’s my Super Bowl ring? But the gentleman was insistent that he had seen it on Google even when I told him I had never played professional football. (I never made it past sandlot football.) Just a moment ago I Googled “Ray Pritchard” and “Dallas Cowboys,” and the man was right. There’s a quote from Tom Landry that says, “He slept well at night.” But he wasn’t talking about me. He was talking about himself. It came from this column I wrote a few months ago. All in all, I was very pleased that anyone would think I played for the Cowboys and I’m glad the gentleman asked the question. It was definitely the high point of my professional football career.