Confessions of a Dallas Cowboys fan, born and raised in Philadelphia.

I was born at Women's General Hospital in Philadelphia, PA on September 13th, 1970. My parents met in Pittsburgh at a civil rights rally. My father, Smitty, having been born and raised in the steel city, was a rabid Steelers fan. My mother had no particular football affiliation.

Smitty's Pittsburgh sports affiliations ran deep. As a teenager he took me to meet Cool Papa Bell. The Negro League legend received us at his home, I watched in awe as history and my father discussed old times.

My birthday is significant, because it falls right at the beginning of football season. My father brought me home from the hospital, and religously propped me up on the couch every Sunday to watch football with him. When I say I've been watching football since birth I'm not kidding.

When I was five years old my parents bought me a Philadelphia Eagles jacket. I was learning to read at the time, so my parents and I often looked through the newspaper together, while I read what I could.

To my dismay I discovered the Philadelphia Eagles, whose emblem I wore upon my chest, were god awful at the game of football. My father rooted for the Steelers every week and they were good. Why was I stuck rooting for these losers?

Nobody mentioned anything to me about city pride, and I don't think I would have cared if they had. I wanted to root for a winner. I admit it, as a child I was a horrible front runner.

I wanted a Dallas Cowboys jacket, and on my sixth birthday, that's what I got.

I wore my Cowboys jacket to school every day. I flaunted my affiliation in front of the people who booed Mike Schmidt, Santa Claus, and egged the Redskins bus on Sunday. I was kind of shocked they didn't use batteries. Times changed, but I've always stayed true to my Cowboys.

Believe it or not, Philadelphians don't like Cowboys fans so much. they talk a lot of crap, but at the end of the day...they're sort of stuck with the Eagles. Wilbert Montgomery and Dick Vermeil got me back in the early eighties, but it's mostly been smooth sailing since then.

You don't have to waste time rooting for bad things to happen to the Eagles, you just know they will. Somebody will get hurt, (Donovan) or die in a car crash (Jerome) or get hurt (Randall).

They'll run the same play four times in a row on fourth and goal and get the same result four times in a row. I think it's the jerseys that can't win.

They'll hire Rich Kottite, draft Mike Mamula instead of Warren Sapp, and find new and inventive ways to repel talent. (T.O)

So that's how a person born and raised in Philly became a Cowboys fan.