Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys were dealt the first setback of Super Bowl week Monday when their quarterback acknowledged that he can't use the NFC championship victory as inspiration. Because Troy Aikman doesn't remember it. Doesn't remember completing 14 of 18 passes. Doesn't remember throwing for two touchdowns. Doesn't remember leading the Cowboys to a 38-21 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.

Pat Haden took on a challenging job when he was hired to oversee a USC athletic program that had been hit hard with NCAA sanctions. The private school rewarded him by making him one of the nation's most highly compensated athletic directors. Haden earned about $2.2 million in total compensation in 2011, according to USC's federal tax return for that fiscal year. The period covers July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012. Records for 2012 are not available. USC provided the return in response to a request from The Times.

Former Dallas Cowboys owner H. R. (Bum) Bright says he wanted to sack Tom Landry in 1987 but couldn't talk Tex Schramm into doing it. A year after selling the Cowboys to Jerry Jones, Bright said his one regret is that he didn't fire Landry himself. He didn't because Schramm, the team's general manager at the time, told him he didn't have a replacement ready.

Carrie Underwood will be the new voice of NBC's "Sunday Night Football" theme song, "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night," the network announced on Tuesday. Underwood's version of the song will make its debut before the first Sunday night broadcast of the 2013 season on Sept. 8, a game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. The one-time "American Idol" champion and six-time Grammy Award winner replaces Faith Hill, whose version of the song had opened "Sunday Night Football" since 2007.

Quarterback Tony Romo signed a six-year, $108-million contract extension with the Dallas Cowboys on Friday. That means the 32-year-old quarterback -- who turns 33 next month -- with only one playoff victory for “America's Team” could be the Cowboys' gun-slinging starter under contract until 2019. “I think it's just exciting more than anything that you know you're going to be here the rest of [your] career,” Romo said in a video interview on the Cowboys' official website . Romo's new deal includes $55 million in guaranteed money.

The Dallas Cowboys go on the road and hand the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants a loss, thus starting the 2012 NFL season Wednesday night. With just one game in the books and three whole days before the action picks up again, we fanatics don't have much to go on in looking ahead to the rest of the 2012 season. But that's never stopped us before, so here we go. Which of the two teams we've seen so far has a better chance of making it to the Super Bowl? Obviously, the Cowboys were the better team in the opener.

Three victories do not a season make, but a handful of NFL teams have started the 2007 season undefeated and taken a big step toward the playoffs. The select group includes preseason favorites Indianapolis and New England, mild surprises Dallas and Pittsburgh, and a bigger surprise in Green Bay.

The Dallas Cowboys and the National Football League's marketing arm sued Converse Inc., the latest twist in a four-year battle over the use of star logos on athletic shoes. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Dallas, asks a federal judge to declare that the team can continue to license its logo to shoe companies without infringing Converse's trademark, which also uses a star design on shoes such as its Converse All-Stars.

The identity of the Dallas Cowboys is a work in progress. Are the Cowboys the gutsy team that won in overtime at San Francisco, handing the 49ers their only loss, or the wobbly one that collapsed down the stretch against the New York Jets and Detroit Lions? Is Tony Romo an asset, a liability, or both? Is Jason Garrett the right coach to lead them where they want to go? Exactly 40 years ago Monday, Halloween of 1971, the Cowboys were at a different crossroads, one detailed in the just-released book "Breakthrough 'Boys," which chronicles the pivotal 1971 season that ended with Dallas winning its first Super Bowl.

Tom Landry said Monday that saying goodby to the Dallas Cowboys was one of the most difficult things he has ever had to do. Landry, who spent 29 years as the Cowboys' coach, choked up and couldn't finish his speech in a lecture hall. "It was hard to keep your emotions under control," said a red-eyed Landry. "I tried to tell (the players) that this crisis will pass, that you have to keep moving forward."

Quarterback Tony Romo signed a six-year, $108-million contract extension with the Dallas Cowboys on Friday. That means the 32-year-old quarterback -- who turns 33 next month -- with only one playoff victory for “America's Team” could be the Cowboys' gun-slinging starter under contract until 2019. “I think it's just exciting more than anything that you know you're going to be here the rest of [your] career,” Romo said in a video interview on the Cowboys' official website . Romo's new deal includes $55 million in guaranteed money.

  Jerry Jones' new bus is nice. Real nice. Way nicer than my apartment. Way nicer than wherever you live too, and I say that with confidence even though I don't even know you. The new Dallas Cowboys bus ... excuse me, motor coach ... is called "The Elegant Lady," and it more than lives up to its name. Everything is so shiny, from the floor to the fridge. Plenty of comfy places to relax -- and lots of reminders that this luxury palace on wheels belongs to the Cowboys, including a giant blue star on the outside.

Tony Romo reportedly has yet to start negotiating a new contract with the Dallas Cowboys. But that doesn't mean that the team's starting quarterback for the last seven seasons isn't part of the organization's plans for the future. "Tony is a key piece of what we're about going forward," Cowboys Executive Vice President Stephen Jones said Tuesday, via ESPNDallas. "We're certainly going to be looking at his situation [in] time. " Romo is a three-time Pro Bowl selection who has led the Cowboys to a 55-38 record as a starter.

It's Super Bowl time again, and that can mean only one thing. Well, two things, actually. Overdone commercials and anticlimactic halftime entertainment. But will today's CBS telecast also bring out the best football? Perhaps. But the Ravens and 49ers will have to go a ways to beat some of the greatest contests in Super Bowl history. Following is our (admittedly subjective) list, arranged chronologically: 1. Super Bowl XIII / Jan. 21, 1979 / Miami Pittsburgh Steelers 35, Dallas Cowboys 31: This was Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach's last Super Bowl, and it was a bittersweet one. Billed as a matchup between two dominating QBs -- Terry Bradshaw led the Steelers -- Dallas was plagued by some ferocious sacks and tough penalties.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced its modern-era nominees on Friday, a group of 15 that includes first-year candidates Michael Strahan, Warren Sapp, Larry Allen and Jonathan Ogden. Three wide receivers are once again among the finalists -- Tim Brown, Cris Carter and Andre Reed. Also in the group are former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr., former Browns/Ravens owner Art Modell and former Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Parcells. Of the final 15, at least four and no more than seven will be chosen for the Hall by the 46-member selection committee.

The Dallas Cowboys hired former USC defensive coach Monte Kiffin as the replacement for defensive coordinator Rob Ryan on Friday. The team announced the move on its website a day after the 72-year-old former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator was at Cowboys headquarters to interview with Coach Jason Garrett and owner Jerry Jones. Kiffin hasn't coached in the NFL since ending a 13-year run in Tampa in 2008. He spent the intervening years coaching in college with his son, Lane Kiffin, at Tennessee and USC, where he was assistant head coach for defense.

Site, Time: Georgia Dome, Atlanta, 3:18 p.m. Television: Channel 4. Radio: KNX (1070). MISCELLANY * ATTENDANCE: To date, 2,189,007 have attended Super Bowl games. The largest crowd was 103,985 for the 14th Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl. Seating capacity at the Georgia Dome is 71,594. * AUDIENCE: NBC will provide TV coverage to approximately 200 stations throughout the United States, plus Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, the Bahamas and Bermuda.

SEPT. 7 Cowboys 23, Washington Redskins 10--Dallas would get an early barometer of how it stacked up in the NFC, playing each of its division rivals in the first four games. Against the defending Super Bowl champions, the Cowboys scored the first nine points, then broke open the game in the third quarter on a 79-yard punt return by Kelvin Martin. SEPT. 13 Cowboys 34, New York Giants 28--Dallas raced to a 34-0 lead in the third quarter and it looked to good to be true. It was.

Rob Ryan has been fired after two years as the Dallas Cowboys' defensive coordinator. That's bad news for all the football fans who enjoyed seeing the endless shots of the wild-eyed and even wilder-haired Ryan -- twin brother of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan -- on the Cowboys sideline during national TV broadcasts. Also kind of a bummer for all the camera crews who have no choice now but to learn what Head Coach Jason Garrett looks like. Several Dallas defenders took Tuesday's news pretty hard, voicing their displeasure on Twitter.

Dez Bryant caught a key fourth-quarter touchdown pass for the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday while playing with what turned out to be a fractured index finger on his left hand. Whether Bryant continues to play with the injury or has season-ending surgery will be left up to the third-year receiver, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Tuesday on his weekly local radio show. “It has not been decided by Dez, who will be the ultimate decision maker, whether or not he wants to try to continue to play with a lot of protection or whether or not he should have surgery,” Jones said on 105.3-FM The Fan. Bryant was certainly able to play through the pain Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.