'boys Will Be 'boys

Orgies. Rape and assault charges. Indecent-exposure convictions. Rampant drug and alcohol abuse. A coach looking the other way. Barry Switzer's Dallas Cowboys?

No, Tom Landry's.

If any irony can be found in the inexcusable misbehavior of several current Cowboys, it's in the widely held perception that Switzer and owner Jerry Jones are leading America's Team straight to hell. The historical truth is that even under Landry—God's coach—the Cowboys often led the NFL in hell-raising.

Many fans are under the mistaken impression that until recently America's Team has been filled with the country's foremost role models. In fact, because of the gladiators' sport they play and the Cowboys-crazed city they play in, these guys have long been among the worst role models in sports—an impression reinforced again last week when a former topless dancer accused receiver Michael Irvin and tackle Erik Williams of sexually assaulting her at gunpoint. (They denied the charge.)

For years the quickest way to impress friends or business associates in Dallas has been to say you know a Cowboy or—better—that you partied with one. Cowboys with character flaws have found that Dallas nights can be a blur of women who will supply sex and men who will supply drugs. Dallas sometimes has loved its Cowboys almost to death.

Perhaps the most realistic sports movie ever made was based on former Cowboys receiver Peter Gent's novel North Dallas Forty, which was based on Landry's booze-guzzling, pill-popping, groupie-groping teams of the 1960s. Exaggeration? "No, it had the ring of truth," says former Cowboys defensive end Pat Toomay. "The difference back then was that guys weren't getting caught the way they are now [by police, modern NFL drug testing or packs of media watchdogs]."

Still, a long list of Dallas players from the Landry era was involved with drugs. Pro Bowl linebacker Thomas (Hollywood) Henderson admitted to snorting cocaine during Super Bowl XIII, and later was convicted of sexual battery and served 2½ years in prison. All-Pro receiver Bob Hayes spent 10 months in jail for drug trafficking after he retired. All-Pro defensive end Harvey Martin wrote in his book, Texas Thunder, of using drugs while playing for the Cowboys. Defensive end Larry Bethea eventually lost his battle with drugs and committed suicide. Personnel director Gil Brandt told reporters that All-Pro lineman John Niland "was on some substance" when in '73 he walked barefoot nearly three miles from a hospital, banging on doors and talking about seeing God, until six policemen finally subdued him. Hall of Fame defensive tackle Randy White has said he used steroids—before they were a banned substance in the NFL.

In the early 1980s FBI agents interviewed several Cowboys in connection with a drug investigation, and though no charges were filed, rival fans began calling Dallas "South America's Team." In my book God's Coach, former Cowboys scout John Wooten said, "Coach Landry was approached [by team officials in 1983] and told we were going to lose this team to drugs.... But he just couldn't believe the effect it could have.... [Landry thought that] the team was still close enough to a Super Bowl that just a little more time, and it would be O.K." Sound familiar? Landry's Cowboys fell to 3-13 in '88, his final season.

You want sex? In separate incidents, receiver Lance Rentzel and kicker Rafael Septien pleaded guilty to sex charges involving 10-year-old girls. Defensive end Ed (Too Tall) Jones hosted an annual Memorial Day party that rivaled falling Rome's best (or worst), according to several players, including former Dallas player representative Dextor Clinkscale, who chuckles over reports that today's Cowboys leased a house for extramarital orgies. "Guys have been renting places like that for years," says Clinkscale.

Yes, Jerry Jones has a "well-earned reputation as a late-night carouser," as SI's Peter King wrote in this space last April. Yes, Jones sets a permissive tone. But former Cowboys president Tex Schramm and members of his staff rivaled Jones for nocturnal escapades, though that wasn't publicized.