January 7, 2017 — Welcome back all, and a very happy first post of 2017 to you all! I know there’s new music out there, but except for some of the Metalica songs I’ve heard on the radio, I haven’t actually listened to any of the new music yet. I promise I’ll get to it. In the meantime, what consumed my attention over the holiday was … Dallas Cowboys t-shirts.
My trip to Dallas was marked by Dallas Cowboys t-shirts and Dallas Cowboys “stuff”, everywhere. Every store I went in had some sort of display, from the tiny display of a banners at Home Depot, to the pet outfits at Petsmart– all sold out in every Petsmart except one dog jersey in an XS and one in a medium, that slightly roomy size medium on my Chihuahua Tyson as I write, and even the giant store within a store selling t-shirts at Tom Thumb (Dallas’ version of the grocery store Von’s or Safeway, depending on where you are in the country). I loved the Cowboys’ store within Tom Thumb. When I first perused the store, the jersey for #4, Dak Prescott was sold out, but somehow my brother found one – my Christmas present, and that was my go-to shirt while there. The town was in Dallas Cowboy’s mania! It was fun too, made extra fun by wearing my jersey and running into the transplants who would occasionally bark out, Steelers, or Patriots, or whatever, while people in the aisle of the store would give smiles and high-fives in support of my shirt. I’m not sure that would happen anywhere; you see, Dallas has a friendliness that is second to none. That itself was a nice Christmas present, a break from my own reality of people who honk if you don’t jump out when the traffic light turns green.
As a tribute to the Cowboys’ everything, and a tribute to my holiday trip, I wanted to see if I could find photos of rock stars wearing football jerseys. I found only one. 
Then I tried to find something showing what rocker likes what team, again, without much luck. And just when I thought rockers might not like football, I came across a mention on the NFL site about musicians having designed t-shirts for the teams of their hometown. For instance, ZZ Top designed a shirt for the Houston Texans. I felt vindicated! Musicians crossing into the NFL, now that’s material for vindication, even though those t-shirts seemed to have a short run early in this season. I kind of doubt the sales of those shirts matched the current sales for Cowboys’ t-shirts in the every-place stores of Dallas, but who knows? Oh and Dallas didn’t get its own musician-designed shirt, so it seems the NFL couldn’t find a musician from Dallas. Or perhaps the Cowboys didn’t want Jessica Simpson.
Somehow this search also led to articles that satisfied my curiosity about the musicians the NFL finds for half-time shows. It seems, around 2014, the NFL wanted the acts to pay to play the halftime show. While the NFL covers the production costs (which are high, around 1 million dollars), the NFL does not pay the performers. Perhaps everyone knows that, but I didn’t. I wonder if the lack of pay affects who is willing to play. Is it possible some acts don’t want to perform without money? Or is the promotional exposure enough that any act would agree to play regardless of the fact they don’t get paid? And would it make sense to actually pay just to get the masive exposure the Superbowl provides? Mind you, I’m not sure how much “pay” the NFL was contemplating. I even wonder what, or if, the musicians who designed the t-shirts got paid? Oh, there are just so many questions with football, so I think I’ll just wait and watch. And by watch, I mean nervously freak out as we wait for the Cowboys’ performance in the playoffs. This year, for me, at least right now, it’s not about music; It’s about the Cowboys!
Article (musicians designing collaborative NFL t-shirts, with photos of t-shirts): http://www.chron.com/sports/texans/article/NFL-teams-and-musicians-team-to-design-limited-9445877.php
Story from ABC News about proposal to request Superbowl artists to pay: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/nfl-reportedly-asks-musicians-pay-play-super-bowl-25065646