One of my long-running repeat customers in the early years of the Party Machine was a fashion college in Arlington, that was well known for its awesome dance parties.
Although most of the students studied fashion design and merchandising, just the thought of a party filled with young, single fashion models…well, lets suffice it to say that their parties always attracted lots of single men. Also single women, who knew there would be lots of men there.
Among them were two of my all-time favorite Dallas Cowboys players, Harvey Martin and Ed “Too Tall” Jones. Martin was a defensive lineman, a huge man who used a ‘bear hug” style to take down the opposing team’s quarterback…and did so frequently. The “Harvey Hug” was not exactly a friendly gesture, earning him the nickname “Too Mean,” as he was Too Tall’s bookend.
Jones was drafted as a quarterback, but the sports talk all seemed to agree that he was “too tall” at 6′ 9″ to be a quarterback, and the name stuck. He ended up on the other side of the defensive line with Harvey Martin, and the two became friends, rivals for the record books, party pals…and a serious threat to the other team’s quarterback.
A rare occurence when someone else beat Harvey and Too-Tall to the quarterback.
Both were among the NFL’s leading pass rushers, and loved to sack the quarterback. The two men had a famous bet: whenever one of them sacked a quarterback, the other owed him a case of beer.
Jones and Martin were part of the “Doomsday Defense” that took the Cowboys to back-to-back Super Bowls in 1978 and 1979. Martin was the co-MVP of Super Bowl XII when the Cowboys defeated the Denver Broncos 27-10. The Cowboys were robbed of a victory in Super Bowl XIII by Terry frickin’ Bradshaw, but we won’t go into that. But Terry got knocked on his arse by Martin and Too Tall enough to have nightmares about it.
Every quarterback in the NFL had the same nightmare, of being rushed by #72 on one side, and #79 on the other. But when you saw them in their civvies at a Party Machine event, you knew it was time to PARTY ON, DUDES!
