PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT
The play of the game was Cowboy Larry Brown’s interception in the fourth quarter, but the most controversial was a six-yard run by Emmitt Smith late in the first half.
On that play, Dallas offensive tackle Erik Williams blocked Green Bay nose tackle John Jurkovic, Jurkovic suffering a knee injury that may be a torn ligament.
The consensus among the Packers was that it was an illegal chop block and that Williams had thrown it with malice aforethought.
“You touch a quarterback on the head and they fine you a million bucks,” Jurkovic said. “But you’re not going to see anything happen [about chop blocks] until four or five guys get crippled.”
Equally outspoken was Packer defensive end Reggie White.
“We had a player who had his knee tore up by a chop block, but the NFL won’t do anything about it,” he said. “This league is not doing anything about illegal chops.”
Added center Frank Williams, “The Cowboys get away with stuff that no other team in the league gets away with.”
Wrong, wrong, wrong, protested Williams.
“It was a legal block,” he said. “ It was a cut block. There are blocks like that every week. It was unfortunate that he got injured. I never intended for him to get hurt. I’m not like that. Reggie was pretty mad about the play but, hey, it’s football. Every time a defensive lineman gets cut-blocked they think it’s a dirty block. That’s not true.”
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Packer Coach Mike Holmgren, who had lost to the Cowboys five times in the last three seasons, all in Texas Stadium, when asked what lessons were to be learned from losing to them for the sixth time:
“We keep coming down here and getting lessons. I’m tired of lessons.”
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