Thanks for the memories, but get out of town.

How does Landry respond to charges that his unwillingness to modernize his coaching style has led to the Cowboys demise? What does it mean, Tom, that the Cowboys have been relegated to the dung heap of professional football?

"It means the NFL draft system works," Landry told Sports Illustrated recently.

This answer would be adequate if the Cowboys had made no pretenses to being anything more than your run-of-the-mill football team. It is true that the NFL's egalitarian draft system weighs heavily against perennial winners and that the lack of new talent into an organization can lead to its demise.

But until recently America's Team was able to overcome this handicap. The mysterious Cowboy computer and superb scouting staff annually picked those diamonds-in-the-rough, like cornerback Everson Walls, who other teams overlooked.

And the crafty Cowboys could always finagle a higher draft pick from their dull-witted opponents and get great players like Randy White and Tony Dorsett.

Something happened to the Cowboys ability to draft top players during the 1980 s. With the notable exception of Herschel Walker, the Cowboys' draftees have looked more like second-string players for an arena football team than the heirs to a dynasty.

Eventually, the Cowboys will come out of their tailspin and become a winning team again. I'm a Cowboys fan, and I certainly hope that they do.

But a rejuvinated Cowboys squad will have to fend for itself in the rough and tumble NFL without the protection of a myth or the illusion of being America's Team.