Cowboy Way (cowboy tradition; Dallas Cowboys tradition)

The"cowboy way” means the “cowboy’s way of life.” Cowboys led cattle drives in the 19th century, but the term “cowboy way” has been popular since the 1970s. The musical group Riders in the Sky made “cowboy way” their catchphrase and the title of a 1987 album. A 1994 action comedy film was titled The Cowboy Way.
 
Dallas Cowboys new head coach Jason Garrett told the press in 2011 that he wanted to return the football team to the “Cowboy Way” (winning).
 
   
Wikipedia: Riders in the Sky (band)
Riders in the Sky is an American Western music and comedy group which began performing in 1977; their style also appeals to children, and they are sometimes considered a children’s band. They have won two Grammy Awards and have written and performed music for major motion pictures, including “Woody’s Roundup” from Toy Story 2 and Pixar’s short film, For the Birds.
(...)
Riders in the Sky perform authentic renditions of old classic cowboy and Western songs, as well as original works and various comedic skits and songs. Their sketches often include allusions to something being done in an dishonest or lazy manner; with Ranger Doug typically responding to this observation by saying “You fellers know that that would be the easy way. But it wouldn’t be the cowboy way!”
 
Wikipedia: The Cowboy Way (film)
The Cowboy Way is a 1994 action comedy film directed by Gregg Champion and starring Woody Harrelson and Kiefer Sutherland.
 
Plot
The Cowboy Way follows two championship rodeo stars and lifelong best friends, Pepper Lewis (Woody Harrelson) and Sonny Gilstrap (Kiefer Sutherland) as they travel from New Mexico to New York in search of their missing friend/mentor, Nacho Salazar, who came to the city to pay for his daughter’s trip to the U.S. from Cuba. When they discover that he’s been murdered, the pair set out to find the killer.
 
Google Books
The Making of Modern America
By Leon H. Canfield, Howard Baker Wilder, Howard R Anderson, et al.
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin
1964
Pg. 355:
The cowboy’s way of life, which he sang about in his ballads, has been preserved for us in song collections by John A. Lomax: Cowboy Songs and Songs of the Cattle Trail and Cow Camp.
   
Google Books
Cowboy Artist:
The Joe Beeler story
By Don Hedgpeth
Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Press
1979
Pg. 54:
For those of us whose life’s work is portraying this way of life, there is still a great deal of color and character left in the “cowboy way.”
 
Google Books
The Sporting News
Volume 188
1979
Pg. 9:
It could be argued the Cowboy way is appropriate in Dallas and the Steeler way is appropriate in Pittsburgh. They’re different cities in different parts of the country.
 
Google Books
August 1983, Texas Monthly, pg. 96:
The Cowboy Way
Western music has almost dried up, but Riders in the Sky is a drink of cool water
Pg. 100, col. 2:
“We always say, when it’s time to make a decision, ‘What’s the cowboy way?’” Ranger Doug says. “And we do business that way. What’s the right thing to do? Well, it’s the cowboy way.”
 
Google Books
8 December 1984, Billboard magazine, pg. 32, col. 1 ad:
You buckaroos always did it “The Cowboy Way”!
(Riders in the Sky—ed.)
 
Google Books
The Big Brand
By Elmer Kelton
Boston, MA: G.K. Hall
1986
Pg. 15:
That was the cowboy way.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
The cowboy way
Author: Riders in the Sky.
Publisher: Universal City, Calif. : MCA Records, 1987.
Edition/Format:  Music CD : CD audio : Country music : Multiple forms : Popular music : Songs : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Cowboy way of life
Author: Chris Demarest; James Rice; Trinka Hayes Noble; Mark Teague; Jan Brett; All authors
Publisher: 1987-2000.
Edition/Format:  Book : Kit : English
Summary: Kit includes stories to teach children about cowboys.
   
Google Books
Last Refuge:
The environmental showdown in Yellowstone and the American West
By Jim Robbins
New York, NY: Morrow
1993
Pg. 92:
No one believes more devoutly in the Cowboy Way than cattlemen.
Pg. 98:
Nonetheless, there is something to the Cowboy Way, he says, a true cowboy myth.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
The cowboy way of life : a book of cowboy poetry
Author: Dean Downey
Publisher: Amarillo, Tex. : P & L Pub., ©1995.
Edition/Format:  Book : English : 1st ed
 
ESPN.com
The ‘Cowboy way’ has become a failure
February, 3, 2011
By Matt Mosley
(...)
New head coach Jason Garrett, God bless him, stood up at his introductory news conference last month and talked about doing things the “Cowboy way.” But no one really knows what the hell that means anymore. I guess it’s a reference to the Jimmy Johnson years, but that’s ancient history by NFL standards.
   
Bleacher Report
NFL Draft 2011: Thoughts on the Dallas Cowboys and “The Cowboy Way”
By Trae Thompson (Featured Columnist) on March 30, 2011
Will Dallas refer back to Jason Garrett’s term in the draft?
(...)
”(Jason) Garrett talked about returning this team to the ‘Cowboy way’ and to me this starts and ends with the offensive line, the stout, brutal offensive line from the ’90s were instrumental in our explosive offensive barrage,” he writes.