{"id":863102,"date":"2026-08-19T00:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T00:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/863102\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T00:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T00:08:09","slug":"dream-within-a-dream-for-pass-rusher-von-miller-to-join-his-hometown-dallas-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/863102\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Dream within a dream’ for pass rusher Von Miller to join his hometown Dallas Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"

OXNARD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Growing up in the suburbs of Dallas, Von Miller<\/a>\u2019s parents were an embodiment of the \u201clove \u2018em or hate \u2019em\u201d reaction the Cowboys create in seemingly every NFL fan.<\/p>\n

One of his formative memories was seeing his father celebrating the Cowboys\u2019 success watching a game on TV. His mother, however, is not a fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should be the first year where everybody\u2019s unified on one team, so it\u2019s pretty cool to have everybody in blue,\u201d Miller said at an introductory news conference after signing a one-year contract that could be worth up to $7.5 million with his hometown team on Tuesday, with the 37-year-old standout pass rusher hoping to return them to their Super Bowl-winning heights of his childhood.<\/p>\n

Miller had previous conversations about joining the Cowboys, including after claiming his second Lombardi Trophy with the Los Angeles Rams<\/a> following the 2021 season. He ended up signing with the Buffalo Bills<\/a>, where he spent three years, before joining the Washington Commanders<\/a> last season. This time around, everything lined up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like that movie, \u2018Inception,\u2019 like a dream within a dream. I always wanted to play in the National Football League, and then to play for the Dallas Cowboys<\/a>. We\u2019re going deep with it, year 16,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

It helped that Miller has ties to the Cowboys\u2019 new defensive coaching staff. Pass rush consultant B.T. Jordan is his longtime trainer. Miller also worked alongside coordinator Christian Parker in Denver and line coach Marcus Dixon in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Add in his relationships with several Cowboys players, including outside linebackers Rashan Gary<\/a> and Donovan Ezeiruaku<\/a>, and even crossing paths with star quarterback Dak Prescott<\/a> in Las Vegas last month, Miller felt everything was coming together to finally fulfill his aspirations of wearing the famous \u201cstar\u201d helmet.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor it to happen, it just shows you that you can really manifest everything. And to be here with the Dallas Cowboys<\/a> back in my hometown, it\u2019s really cool,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Miller, the NFL\u2019s active sack leader, is coming off one of his better seasons in recent memory. He had nine sacks last season with a carefully managed workload for the Commanders, and Miller is confident he can \u201cwalk into eight of those\u201d playing a similar number of snaps for the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, am I gonna go out here and just beat somebody to death for 60 plays a game? Probably not, but it\u2019s still in there. And I can still win a lot of these reps, especially when it\u2019s crunch time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Not everything is finalized for Miller. He is still trying to figure out what number he will wear for the Cowboys. Miller and fullback Hunter Luepke<\/a> both had No. 40 on during a joint practice with the New Orleans Saints<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not gonna get caught up in the number, but I did make some offers to him already that I feel like he can\u2019t really come off of those. I think a lifetime supply of chicken will do it,\u201d said Miller, who owns and operates a poultry ranch. \u201cA number would be fine, but I think the most important thing is to win a lot of these games, play in big games, and the number would just be an afterthought.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/p>\n

Dan Greenspan, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OXNARD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Growing up in the suburbs of Dallas, Von Miller\u2019s parents were an embodiment of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-863102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}