Cassel fulfills childhood dream, becomes Cowboy after pregnant wife approves

Matt Cassel grew up in Los Angeles, went to college at USC and played in New England, Kansas City, Minnesota and Buffalo.

But his grandfather was a horse breeder in West Texas. His late father grew up in Lubbock, Texas.

That made Cassel a Dallas Cowboys fan when he was younger.

On Thursday, in his first meeting with the Dallas media since being traded with a seventh-round pick from Buffalo in exchange for a fifth-rounder, he called being a Cowboy “a dream come true.”

“Immediately it was a shock,” Cassel said of the trade, “but at the same time after (my agent and I) spoke about it, kind of everything had calmed down a little bit, it became excitement.”

Cassel came back from a walkthrough with the Bills on Tuesday and found a text waiting from his agent: “Call me.”

His agent informed him the Bills were close to a deal that would send him to the Cowboys.

“I said, ‘have you called my wife because I don’t know if I want to make that call,” Cassel said. “She’s 36 weeks pregnant. ... She’s a trooper.”

Cassel’s wife will make the trip and have the baby in Texas.

The couple already has three kids. The two oldest are girls and initially didn’t know what to make of the move, but Cassel won them over.

“As soon as I said, ‘they’ve got cheerleaders’ they were super excited about it,” Cassel said.

One of the few melancholy aspects of the ordeal: Cassel’s father passed away in 2008, so he won’t be around to see his son play for his favorite team.

“My brothers and my sister said, ‘he’s looking down with a big smile on his face,’ ” Cassel said. “I know he would be.”

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