California wildfire survivors that fled house with Cowboys tickets honored by team

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A family from Paradise, California lost everything in the wildfires except for their car and tickets to Thursday’s Cowboys game.

The Cowboys organization on Wednesday gave the die-hard fans a boost of encouragement with a special tour of AT&T Stadium.

Being the die-hard fans that the Morgan family is, one of the few things they grabbed as they fled their home was the plane and game tickets for the game against the Redskins. In 2016 — long before anyone uttered the words Camp Fire — he and his brother made a pact to go to the 2018 Cowboys Thanksgiving day game.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago as flames marched toward their house — Cowboys flags waving outside, a room filled with memorabilia and tickets inside.

“I called my dad and I was like what do you want, what do you want? And I kept asking and he said nothing just get out of the house and then he said, ‘Oh the tickets are on my desk’ so I went and grabbed them,” 11-year-old Jaelyn Morgan said.

Dale said the tickets represent something before their lives were upended.

“If the house was going to burn down, we want to make it as normal as possible and that’s kind of what the tickets represented,” Dale said.

Dale Morgan isn’t from Texas — but has had a long-standing love affair with the team.

“The days of Roger Staubach and being Captain Comeback,” Dale said.

The Cowboys organization heard the Morgan’s story and wanted to do something special for the family.

“We just care. We just wish we could reach out and make it all go away for them and we can’t,” said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

The team rolled out the red carpet for the Morgans, upgrading their tickets, giving them sideline passes and inviting them to hang out with the team. Jaelyn will also be an honorary cheerleader for the game.

“They sure are a reminder of how thankful we all should be of the people who stand next to us, of the place we get to lay our head,” said Charlotte Jones Anderson, Dallas Cowboys Executive VP. “They face a lot when they go home and we are just happy we can provide a smile.”

Dale said he want Thanksgiving to be a time to be happy before they have to go back and face challenges back home.

“We are going to try to forget that stuff. We are just going to enjoy this. Day by day. That smile right there is what matters to me,” Dale said.