The clippers were running, but the conversation at Mattie’s Parlour quickly turned to football. During the first Barber Ball Banter, 13-year-old Louis Darrouzet and veteran-turned-barber and entrepreneur Matthew “Matt” Steigerwald moved from fantasy football matchups to the Buffalo Bills, New York Giants and, inevitably, the Dallas Cowboys.
The conversation is part of a new Future Voices Incubator pilot at The Dallas Express, pairing the sports conversations Matt and Louis have been having during haircuts for years with a camera. And there was plenty to talk about.
Cowboys Open With a Loss to the Giants
Dallas entered the conversation coming off a 28–20 season-opening loss to the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott completed 22 of 34 passes for 175 yards, throwing two touchdowns and one interception. That interception became one of the plays Matt and Louis discussed.
Prescott later acknowledged that he had been attempting to throw the ball away when the pass was intercepted late in the second quarter. Wide receiver George Pickens was another focus. Pickens finished the game with three receptions for 28 yards. He was also credited with two drops, including one on a play where he had created separation from the defender and potentially had room for a significant gain.
Louis saw that play through two lenses: as a Cowboys fan and as a fantasy football player.
“He would have… if he had caught this one ball when he had burnt the receiver… he had him,” Louis said, immediately calculating the fantasy implications of the missed opportunity. For a 13-year-old fantasy player, NFL Sundays are not only about the final score. Every catch matters.
A Conversation About the Cowboys Turns to Leadership
The Cowboys discussion soon moved beyond individual plays. Matt pointed to the amount of talent on the roster and began discussing the role organizational leadership plays in converting individual ability into team performance. His perspective is shaped partly by his military experience.
“Being in the military, you learn a lot about how toxic leadership leads you inevitably to doom,” Matt said during the conversation. Louis approached the same subject from a player’s perspective. “If they had a really good coach that could use all the players, all of their good specialties, and use it to win a game, we’d be so good,” he said.
The exchange turned a football discussion into a broader question about team construction: how does an organization get talented individuals to function successfully as a unit? For Matt, leadership was central to the answer. For Louis, it was about identifying what individual players do well and putting them in positions to use those abilities.
The two arrived at the question from different places: Matt through military service and adulthood, and Louis through youth baseball and following professional sports.
Matt Is Not Writing Off the Giants
The Giants’ victory also produced some disagreement between the two. Louis initially suggested Dallas should have been able to beat New York. Matt pushed back.
“I think the Giants have made a lot, a lot of progression over the last few years,” he said, arguing that the team should not be evaluated based on what it looked like several seasons ago. Whatever the expectations entering the season, New York left Week 1 with a 1–0 record while Dallas fell to 0–1. That makes the next round of Cowboys football particularly relevant for Barber Ball Banter. Every prediction Matt and Louis make gives them something to revisit the next time Louis sits in the chair.
Buffalo Gives Them Something Else to Watch
The conversation did not stay in the NFC East. Matt and Louis also discussed the Buffalo Bills and quarterback Josh Allen. Their discussion was recorded around the opening portion of the season, when Matt described Buffalo as a team capable of making a deep run. Since then, Buffalo has opened the season 2–0.
Allen threw for 334 yards and two touchdowns in a 36–31 victory over Houston in the opener. Four days later, he threw for 248 yards and three touchdowns against Detroit while adding another two touchdowns on the ground in Buffalo’s 41–31 win. Through those two games, Allen has completed 40 of 60 passes for 582 yards, five passing touchdowns and no interceptions.
The numbers give Matt and Louis something Barber Ball Banter will be built to do repeatedly: Make a statement. Save the tape. And check it against what actually happens.
Fantasy Football Changes How a 13-Year-Old Watches the Game
For Louis, the NFL conversation almost always comes back to fantasy football.
At one point, he pulled up his own matchup and began explaining it. Fantasy scoring turns individual NFL performances into points for a separate team assembled by the fantasy player. Yardage, receptions and touchdowns can all affect the result depending on league scoring settings. Louis walked through his lineup player by player, explaining projections, points and matchups.
Then came his assessment: “I don’t really stand a chance.” Matt was not ready to concede.
Looking at the matchup himself, he began comparing the players on each side. “I’m not gonna lie,” Matt told him. “I think you win this matchup right here.” The two went through running backs, quarterbacks and receivers, including Jahmyr Gibbs and James Cook, looking for advantages.
That’s where the football discussion becomes different from simply asking a teenager which team he likes. Louis is not only following teams. He’s following individual performances across the league because his own fantasy result depends on them.
The Barber Ball Banter Formula
That’s also beginning to establish a natural format for Barber Ball Banter. Matt and Louis can discuss the previous week’s results, review Louis’ fantasy lineup, debate upcoming games and make their predictions.
Then Louis comes back for another haircut. And the tape comes back out. Who was right? Who was wrong? Which fantasy player delivered? Which one disappointed? And which prediction aged particularly badly? For the first installment, the Cowboys, Giants and Bills gave them plenty of material. By the next haircut, the scoreboard will give them the answers.
New week. New lineup. New haircut. New argument.
Barber Ball Banter is a pilot of the nonprofit Future Voices Incubator at The Dallas Express. Details regarding participation, eligibility and program requirements will be published on the Future Voices website as the program develops.
