Cast shots of the full cast of Bravo’s new reality series, Most Eligible Dallas, are indiscernible from troupes of other reality stars. Any of the six cast members could double for The Bachelor, Housewives of Anytown, The Real World or even Bravo’s own Project Runway.
However, because this vapid herd of socialites is charged with representing the city in which I live, they are more than just that. They are all my nightmares anthropomorphized into living, walking, talking things. The six cast members form a double Cerberus, intent on mating and preventing Dallas from escaping the stigma of overindulgence and grandstanding hairdos.
When I saw the initial teaser, one cast member in particular caught my attention, Matt Nordgren, not because I know him personally, but because his dad, George Nordgren, once yelled at me in the course of my job.
I was once an inspector for the electric utility’s energy incentive program. That is an embellished way of saying that my years of studying calculus and physics put me in the unremarkable position of counting light bulbs. But it also means that Nordco, Inc., the “family energy business” in which Matt is a partner, is merely in the business of replacing light bulbs. In 2003, I was sent to a jobsite to make sure they had done just that.
If you want to see an age-progressed picture of Matt Nordgren, I would look no further than his father, George, a sausage-necked, steak-headed, retired football player who rode the pine for Tom Landry’s Cowboys. The bench-jockeying is an assumption, inasmuch as I could find no statistics associated with the running back who the Dallas Cowboys drafted in 1968.
When I first met George, he was a mustachioed man who still held the sturdy shape of a football player, shoulders angled forward, like he was ready to run through someone at any moment. I caught the brunt of his readiness once, verbally if not physically. I was fifteen minutes late for the inspection, which I felt was my prerogative as the engineer whose opinion could either approve or torpedo George’s lighting installation.
Once I had apologized and sorted out my credentials with the front desk, George pulled me aside. “Look, dammit,” he barked at me, “That man’s time is important.” He indicated the customer. One vein pushed out of George’s red forehead, indicating the single thought he must have been entertaining: “Smash late engineer.” “You don’t go around wasting our time,” he continued. “You got that?” He stuck a beefy index finger in my face.
I was nonplussed. Nordgren seemed confused. I had no vested interest in protecting his reputation to a customer. I also thought I was too old to get dressed down by an older former football player. But I hated my job and wasn’t willing to fight any battles for dignity’s sake alone. George should have gotten to me earlier, when I cared. “Sure,” I told him and George stomped away, still tilted forward to hit someone — anyone.
Unsurprisingly, bench-buffing and irrational threats seem to run in the family. Matt Nordgren, who played third-string quarterback at the University of Texas, was once arrested for harassing a college student in Austin. Nordgren and fellow athlete Cedric Griffin pooled their collective muscle to intimidate another student for no discernible reason. From the October 28, 2003 issue of Austin’s American-Statesmen:
[T]he incident started when the two football players pulled a Lexus sport utility vehicle behind Jonathan Allen’s parked Volkswagen at Jester Center. Allen, a 21-year-old senior majoring in physics, told police he was sitting in the car waiting for a friend when the football players flashed their lights at him, pulled up beside his car and yelled at him to get out.
Griffin and Nordgren are quoted in the affidavit as saying, “You want to get out of the car? You want to take this outside?”
My guess is that Allen’s study of physics enraged Nordgren to the point that he just had to kick something. The Statesmen‘s story continues:
Allen told police that as he began to leave, Nordgren got out of the Lexus, which is registered to Nordgren’s parents, and kicked the rear of his car, causing at least $900 in damage. When Allen tried calling police, Griffin reached into the Volkswagen and knocked the phone from his hand, according to the court documents.
Allen eventually got to the bottom of Nordgren’s puzzling rage. Apparently, Nordgren’s tantrum was the result of no one letting him play any reindeer games. From the same story:
Allen said he has spoken with Nordgren several times since the incident. During one of those conversations, Allen said, Nordgren told him that on the night of the altercation he was upset that he did not see any time on the field hours earlier in the blowout victory over Rice.
Eligible indeed. Try to control yourself, ladies.
Before I ever met George, I met Matt’s mother, who worked with me on several other routine lighting inspections. Walking around buildings provides a lot of opportunity for small talk. Too much. Mrs. Nordgren never failed to brag about her pigskin-tossing treasure, Matt. Her boasts bear much resemblance to gossip site Wetpaint’s plug for the show, which says Matt “led the Longhorns to a national championship in 2006.” The claim is erroneous in every conceivable way and not just because the year is wrong.
Occasionally the conversations were prolonged enough that Mrs. Nordgren got around to talking about Matt’s little brother, who she said enjoyed chess. The quarterback and the chess player. Who do you think got the last dinner roll? To distract myself from Mrs. Nordgren’s warrantless beaming, I liked to imagine the younger brother forming a rock band and writing songs about how much of a douchebag his older brother was.
I don’t mean to dehumanize Matt Nordgren here by ripping down his flimsy credentials. Quite the opposite. He probably wakes with the same morning terror I do on occasion. He might be wrangling with some deep, existential question. I don’t know. But whoever Matt Nordgren is, it is not the all-American athlete that led the Longhorns to glory or the consultant who does anything astonishing in the energy field.
Neither is Most Elligible Dallas a representation of the city I know or the people in it. The show is a wearisome Xerox of every reality show before it: wooden, poorly acted, drowning in its own aimless sensuality. The only difference is that now this pariah has been visited on our own city, bearing its name in vain and prolonging a reputation that only the thoughtless will embrace.
Matt Nordgren’s fig leaf of a biography is a perfect analogy for this show. It is a millimeter deep and propped up just long enough to weather half a season. I can only hope that reality TV consumers reach the tipping point and refuse another spoonful of hot air. I am less than optimistic.
Most Eligible Dallas premieres tonight on Bravo. Check back with FrontRow for episode recaps.
Image: Matt Nordgren (left) on the scene in Dallas in December 2010, pictured here with Willa Ford and Brad Berkely. (Photo by Jerry McClure for D Magazine.)
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34 comments
Wow. I would hate to be someone that you really didn’t like!
Enjoyed the article. This is just one more example of the outlandish hyperbole which defines this country. People are legends in their own minds.
So after writing all of this….you actually don’t know this guy or have ever met him but have so many negative things to say? You must have an angry existence in general. To correct, they did win in 2006….the game was Jan 7th, 2006 check your facts. To us Longhorns we know how much each player meant to that team. Whats wrong with a mother being happy about their sons accomplishments?
Spiteful and angry, yes. In fact, I am literally branded as such.
Just wanted to apologize for the flub on the championship year. The 2005 Longhorns won the championship in a game played in 2006. My bad. JBrown, all players were involved but all could not be at the helm. Mr. Young might take some umbrage at Wetpaint’s insinuation.
Remind me again why this “chance encounter” is newsworthy. If anything the article is just blatantly defamatory. Matt is fair game as he signed up for the show but attacking his family? It’s amazing what people can say and get away with these days…the article is just downright nasty.
Man, that is some ugly writing. I’m sure the writer’s target deserves this punch in the noggin for generally being a jackass . . . but let’s tap the brakes and seek some perspective before hitting the big red “publish” button.
Gentle Reader, Bravo might have sought some for themselves before they hit the much larger “produce” button.
I’m going the kick the everliving crap out of your car for writing this article!!! I’m a Nordgren goddammit! We piss lightning and crap thunder!
Aside from being the coolest guy in Dallas, I’m also possibly retarded. Thus I misspelled my name in my first post.
You should go back to inspecting light bulbs; your writing skills kinda blow.
What’s actually funnier is his own company bio claiming that after UT he “headi[ed] off to play professional ball. He has played with the Detroit Lions and the Philadelphia Eagles.” Um, yeah — does one minicamp with the Lions and two minicamps with the Eagles count as playing “professional ball” and “playing with the Lions and the Eagles”?
Tackling the only Actual interactions that you had with this family (that I’ve never met, btw):
1) Re: the Dad. Dick, you were late by 15 minutes to an appointment to provide some ostensibly important service. I know you hated your job and that after your “calculus and physics” studies, you found it to be “unremarkable”, but, I’m sure you can at least agree that it was important to someone, right? I think its understandable for George to be a bit annoyed, but maybe you don’t. That’s fine. Still, that seems to have formed the foundation for most of this post. Like digging up Matt’s kicking of a car. (The UT incident you spoke about really is a private matter about a young, likely-spoiled college kid. You may think he’s an idiot, but his causing 900$ in damages when he’s, what, 20 or 21, really isn’t a reason to get mad at the kid 8 years later. Note to Matt defenders: This isn’t defamatory, since it’s true…. blah blah actual malice standard for public figures… blah blah… anyway…)
2) Dude. A mother is allowed to be proud of their son. This is especially true for their children that are a part of a major sport at a popular/prominent school. Also, considering that her kid actually “played” for Texas at the time she was bragging (meaning, she wasn’t rehashing glory of decades past) then really, just be nice and listen. Actually, if your small talk with mom was before 2003, then she was actually talking about her son, who had just received a scholarship at UT (2001), or had just redshirted at UT (2002) or who had just completed their 2nd year at the school (2003). She didn’t know that he would never end up seeing real playing time… or win a national championship.
Also, as mentioned in your response to an earlier comment, Texas’ title was in 2006. Not mad at ya for getting that wrong, but I feel like you should have double checked that factoid before you included it as part of a catchy line. [I'm starting to realize that I've thought about your article more than you did before publishing it...]
Anyway… given all this spite and anger that you’ve been harboring for 8 years, I really hope that you have more instances of Nordgren inhumanity in your back pocket…. Otherwise, yikes! This isn’t really an issue worth bringing to the public since it doesn’t add much to the dialogue about the show. Your column only “pulls the curtain back” on your own deep-seeded issues and your likely inferiority complex. The ratio of (1) actual facts about the Nordgrens to (2) unfounded assumptions about the Nordgren family in your article is astounding. (“…tilted forward to hit someone – anyone.” Really? Why not: “…walked away totally pissed at the late electricity inspector.”)
Yeah, the show looks terrible and painful to watch. Yeah, I’m annoyed about how this makes our city/state look to the masses on the coasts. But , that’s not what your article appears to be about. It seems that your article is more about you being disrespectful of someone else’s’ time [I mean, your disdain and apathy for your job and "clients?" oozes from your post] and you being unable to have small talk with other humans. (Both instances occurring before 2004).
Yeah, Dick, you’re a self-proclaimed “spiteful and angry guy”, but maybe that’s your problem…. try letting go, smiling at people’s small talk about their kids… Being happy and stuff works out well for most of us… even though we know the world is filled with Dicks just like you.
Whatevs. I know from direct experience with this member of “Dallas’ Most Pretentious” that much worse things could’ve been written about Matt. He’s actually a nice guy – he’s just completely lost in the fictional character he’s created since leaving UT. So much about his family, his “money”, his football career, and his prowess with women has been embellished that he frequently gets exposed as a typical Dallas 20-something – unable to fulfill the promises made by his persona on most fronts. The truth: he has wealthy friends that let him tag along because he really is likeable and good-looking – PERIOD. It would be a wonderful plot twist on the show if he would realize his true worth and drop the unbelievable “I’m a jet-setting, pro-athlete, oil heir stud” persona. Sadly, I know the producers have encouraged him to amp-up the fraud because it’ll be TV train-wreck “manna from heaven!”
I loved this article! so funny… can’t wait for the show tonight.
Wow. You showed up late and wasted 15 minutes of his client’s time, and he got mad. If you think that was your prerogative, that’s a pretty good example of your problem: since you held some b.s. bureaucratically-created power, you weren’t expected to behave professionally.
I would imagine most people have felt anger, just like Nordgren did (who I don’t know from Adam, by the way), when confronted by administrative apathy and incompetence.
At least you still retain some bull**** power. Way to use it to kick a local family in the trucknutz.
Since you’re writing to derail a stupid show which no one cares about, anyway, it would seem that career continues to thrive.
I bet one of the Nordgrens fired someone, somewhere, at some point in the past. Please calibrate your journalistic sniffer and get on it. They might say that a Nordgren was a meanie to them, too.
Well I can tell you that the Nordgren family isn’t rich despite their “family energy” company. Visit http://www.anywho.com and run a search for George E. Nordgren. You will find his address to be 8818 Vista Oaks Circle, Dallas TX. According to Zillow, Matt’s family home in Lake Highlands is worth $479,000. I’m sure it is a beautiful home, however in the land or the Hunts, Perots, Cubans, Bushs, I don’t believe this calls for the label of “high society” Dallas. Just like all television, they want you to stay ignorant and stupid my fellow Dallasites.
If you are defending Matt Nordgren, you don’t know him that well. And yes, this article could have been a lot worse. This show is going to be retribution for a lot of females who have been victimized by him in ways that haven’t been talked about here. He claimed on the show tonight to “lay all his cards on the table.” But that was just for the cameras. It doesn’t get much worse than him, he is a manipulator to the nth degree. Let the show begin..
Nonplussed doesn’t mean what you think it means.
I’m pretty sure it was this one guy named Vince Young who was the starting QB that led them to a title over USC in 2006. Nordren was a back up and never took a meaningful snap in his college career. Not hating on the guy, but that’s just a fact. VY was the reason they won that year, this guy never played.
Here are the facts people, the show was average, just like Matt and the other characters including the gay guy it was simply average. I am not a fan of the show or of the Dallas scene but I was and am the only one who has been in a open gay relationship with Matt Nordgren. He is a phoney , a back up, a job hopper and a girl hopper. I am blessed to say on a drunken tirade he took me home and man handled me, his folks do not live anywhere near the wealthy of Dallas, his Dad was a back up and washed up like Matt. Matt and Ginsburg have been seeing eachother on the side and I have proof.. please get ths trash and Matt off TV.
The Nordgren’s are a lovely family and George would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need. Do you really think anyone buys that piece of fiction and believes a professional businessman would behave in that manner because someone is “15 minutes late” to a meeting. Matt may have said some things that I’m sure he now regrets, but that’s no excuse for attacking his family. You’re a mean spirited spiteful bully and your mother would be ashamed of you.
2003. Seriously. You sould like a typical city employee that gets his sense of power from keeping everybody standing around cooling their heels while he takes his time sauntering in at his convenience. You know you weren’t just “15 minutes late” and so does anybody who reads this article. And you’ve been carrying this around in your craw for 8 years!! Geezh.
There is so much more that will come out on Matt. He has a kid that he never spends a minute of time with . Broke, cheap and terrible parent does not make someone an eligible bachelor.
Please people chill, I am happy to be on the tv and envied by all of you. However what you dont know is I am bi sexual, I planned the whole show, and I have a child out of wedlock also, that I have never seen( research that scoopers ) . I do not tell peple the real truth because it will eventually all come out to haunt me. I am comfortable now admitting I needed the show and exposure to get over letting women down, never playing ball and being a fake or a trapped gay man . I chose Ginsburg because I find him attractive, all the other attendees on my show are merely characters to keep it alive.I do want to make in Hollywood and I hope no matter what my sexual preference is or how I treat these trashy girls that someone will employee me and take me under their agents wing. Hook em Horns
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Loved your article, Dick! I totally agree with your POV.
It’s the parents who foster a sense of entitlement in these spoiled rotten brats. They are raised to believe that they are the “most eligible” in every way when in truth, they have no class, no character, and no compassion. Daddy’s money can’t buy a sense of purpose, the respect of others, or the dignity that comes with living a life of value.
Hey Matt my name is {Will} here in houston I give you alot of respect for replying to the crap that this unfortunate man said. You remind me of how proud i am to be a texan i love the show i was worried that it would be typical texas fodder but you guys showed tolerance respect and class i loved it especialy you and tara and gotta love courtney to keep it up man. being a gay man in texas coming from a ranching family 4 generation i took a different path and was good at it .so go for it be an actor you have the looks and are just ****y enough youll be great good luck and tell the others that houston is supporting you guys all the way. p.s i am kinda jealous you get to hang out with tara she seems so great and a gay mans best friend GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF YOU.
I’m so gay it’s silly
It looks like the smartest decision Matt has made is the confirmation that his, “friend”, Courtney is a waste of energy. She is much more shallow and one dimensional than the other cast memebers.
People please watch the show, please learn to support me and my ideas. I am a gay washed up athlete who aspires to be an actor…..I gayly beg you to support me…..Matt “babys daddy Nordgren
I used to be recommended this web site by means of my cousin. I am now not sure whether or not this put up is written through him as nobody else know such distinct about my trouble. You are amazing! Thank you!
SERIOUSLY ARE YOU PEOPLE SERIOUS….I KNOW EXACTLY WHO THESE HATERS ARE…THEY ARE MEN WHO ARE JEALOUS, JEALOUS THAT WE FINALLY HAVE A SHOW ON THAT ACTUALLY HAVE NICE LOOKING, CHARMING, SEXY,MATURE MEN ON IT. THEY CANT STAND IT. TAKE YOUR CHILD LIKE COMMENTS AND SERIOUSLY LEAVE THEM ALONE. POOR MATTY “sorry court” i know thats your pet name for him. LEAVE MATT ALONE. YOUR JEALOUS OF HIM, HIS MONEY, HIS PERFECT FAMILY, AND HIS FRIENDSHIPS…..AND DONT BUST ON HIS FOOTBALL CAREER…WHAT HAVE YOU DONE. YOU WORK FOR AN ELECTRIC COMPANY…not that there is anything wrong with that..BUT HOW DO YOU BUST ON HIM FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE. ITS MORE THAN I HAVE DONE. I WOULD BE PROUD OF HIM IF I WAS HIS MOTHER. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY KIDS PLAY YOUTH AND HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL AND NEVER EVEN MAKE IT THAT FAR. GOOD FOR YOU MATT.
DONT PAY ATTENTION TO THESE NEGATIVE HATERS. I THINK YOU, COURT. AND TARA ARE ALL WONDERFUL, GIVING. PEOPLE. KEEP ON KEEPIN ON. I LOVE THE SHOW, AND YOUR DADDY SEEMS LIKE A WONDERFUL PERSON…..:) STAY AWAY FROM THE NEGATIVE DRAMA…
awesome man, nice postInsiders Hub bonus
BREAKING NEWS: Junior Douchebag of the year
We keep getting emails about making the Junior DB a new catagory so here we go. To make it official we will start with a guy full of more bull**** than a texas rodeo, he is Matt Nordgren. He lives in Dallas but spends about half his time in Los Angeles. He is an epic douchebag. His bio twists reality to an entirely new level that most of us cannot understand without the help of acid or mushrooms. He claims to have lead the Texas Longhorns football team to a national championship, but in fact he was the third string quarterback who almost never played. He claims to run his father’s energy company but in fact his father has little respect for him and has given him no areas of responsiblity. But his biggest talent is his ability to hang out in LA clubs and take pictures with the hot and famous girls then get his friends to spread rumors of them dating or hooking up. This is truly a skill. It is that skill which has earned Matt Nordgren our Junior DB of the year.
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