If you were watching football in the 1980s and 1990s, you remember the Dallas Cowboys dynasty, you were remember Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith and Deion Sanders and the coaching transition from Jimmy Johnson to Barry Switzer.
You remember the the three Super Bowl victories in four seasons.
But you also know that it’s been 20 seasons since “America’s Team” last won a Super Bowl.
But if you’re one of the young NFL fans who weren’t around to understand football in the 80s and 90s, the image you have of the Cowboys isn’t a good one.
Instead of dynasty and Superbowls, you remember the three consecutive 5-11 Dave Campo seasons, winning 10 games only once in four years under Bill Parcells, winning 33 games in three years with Wade Phillips, having a .500 record or worse in four of the five full seasons Jason Garrett has been the head coach so far.
Everyone knows about the Cowboys losing three straight “win or go home” NFC East title games on Sunday Night Football from 2011-13. Losing to all three division rivals.
This is a serious concern that the Cowboys, themselves, are worried about. Young NFL fans have zero recollection of the golden era for the Cowboys, where they were great.
Dallas Cowboys executive VP and CEO Stephen Jones, son of Jerry Jones was asked about this, per Dallas Morning News:
“Of course,” Jones said. “I mean, I’m worried every day that we don’t get a championship. You worry about that all the time. That’s why we’re very aggressive in trying to get there. It’s just not acceptable in our minds that we haven’t been able to win a championship in so long. I do worry about that. I worry about that all the time.
“I worry about that with older fans [too], that they finally say, ‘We’re done.’ That’s why we try to do everything we can to show respect to our fans, to do things that I think are good things that our fans think are good things for our team. But at the end of the day, as I said, it’s all about the game and it’s all about winning a championship, and we got to get that done.”
The Cowboys are one of three NFC teams that have not reached the conference championship game in the last 20 years, joining only the Detroit Lions and NFC East rival Washington Redskins.
The Cowboys are hoping to rekindle some of that magic they had in the 90s, drafting Ohio State RB Ezekiel Elliott No. 4 overall to join forces with Tony Romo, who’s returning from injury and Dez Bryant, who’s also returning from injury.
Will the Dallas Cowboys finally reverse their trend of mediocrity? Or will the lasting images of the Cowboys golden era continue to fade into history?
