The Dallas Cowboys: From "America's Team" to the Black Sheep

The date: January 28, 1996. The event: Super Bowl XXX. On that evening, the Dallas Cowboys bested the Pittsburgh Steelers, 30-13, winning their third Super Bowl in four years, and their fifth overall in eight appearances. The win cemented the Cowboys as "America's Team," and came with Barry Switzer as their head coach, though the team and the system basically belonged to Jimmy Johnson.

At that time, the Cowboys were the only thing booming in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The Texas Rangers were one year away from finally reaching the postseason for the first time ever, as 1995 saw them finish at 74-70 in a strike-shortened season. The Stars were in the midst of their third season in Dallas after moving from Minnesota (and removing "North" from their name), and the Mavericks had one of the worst records in the league that year, with only the expansion Vancouver Grizzlies holding them up.

Fast forward close to three decades. The Rangers are the defending World Champions. The Stars are in the NHL's Western Conference Final. The Mavericks are in the NBA's Western Conference Finals.

The Cowboys? Well, they're coming off an NFC East crown that saw them become the first team to lose to a #7 seed in the playoffs.

There's no way that Cowboys fans could have known that their celebration in January of 1996 would be their most recent one to date. The Cowboys have not won a Super Bowl since. They haven't played in a Super Bowl since then. Hell, they haven't even played for the conference since then! Every other pro team in that area has won something since that year. I already mentioned the Rangers. The Stars won a Stanley Cup in 1999, and reached two more Finals in 2000 and 2020. The Mavericks reached the Finals in 2006, and would win a championship in 2011. Even the Arlington Renegades won the XFL Championship last season.

So yeah, it's pretty much official. The Dallas Cowboys, once known as "America's Team," are now the black sheep of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And it's getting worse.

For one, the Cowboys did next to nothing in free agency. Literally all of the 31 teams made at least one important move, yet the Cowboys choose now--coming off an embarrassing playoff loss--to have the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. Literally no moves of importance made in free agency. Well, they did make one move...

I love Ezekiel Elliott, but why the hell is he back in a Cowboys uniform? He's 28 and burned out. Yes, 28 is young, but not for running backs. They moved on from Elliott because Tony Pollard was outshining him, yet they decided to actually move on from Pollard for reasons that are still a mystery to me. This team has lost too many important people in the last year. Kellen Moore left his position as Dallas' offensive coordinator to take the same job with the Chargers entering last year, and this came after Moore was basically promised that he'd be the next head coach in Dallas. They had a good tight end in Dalton Schultz, but he joined the Texans prior to last year starting. At the moment, CeeDee Lamb is the team's only important target, and I actually heard that they may be going after Bill Belichick, which would be a good get...if this was 20 years ago.

Do the Cowboys not realize that they've become the comic relief in Dallas? All of Dallas' other pro sports franchises have adapted, evolved, and succeeded? Cowboys? Not so much. Entertaining team, yes, but this team is stuck in absolute hell, and they aren't even trying to get out of it. Part of me theorizes that the decline of the NFC played a factor in Dallas' complacency during the offseason. If that's the case, then they are in for a lot of wasted seasons, because they're actually below the 49ers and Lions in the NFC's pecking order, and they are coming off losing to a Packers team who was just happy to be there.

Ironic, isn't it? We are in an age where everything 1990s is coming back, yet the only 90s trend not returning: a Cowboys championship.