The National Football League made the decision in 1966 that the American Football League had become too big a hindrance to its desire to rule the pro-football world and after that season they played a title game (later known as Super Bowl I). The merger was a finalized that year but not until the 1970 season did the two unite under the NFL shield. What follows is blog #2 of all the 32 team blogs to be posted as a synopsis of how each team has performed over all since they kicked-off either in 1970,'76,'95,'96 or 2002 (based on winning percentage)!
EARLY DAYS BACK AT THE RANCH
Cowboy fans, your team has been around for all of the merged league seasons & they are the only other team that started the same year as the original 8 AFL teams kicked off. They hired away a member of The New York Giants staff for that first season but Tom Landry had to wait until opening day 1961 to see the club get a win. Sept. 17th 1961 was the first ever win for both them and the brand new expansion Minnesota Vikings (37-13 over the Chicago Bears). The next week the second Cowboy win was also the first ever Viking defeat. Landry had the team improving by leaps & bounds as the other Dallas team moved on to become the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963. Dallas was one game away from playing in the first 2 Super Bowls, in '66 & '67, as those and the next 2 were the only AFL vs. NFL Championship games. After the 1970 season The Cowboys were the first National Football Conference champions, but lost to the first American Football Conference champion Baltimore Colts, in Super Bowl IV. In '71 Dallas repeated as NFC Champs, beating the Miami Dolphins 24-7. The Miami Dolphins went on to win the next 2 Super Bowls. By the end of 1978 season nine NFC Championship trophies had been made (known as the George Halas trophy since 1984) and 5 of those are at Cowboy headquarters. Only a win over the Denver Broncos after the '77 season kept them from going 1-4 in those five Super Bowls as they failed to lasso the Pittsburgh Steelers after the '76 & '78 campaigns.
America's Team Tanks In The 1980's & Dominates The 1990's
Dallas started the 80's with an early road loss to the Denver Broncos, the first of only 4 losses that season. They ended the year in the NFC Championship game. Denver going only 8-8 that year caused the Cowboys to lose Dan Reeves after 15 years. Reeves was a huge part of a country ton of victories. The Cowboys loss to the Philadelphia Eagles was the first of 3 straight failures in the game that they needed to win in order to get to the Super Bowl. Between that last lost in January, 1983 to the Washington Redskins and the rock bottom 1-15 record in 1989, they lost twice to the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs. Landry's 28 year run as the solo head coach ended in '88 with the last 3 season's producing 17 wins & zero playoff game appearances. Jimmy Johnson was handed the reins to start that disastrous '89 season by his former college teammate at Oklahoma and new club owner Jerry Jones. As a football fan that does not root for the Cowboys, the trading of Herschel Walker to Minnesota 5 games into the '89 season caused a lot of frustration to me, as the team shot up meteorically with what the Vikings enabled The Star to transform into with several high draft picks. They played at least 2 playoff games every season from 1991 to 1996. They won three of their four appearances in the NFC title game and went undefeated in the 3 Super Bowls they played against the Buffalo Bills (back to back '92 & '93) and Steelers in 1995.
Post 1995 Floundering & Superiority In The Ultimate NFL Since 1970 Ranking
A Cowboy's helmet can be seen 10 times as part of the playoff grid in the pages of NFL Since 1970. The years following that last Championship in 1995 have all been disappointing. This organization is one of a few in which getting close is not even remotely celebrated. They have not played for an NFC title since and only the 1991 title game participants (Detroit Lions & Redskins) have a longer drought in getting to the NFC Title game. Mike McCarthy, a new Super Bowl winning Head Coach, leads the team going into 2020, after a 10 year run by Jason Garrett, a former team QB that could not capitalize on great playoff seedings. They now play in the only division in football that has all teams sporting a Vince Lombardi trophy in the lobby and the 13 between them is a 4 game lead over the next best division (AFC East). Fans in Dallas are ready for a serious contender heading into decade 6 since they became an NFC team. Every fan should have the following facts memorized based on the Cowboy's showing in this victory (a.k.a. Scoreboard) based statistical compilation...
Here is the flurry of stats for this organization that only trails the Steelers in regular season wins in that time frame:
Never leaves the top 5 in regular season winning percentage 1970-2019
Best winning percentage of all teams from 1979-1983
17 game lead over the next NFC team that kicked off in 1970 (Vikings)
26 out of 50 seasons in which 10 or more wins were reached (NFL Best)
20 NFC East titles out of 49 ('82 strike not counted; next best: Philly:11)
34 Playoff wins are tops in NFC by 2 over 49ers and trail 2 AFC teams by 2
50 win lead over next division opponent when W/L's placed in division format
8th best team on average over each of the 5 decades since merger in regular season...winningest team in 70's, 3rd best in 90's, 11th in 80's & '10's(13th '00's) 8th best team on average trails only the 6.8 Broncos and 7.3 Steelers overall
520 regular season wins leads all teams that started in '60. Patriots (512).
453 wins since merger trail the Steeler's 474 and lead the Patriots by 4 games (only the Cowboys & Patriots have never tied a game in the 776 since 1970)
5 Super Bowl titles (8 attempts) only trail the 6 held by the Steelers & Patriots
Dallas fans would enjoy 98% of the pages in NFL Since 1970. It would help reinforce the arrogance I would love to see turn almost as far south as Raider Nation is having to endure but I don't think that kind of a 17-year bad-stretch is in the cards for this stellar franchise. Please email me with any questions and check back for more takes on the Dallas Cowboys heading into 2020!
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