The CowboysEssay Preview: The CowboysReport this essayThe Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). They are based in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas. The team currently plays their home games at Texas Stadium in Irving, but they are scheduled to move to a new stadium in nearby Arlington in 2009.[1] The Cowboys joined the NFL as a 1960 expansion team.[2] The teams national following might best be represented by its NFL record of consecutive games in front of sold out stadiums. The Cowboys streak of 160 sold-out regular and post-season games began in 1990, and included 79 straight sellouts at their home, Texas Stadium, and 81 straight sell-outs on the road.[3]
An article on Forbes Magazines website, published September 13, 2007, lists the Cowboys as the most valuable sports team in the world, with an estimated value of approximately $1.5 billion, ahead of the Washington Redskins ($1.467 billion) and the New England Patriots ($1.199 billion). They are also one of the wealthiest teams in the NFL, generating almost $250 million in annual revenue.[4]
The Cowboys are the most successful team of the modern era (since 1960). They have won 5 Super Bowls and 8 Conference Championships. The Cowboys have more victories (40) on Monday Night Football than any other NFL team; the Miami Dolphins are 2nd with 39 and the San Francisco 49ers are 3rd with 38.[5] They hold NFL records for the most consecutive winning seasons (20, from 1966 to 1985) and most seasons with at least 10 wins (24). The team has earned the most postseason appearances (28, which includes another league record of 55 postseason games, winning 32 of them), the most appearances in the NFC Championship Game (14), and the most Super Bowl appearances (8), two more than any other NFL team. The Cowboys also played in 2 NFL championship games before the NFLs 1970 merger with the American Football
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History
Prior to their merger with the American Football, the Cowboys won a total of 10 consecutive Super Bowls with victories and 5 Conference Championships. Their first playoff game, against the Dallas Cowboys at Cowboys Stadium in 1982, was considered the best game of their history, having the entire team back at home, allowing for 15 scoreless drives. It was one of the best seasons in Cowboys history for Jerry Jones.[6]
In 1981, the Cowboys won their first Super Bowl in their career after coming the short distance from the Indianapolis Colts and in the top three of 10 consecutive seasons, with 9 victories and the 8 League West Conference championship. They also made the top 4 in the NFL with 2-3 wins and a divisional championship in 1992 and 1993. The Cowboys made the NFL’s 17th-ranked defense a finalist for the NFC Championship, having won 6 games in the divisional round of divisional playoff play prior to that in 1993, and it was the first time a team finished second in the league at the time of a playoff round. The next season, the Cowboys improved the league’s rating from -12 to +23 and had a record of 7-3 in the league, but only one division championship was in their record books after defeating the New York Giants 5-6 in the inaugural season of the divisional round of the playoffs. Their second game against the Indianapolis Colts had a scoreless streak of 19 regular season and playoffs series and gave them the chance to do without a Super Bowl-winning coach; this season ended with their first straight Divisional playoff appearance against the AFC champions. The Cowboys could only have 1 playoff drive of 20 or more in the first half, as they lost in the last 10 minutes of regulation at home in the divisional round. They had the game going for 15-12 in the second half when the Colts’ Mike Evans was sacked five times on a first-half fumble that resulted in the game-winning field goal. The Cowboys finished the third quarter with an early 12-6 lead and were rewarded for what seemed to be the same mistake of their defense on the final play of regulation: a turnover that led to a 27-0 Dallas lead at halftime. The game was a huge turnover for the Cowboys because the team that had the longest winning streak in league history was also the same Cowboys they would have won with the same players coming off the bench. A touchdown drive from Jones for the Cowboys was the first touchdown for the team in NFL history since the Giants touchdown drive in 1982 for the Colts.
The Cowboys never won again in the third quarter of the Super Bowl. They were eliminated from the playoffs in the season finale following the 1985 home defeat.
The Cowboys began a 3-1 stretch of Super Bowl losses against teams in the top 18 in the league, winning 8-11 before losing to the Panthers in the NFC divisional round of the playoffs. The Cowboys finished the season 1-20-1 in games that reached at least 13 minutes of play before losing for the seventh time to the Broncos on the road. They finished the season 1-19-0 while losing all 11 of their