At the beginning of a 1978 season highlight video about the Dallas Cowboys, legendary NFL Films voice John Facenda captures the essence of what that franchise was — and what it wishes it still was — perfectly.
The Cowboys, America's Most Overrated Team, open the NFL season
I'm ready for some football and tired of the Cowboys at the same time.
September 9, 2021 at 5:30PM
"They are the Notre Dame of professional football, a national team whose popularity extends from coast to coast. ... Their success and style has gained them a following across the United States. Cowboy goals are lofty. Win the National Football Conference and then the Super Bowl. This is usually attainable, for as their fans well know the sum total of their stars make up a galaxy. Their record is envied and their innovations copied down to the last glamorous detail. They appear on television so often that their faces are as familiar to the public as presidents and movie stars. They are the Dallas Cowboys, America's Team."
That last reference to being America's Team is credited as being the first time that was used. The moniker has stuck for more than 40 years, through a resurgence of glory in the 1990s ... and, somehow, through a quarter-century of utter mediocrity since then.
Since Dallas last won the Super Bowl after the 1995 season, the Cowboys have played 25 seasons.
They are 208-192 (.520 winning percentage) in those seasons. They have made the playoffs in just 10 of those 25 years. They have a playoff record of 4-10 in that span, and haven't even advanced to the NFC title game — a destination even the Vikings have reached four times since 1996.
And yet here is Dallas is occupying a prime spot opening the season Thursday against the defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers.
The Cowboys are the original influencers — famous now just for being famous and not because of any sort of meaningful recent accomplishment.
Delusional Dallas fans will convince themselves that this is the season things change. But at what point does recent history trump that of the very distant past?
Vegas has the Cowboys over-under win total at 9. ESPN's power index puts them at 8.9 wins. In a 17-game season, that again is utterly mediocre.
It's fun to have the NFL back. But I'm as ready for some football as I am tired of the Cowboys already.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
