Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are an American football team in the professional American football league NFL from Arlington, Texas. Together with the Philadelphia Eagles, the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins, they play in the Eastern Division in National Football Conference (NFC).
The Cowboys were officially accepted into the NFL on January 28, 1960. The first owner of the Cowboys was Clint Murchison, who was 36 years old at that time. Murchison’s family earned their wealth in the oil business. Tex Schramm was the General Manager of the team who is known as the great innovator of the Dallas Cowboys and the NFL in general. Tom Landry, an assistant coach of the New York Giants was hired as the head coach. Tex Schramm and Tom Landry led the Dallas Cowboys over three decades and could celebrate their introduction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame NFL at the end of their careers.
Already five year after the team was founded; the Dallas Cowboys were a constant playoff participants. Tex Schramm, vice president Gil Brandt and head coach Tom Landry built the team in the 1960s with a sophisticated scouting system for the NFL Draft. Among other things, they were the first ones who made use of computers in the NFL, but they didn’t think about how to watch Dallas Cowboys online, yet. Tom Landry developed an innovative offensive system (shifting) which was based on rapid formation changes before the start of a down. In addition to that, the defense greatly benefitted from his previous work as Defensive. Although the Cowboys gained respect and recognition for their creativity and innovation over time, they were still primarily known as a team that never seemed to succeed in the really big games. Between 1966 and 1969, the team lost all championship games.
During the 1970s the Cowboys finally rose to the elite of the National Football League. The 105:39 record in this decade has not been reached by any other team. The worst season ever in the 1970s was a (still positive) 8-6 season. In this decade the opponents were so afraid of the Cowboys’ defense that they were named Doomsday Defense. Dallas played in five Super Bowls and was able to win two times. The coach and his staff continued to use the drafts and free agents to make the team stronger over and over again.
Although the Cowboys won more games than they lost in the 1980s, with a score of 18:45, they produced a negative result in the last four years of the decade which was an indicator of how far the team had fallen. The team was purchased by Bum Bright in 1984, who sold it again to Jerry Jones in 1989 after some personal financial difficulties. As a starting signal for better and more successful times, one of Jones’s first decisions was the dismissal of coaching legend Tom Landry who was the only Cowboys head coach up to this year. Dallas won 101 games in the 1990s and had a 12:5 record in the postseason. They were able to win the Super Bowl three times, had eight playoff appearances and managed to get six NFC East titles.
In the new millennium, all former stars of the “Team of the 90s” are not active any more. Running back Emmitt Smith was one of the last to leave the Cowboys at the end of the 2002 season. In his last season he was able to top Walter Paytons “NFL All-Time Rushing Record”, though.
With eight Super Bowl appearances and 20 winning seasons from 1966 to 1985 the Dallas Cowboys still hold two NFL records today.
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