Dallas Cowboys last won a Super Bowl 25 years ago. Was it ‘the beginning of the end’?
When either the Kansas City Chiefs or Tampa Bay Buccaneers claim victory in Super Bowl LV on Sunday, the NFL will officially crown its 25th champion since the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX.
It was the franchise’s fifth Super Bowl title of all time, the last of their three Super Bowl titles of the 1990s and third in four years.
They also won following the 1992 and 1993 seasons.
It would also be the last time the Cowboys would be taken seriously as Super Bowl contenders.
In the 25 years since that game, they have won just four playoff games and have never advanced to the NFC Championship Game.
An entire generation of fans have been born and raised, never witnessing for themselves the championship legacy of this once proud Cowboys franchise.
No would could have predicted a 25-year Super Bowl drought for a once perennially contending Cowboys franchise that still owns the longest streak of consecutive winning seasons (20) in NFL history.
When the New England Patriots finished the 2020 season at 7-9, it stopped a streak of 19 straight, one short of Tom Landry’s Cowboys from 1966-1985.
‘Beginning of the end’
While no one saw being out of Super Bowl contention for this long, members of the last title team saw the end coming for the 1990s Cowboys and are not overwhelmingly surprised by the team’s struggles to find their way back since.
“It’s tragic we haven’t been on the doorstep of getting to the Super Bowl in 25 years,” said Larry Brown, who had three interceptions in Super Bowl XXX and was named MVP. “That is crazy.”
“That last Super Bowl was the beginning of the end. You saw it coming but you thought they would figure it out. I never thought it would be this long. 25 years.”
Said guard Nate Newton: “It’s a shame. I am saddened. I am disappointed.”
But Newton, who like Brown was a member of all three title teams of the 1990s, is not surprised.
“I really thought we would have the right coaches, leading the right ship with the right players put in place at some point,” Newton said. “That hasn’t happened. We have had too many excuses. It’s a bad coach. The player’s aren’t good enough. Nothing is working.”
Many say the demise of the Cowboys was related to a lack of discipline after the departure of coach Jimmy Johnson, who led them to their first two titles in the ‘90s. Barry Switzer led them to their last title in the ‘95 season, but by then, the damage was done according to some.
“After that game against the Steelers, we just sat in our lockers,” former Cowboys safety and three-time champion Darren Woodson recalled. “It wasn’t like we were celebrating. We were so tired. We were out from a long run and a long season. We were mentally beat. We weren’t the same team. It was by far the worst Super Bowl team we had.”
Woodson said the discipline was gone. Guys weren’t forced to go to meetings. There was dissension in the locker room and the love of the game was lost.
It’s a sentiment that Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman has shared as well.
“I thought in the coming years we were going to be able to reset ourselves and get back to our normal after a break,” Woodson said. “But I couldn’t get off special teams. The guys were terrible. The personnel dropped. There was dissension in the coaching ranks. It never got right.”
Defensive shortcomings
Brown points to owner Jerry Jones when he assesses blame for the demise and the drought.
“It starts with the front office, it starts at the top,” Brown said. “Then you have to look at the coaches and the personnel. But the coaching carousel. You had one coach [Landry] for 29 years and then have had eight over the last 30-plus years. There are ways to get it done. But it goes back to the leadership at this stage. I am out of ideas. Jerry ain’t going nowhere. He is not going to turn it over.
“Will Mr. Jones get it done again before any of us pass on? That is the big question.”
When asked what it will take for the Cowboys to become winners again, Newton said the team will have to show they value defense and get some difference-making players on that side of the ball.
Newton’s beef is not just with the Cowboys giving up more points in 2020 than any defense in franchise history. He says the Cowboys valuing offense over defense has long been a problem.
“Name me three studs on the Cowboys defense,” Newton said. “We had the original Doomsday defense. My era had one of the top defenses. We do not value defense in his program. I know we will go out and tell everybody this year we are going to make a run to the Super Bowl. But you are not getting to the Super Bowl without a defense.”
Woodson agrees that the Cowboys must improve their talent level on defense.
He said they also need to make some hard decisions on who they contract extensions to because they have a “lot of money in guys who aren’t performing.”
His overall assessment doesn’t forecast an end of the Super Bowl drought anytime soon.
“They don’t have a championship team right now,” Woodson said.
Not now and not for the last 25 years.
