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The Dallas Cowboys, one of the biggest underachieving teams in sports, will enter a historic NFL season as “America’s Team” and the most valuable sporting franchise in the world.

The five-time Super Bowl champions, who haven’t scored a single Lombardi Trophy in their final 30 years, are in their 30th year.

The latest Netflix documentary, “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys,” which examines Dallas’ success in the 1990s, features controversial and charismatic owner Jerry Jones.

Since Jones bought the Cowboys in 1989, the team has operated like a sporting soap opera, just the way he likes to.

That sense of style over substance, that all publicity is good publicity, and that winning is optional are just two things that are fascinating about this American institution.

You must understand how big Dallas changed during the 1990s Super Bowl to understand how big the decline was.

They already had a lot of success, and they had the nickname “America’s Team” from 1978 due to their widespread success, regular appearances in national television shows, and participation in five Super Bowls with two victories.

Tom Landry, the franchise’s only head coach since 1960, was fired one day after Jones bought the team in February 1989.

The Triplets, a legendary trio that included quarterback Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith, and receiver Michael Irvin, who Jones had hired as his college football coach, became almost unbeatable.

Between 1992 and 1995, Dallas won three Super Bowls, with Jones even leaving Johnson and appointing Barry Switzer as their third Lombardi Trophy winner.

The coach had a bad feeling about the Jones-Johnson conflict because he believed the owner was getting too involved in football matters, which Jones still does today.

The Cowboys were as notorious as they were successful thanks to one of the best offensive trios of all time, the Johnson sacking, and a number of player-related off-field controversy.

At the premiere of his Netflix show on a blue-carpet event in Los Angeles, Jones acknowledged his commitment to making headlines and that he plays a role in the pursuit of the top positions.

When things get slow, I’ll stir it up, Jones said to reporters, “The Cowboys are a soap opera 365 days a year.”

“I do think I’ll do my part to get them looked at if we’re not being looked at.”

There is sizzle, emotion, and, if you will, controversy, but there is something more than that, though. “Oh, it’s wonderful to have the great athletes, the great players,” the saying goes. That controversy helps to hold people’s attention and keep it interesting.

Despite winning just five play-off games since their final Super Bowl, which was three decades ago, they are still the big story.

The Cowboys have only reached the play-offs in 13 of their last 29 seasons, going 5-13 overall and not even winning one NFC Championship game before the Super Bowl.

So in football terms, they are an afterthought and an as-ran, but off the field they are a behemoth of marketing, revenue, glitz, glamour, and headlines, with even their cheerleaders having their own long-running reality TV show.

The Cowboys remain the subject of attention year after year, the stadium is packed, but futility reigns on the field.

However, there is a summer controversy already raging because defensive star Micah Parsons, arguably the team’s best player, has requested a trade request even before coaching in his first regular season game.

Parsons criticised Jones and the team’s management for their handling of negotiations for a new contract in a social media post, and criticized former issues with star receiver CeeDee Lamb and quarterback Dak Prescott.

Both players eventually agreed to significant-money deals, but only after Jones pushed the boundaries of negotiations, with many now claiming that his dramatic predicament delayed negotiations so much before the season’s debut to get more column inches.

After posting a 7-10 record last year, Dallas now has a first-year head coach, a disgruntled star player, and a difficult division.

The Cowboys will have to face the Philadelphia Eagles, the team that is currently the defending Super Bowl champion, and the significantly improved Washington Commanders, who twice faced Philly in the NFC title game.

The Cowboys had the worst defense in the NFL, were below average on offense, and had a second-worst offense overall. They were also tied for sixth in yards-per-game allowed and had the second-most points conceded.

The “good stuff,” as Jones likes it, is expected to be celebrated on the 30th anniversary of their most recent Super Bowl with a significant challenge for another, so the odds are stacked against them.

Real Madrid’s real beginning in this new era was a painful defeat.

The counter has been reset to zero following Paris St-Germain’s 4–0 thrashing of Paris St-Germain in the Club World Cup semi-final. That was the end of last season, according to manager Xabi Alonso. From here, everything is determined based on how quickly the team adapts to the ideas of its new coach.

Alonso assumes the leadership of Santiago Bernabeu after seven years of pre-teen coaching. Every school of thought has been absorbed by the Basque, who played under players as diverse as Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, and Carlo Ancelotti.

His career path was carefully considered. He would make his first team appearance if things went wrong at Bayer Leverkusen. If not, he might consider working for Real Madrid, Liverpool, or Bayern Munich. He now has a lifetime chance to make it to the Bernabeu.

When Alonso speaks, you listen, according to those who worked with him: “He makes you see the game as though it slows down.”

The Club World Cup provided a preview tactically. Madrid will play a more positional game, in line with contemporary trends, where individuals are required to sacrifice ego for the collective, following last week’s 4-0 friendly win against Tirol in Austria.

The summertime narrative in Madrid was predominated by Vinicius. Following a verbal agreement in April, the Brazilian, who is contracted until 2027, has not yet agreed to the club’s proposed renewal. During the Club World Cup, he resisted that “this is the club of my life.” Even so, Madrid has offered terms that are beyond his expectations, citing his form slump. Vicicius is betting that his performances will impose himself on the club.

Jude Bellingham struggled with pain and excessive tactical freedom last season. Inconsistency was the outcome. Alonso wants to narrow down his role so that he can concentrate on the two strikers and the penalty area, which was his debut season’s devastating performance.

Rodrygo is now facing more difficult competition. The 18-year-old Argentine Franco Mastantuono headlines a £150 million signing class along with Alexander-Arnold and Carreras. Due to the fact that they will be using the same wing, comparisons have already been made to Lamine Yamal’s role at Barcelona. However, he will need practice to adapt because he has talent and personality but hasn’t much practiced with the team.

It’s just over a week until the Formula 1 season resumes with the penultimate Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.

With wet races always being a great race, showing off the drivers’ skills and teams’ decision-making, do you ever think we will get an artificial wet race in the future? – Kevin

When former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone first raised this idea 15 years or so ago, it was met with a mixture of horror and ridicule.

The thing with Ecclestone was you never quite knew when he was being serious. No matter, the idea quietly died down.

There are a few central tenets to F1 and the philosophy by which it is run that are worth mentioning here.

The first is that it is generally considered a good thing to change the rules every few years. Usually, this is to address some kind of issue that has arisen.

For example, the new rules for 2026 have come about because F1 wanted to attract more car manufacturers and the existing hybrid engines were considered too complicated, too expensive, and not sufficiently relevant to the wider world.

In this case, the hope was that both Audi and Porsche would enter; in the event, only Audi did, even if that was not the fault of the rules.

The new chassis rules were introduced because the 2026 engines needed them to change to enable them to be operated effectively, and because it was generally considered that the 2022 ground-effect rules have been a failure – the racing is no better, and the cars have rock-solid suspension and have a fundamental imbalance.

But – and it’s a big but – it is considered important that F1 retains its purity, and that artificial gimmicks, even if they are needed, are a necessary evil to be restrained as much as possible, and they should not pollute the essence of natural racing.

The DRS overtaking aid – and the electrical overtaking boost that will replace it next year – is a good example. No-one really likes it, but it’s considered necessary at least to make overtaking possible when aerodynamics are so important.

In that context, it’s hard to imagine the sport getting to a place collectively where artificially wetting the track is considered something acceptable.

Do you have a favourite F1 car, and why? For sheer aesthetics the JPS Lotus 72 and the 1975 312T Ferrari are mine… shows my age I guess. – Geoff

Without wanting to sound pompous, “favourite” is a concept I find problematic – I’m a journalist and my job is to be objective. By definition, therefore, I can’t have favourites in F1.

Having said that, if we’re talking about aesthetics, that is by definition a subjective concept, and bias doesn’t really apply. So perhaps objectivity can be put to one side for this topic!

On that basis, the 1990 Ferrari 641 can literally be considered a work of art. It has been on display in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, although the organisation’s website says it is “not on view” at the moment.

I’m not aware of any other F1 car that has been granted an accolade of aesthetic merit as powerful as that one.

It’s easy to see why that car was chosen. It’s simply gorgeous, with its elegant curves and simplicity, as good an example as it is possible to get of “form follows function”.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the 1982 Ferrari 126C2, particularly after the front suspension rocker arms it started the season with were replaced by wishbones and a pullrod, is also beautiful – although its fragility, exposed in the accidents suffered by Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi, has to count against it.

The Renault RE30B of that season is almost as pretty.

There are other obvious contenders, the names of which often come up – the Maserati 250F from the 1950s, the Eagle Mk1 from 1966-69, the Brabham BT46 from 1978 (or 44 or 45 or 52, for that matter), the Lotus 72 and 79, Williams FW07B, McLaren MP4/4, Jordan 191, Williams FW14B, for example.

Of the current cars, the McLaren MCL39 is to my eyes easily the most beautiful, especially from side-on or rear three-quarters. Every line and curve seems to be in the right place. It’s exquisite, even allowing for the rather ungainly noses forced on this era of F1 cars by the regulations.

Can you explain why a car can be better in qualifying trim but not as good during race day? What are the factors that reduce a car’s performance other than tyres and weather? – Brian

The overarching factor is that peak tyre grip tends to hide a car’s deficiencies.

So, a car that has significant flaws can look better over one lap when the tyres are working to their maximum than it does over a race stint.

The more flaws a car has, the more it is likely to damage its tyres. So, while an F1 car is sliding at all times during cornering, there is an optimum way to slide it under control, and then how much ‘slip’ it experiences beyond that depending on its behaviour.

So, a car that has plenty of downforce and a good balance will much more easily stay on its planned trajectory.

Less downforce, or a more imperfect balance, will mean more sliding, and every extra bit of sliding puts more load into the tyres. Which gets them hotter.

This becomes a vicious circle – as the tyres become hotter, the car slides more, and vice versa. So the tyres degrade much faster on a less effective car than on a good one, and that has a significant effect on pace over a race stint, and the potential duration of that stint.

Another factor could be how the car heats up its tyres. Some cars generate tyre temperature quickly, some more gradually.

Getting up to temperature quickly is generally a good thing for a qualifying lap – the tyres will be easier to get into the right operating window for that lap.

But that is also likely to mean that the car works its tyres harder, so they will get hotter quicker during a race and it will be harder to keep the temperatures under control over a stint.

Teams get penalised for more than the allocated engine or gearbox replacements. But what constitutes a replacement? Can they strip an item down, replace bearings/change gearbox ratios for example, or is this considered a replacement? – Tony

All engines are sealed between races and any work on them has to be approved by the FIA.

If an engine suffers a problem, a manufacturer is allowed to investigate the issue up to a point and may be allowed to repair it.

But a replacement is defined as breaking the FIA seals placed on the engine items. Do that, and you’ve “consumed” it and it’s out of the pool.

There is the odd occasion when reaching an unsealed component might need intervention on a seal, and the FIA can grant this permission on those occasions.

Gearboxes can be repaired as long as the work has been authorised by the FIA, and all other competitors have been notified.

The rules say that gears and dog rings can be changed for others of identical specification provided the FIA is satisfied there is physical damage to the parts in question.