‘America’s Team’ – the 30-year soap opera that is the Dallas Cowboys

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.