The Super Bowl is less than two weeks away, and the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs are getting ready to square off in the big dance for the second time in three seasons.
Thirty other teams are focusing on the upcoming NFL draft, and a handful are doing so with new coaches at the forefront. One of those teams is the Dallas Cowboys, now led by Brian Schottenheimer.
In a very busy day, Schottenheimer completed his coordinator search, appointing former Bears HC Matt Eberflus as defensive coordinator, and bringing in former San Francisco 49ers coach Nick Sorensen to coach special teams.
Lost in the shuffle is a day that lives in infamy because it might be the last time Cowboys fans were truly happy. Today came and went without much fanfare, but it is the 29th anniversary of a day any of us over 35 years old or so hold dear to our hearts.
A Dynasty Is Born
We didn’t know it at the time, and we especially didn’t think about it in our euphoric state, but January 28th, 1996 would be the last time in 29 years (and counting) the Dallas Cowboys would even appear in a Super Bowl, much less win one.
The Cowboys defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX in Tempe, Arizona for their third Super victory in four seasons, cementing the team as the dynasty of the 1990s.
It was a day of redemption on many fronts. The ultimate redemption was Owner/GM Jerry Jones getting to say he won a Super Bowl without Jimmy Johnson.
HC Barry Switzer echoed those thoughts with the infamous line, “We did it our way!” as he and Jones held the Lombardi Trophy.
QB Troy Aikman showed that he could win without OC Norv Turner, who took the job as head coach of the Washington Redskins after the 1993 season.
Barry Switzer inherited a team that won back to back Super Bowls, but he could not complete the hat trick, falling behind 21-0 in the 1st quarter at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in the NFC Championship the previous season, eventually losing 38-28.
Switzer’s ego had to have taken a hit to lose in that fashion, and the Super Bowl victory restored some of that pride.
The End of an Era
Little did we know, the 30-20 win over Bill Cowher’s Steelers was the end of an era. QB Troy Aikman, RB Emmitt Smith, and WR Michael Irvin, better known as The Triplets, remained.
However, free agency and the salary cap changed the league, and Jones could no longer simply swing his pocket book around to add players like Deion Sanders and Charles Haley.
The Cowboys lost to the expansion Carolina Panthers in the Divisional round of the 1996 NFL Playoffs, and Barry Switzer was fired. Dallas has cycled through six coaches since then:
- Chan Gailey
- Dave Campo
- Bill Parcells
- Wade Phillips
- Jason Garrett
- Mike McCarthy
- Brian Schottenheimer
Schottenheimer makes number seven, and he has four years to bring a championship back to Dallas for the first time in 29 years or risk having The Star in Frisco swarmed by an angry mob of success-starved fans.
I truly thought Mike McCarthy was going to be the answer to the Dallas drought, and he had success, but he didn’t get enough help from the front office to complete the job.
Instead, we are forced to sit and watch yet another anniversary of Super Bowl XXX come and go without anything in between to match the impact from the 1996 win.
I don’t see a problem with reminiscing. I do it all the time, and the Super Bowl XXX victory is one of the games that gets the most love in my memory.