After a major step backward the year before, Dallas went to work on getting back to a winning record. Despite losing the team’s all-time leading tackler in Darren Woodson, the Cowboys improved the roster through free agency and the draft. With the Vinny Testaverde experiment a flop, Dallas … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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Coming into the 2004 season hopes were running high in Dallas that a return to past glory was imminent. Those hopes couldn’t have been any more false. Questions of Quincy Carter’s inconsistent play at quarterback – and concerns about his failing drug tests – loomed overhead. In response, … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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With the last of the Triplets gone with the departure of Emmitt Smith to the Cardinals, the era of Bill Parcells began in Dallas in 2003. The Cowboys’ sixth head coach quickly went to work rebuilding the team. While he kept most of the defensive coaches, he cleaned … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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Despite the previous two seasons, the Cowboys came into the 2002 season with some hope of turning things around. They actually had their best draft since the departure of Jimmy Johnson nearly a decade before. The Cowboys drafted safety Roy Williams out of Oklahoma in the first round. … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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With the departure of both Troy Aikman (retirement) and Randall Cunningham (free agency), the Cowboys needed a quarterback. But Jerry Jones had traded the team’s first round pick of the 2001 Draft to land Joey Galloway in 2000. Among the players the Cowboys missed out on drafting with … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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For the first 29 seasons of existence in the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys had one head coach. Over the next 11 seasons Dallas would hire and then fire three head coaches. With the exit of Chan Gailey after the 1999 season, the Cowboys began life in the 21st … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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The 40th season – and the final one of the 20th Century – was less than stellar for the Cowboys. In an attempt to ignite the passing game Dallas acquired free agent wide receiver Rocket Ismail. But the team’s drafting continued to underwhelm. Only linebacker Dat Nguyen – … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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With the departure of Barry Switzer the Cowboys turned to Chan Gailey to become the fourth head coach in team history. Gailey brought back a focus on the running game and the Cowboys drafted to upgrade the offensive and defensive lines. Picking eighth, the Cowboys drafted defensive end … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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The Cowboys streak of consecutive NFC Championship game appearance had ended at four in 1996. The team came into the 1997 season looking to get back on top. Instead, the whole thing unraveled. Troy Aikman’s long-running frustration with Barry Switzer’s coaching style boiled over in an epic sideline … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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The Cowboys title defense in 1996 was literally doomed before it even started. Two years of poor drafts by Jerry Jones left the Cowboys without depth. The 1996 draft was better than the previous two, but that was a low bar to clear. So when suspensions and injuries … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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Still stinging from letting a three-peat slip away the Cowboys went to work on getting back to the Super Bowl in 1995. If owner Jerry Jones was hoping to show the world the General Manager Jones had been the genius behind building the team, he fell well short. … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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After a second-straight Super Bowl win over Buffalo in January, the Cowboys were early favorites to make it three in a row at the end of the 1994 season. Barring catastrophic injuries, the team was young and solid at every position. They seemed an unstoppable juggernaut. Only self-sabotage … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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To call the 14 months between Dallas’ victory over the Bills in Super Bowl XXVII and the firing of Jimmy Johnson as tumultuous would be an understatement. Over that period of time, Dallas would celebrate its third Super Bowl victory. They would add Bernie Kosar to back up … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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Just call 1992 the year of the three- and five-game win streaks in Dallas. The Cowboys would win three games, lose a game, then win five straight twice during the season. The pattern carried them all the way to Super Bowl XXVII in Pasadena where they lifted the … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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The Herschel Walker trade paid off big in 1991 and continued to do so for several years to come. With the assets gained from that transaction, along with a few additional moves, Dallas had 18 picks over the seven rounds of the 1991 NFL Draft. In the first … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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By virtue of a league-worst 1-15 record in 1989, the Dallas Cowboys should have had the No. 1 pick in the 1990 NFL Draft. They didn’t because they gave up that pick by selecting quarterback Steve Walsh in the 1989 Supplemental draft. While Walsh did start five games … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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If Jerry Jones’ had hoped to ride into town and be proclaimed ‘savior of the Dallas Cowboys’ he would be sorely disappointed. It wasn’t that changes didn’t need to be made. And it wasn’t that everyone knew the game had passed Tom Landry by. It was the way … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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After enduring consecutive losing seasons the Cowboys were looking to turn things around in 1988. Tony Dorsett was traded to Denver during the offseason. Dallas even had a productive draft for a change. Michael Irvin was drafted in the first round and Ken Norton Jr. in the second. … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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For the second time in the 1980s, the NFL players went out on strike after the first two games of the 1987 season. But unlike the 1982 strike, which saw seven weeks scratched from the schedule, this time the NFL owners weren’t playing. Cancelling only the Week 3 … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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The Cowboys entered the 1986 with high hopes and with very good reason. They would have the dynamic running back duo of Tony Dorsett and Herschel Walker to pound the football. They also brought in Paul Hackett to rejuvenate the passing game with quarterback Danny White. In the … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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The Cowboys came off of missing the playoffs in 1984 with an otherwise uneventful draft in the spring of 1985. They did net a starting guard in Crawford Ker in the third round. They also grabbed Herschel Walker in the fifth round. Walker would not see action until … Read more
Written by: Richard Paolinelli
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