It’s been 30 years for the Triplets. And it’s been 30 years for the franchise.
The Cowboys’ NFC Championship drought turns 30 this year. And with the Commanders making it to the Super Bowl semifinal game, Dallas now has the longest streak in the NFC without appearing in a final-four game.
For the Cowboys, it last happened in the 1995 season. The Lions and Commanders previously had the longest streak, dating back to 1991. For the Lions, it ended last year. For the Commanders, it ends today.
Here are the years in which each of the NFC teams last appeared in the NFC Championship.
Commanders: 2024.
Eagles: 2024.
Lions: 2023.
49ers: 2023.
Rams: 2021.
Buccaneers: 2020.
Packers: 2020.
Saints: 2018.
Vikings: 2017.
Falcons: 2016.
Cardinals: 2015.
Panthers: 2015.
Seahawks: 2014.
Giants: 2011.
Bears: 2010.
Cowboys: 1995.
Consider the gap between the Bears and the Cowboys. Fifteen years. Half of the 30-year gap.
Making the Dallas drought even more amazing is the fact that, for the first 30 Super Bowls, the Cowboys played in the NFC Championship (or, pre-merger, NFL Championship) 16 times.
Cowboys Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin has spoken. And he’s not happy.
In a video posted on Saturday night, Irvin aired his grievances about the team’s decision to make Brian Schottenheimer the next head coach.
“We lost an opportunity here,” Irvin said. “I was pushing for Deion Sanders to be the next coach. And I still stand ten toes down on that push.”
Irvin isn’t happy that the Cowboys will be sitting at home watching a couple of division rivals compete for a spot in the Super Bowl.
“We have two NFC East teams in the NFC Championship game being played tomorrow,” Irvin said. “All eyes on them. The Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders. Our enemies on all fronts. . . And [in] a position that we haven’t held in 30 fucking years.”
He stressed that he has no problem with Schottenheimer. He objects to the idea of promoting someone from the last coaching staff.
“You bringing in someone that already was inside as the head coach,” Irvin said. “You lose things there that you can’t grab back, that I worry about.”
Irvin believes the Cowboys require a new voice to instill change.
“I know what we needed,” Irvin said. “They don’t have curfew. They don’t have discipline. We were fourth in penalties this year. So how you do fix that? . . . How do you do that when you’re coming from inside?”
Irvin claimed the Cowboys don’t meet on Saturday night before games. He passionately impressed the importance of doing that.
He’s also concerned that, if Schottenheimer tries to crack down, players will balk because they’ll be thinking “we got you the job.”
Irvin, while still trying his best to give Schottenheimer the benefit of the doubt, has concerns about Schottenheimer’s journey around the league.
“He’s been playing basketball in the NFL,” Irvin said. “He’s been NBA-ing the NFL. I call that bouncing his ass around to about 15 other teams.”
The bottom line, from Irvin’s perspective, is this: He believe’s America’s Team is about to lose America.
“We’re about to get our moniker snatched off our backs,” Irvin said.
He eventually summed up his experience of the past week like this: “Sick with the flu, and then hit with doo-doo.”
Flu or not, plenty of Cowboys fans are currently feeling the doo-doo, too.
The Cowboys have a new head coach in place and they have started working on filling out Brian Schottenheimer’s coaching staff.
According to multiple reports, the Cowboys interviewed Chris Banjo for their special teams coordinator job on Saturday. John Fassell had the job for the last five years, but he left for the same position on the Titans’ staff this week.
Banjo has been an assistant special teams coach in Denver for the last two years. He spent the previous decade playing defensive back and special teams for the Packers, Saints, and Cardinals.
The 49ers also interviewed Banjo for their special teams job and he’s been mentioned as a potential candidate for that job on Aaron Glenn’s staff with the Jets.
It’s hard not to feel bad for new Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer.
A 51-year-old career assistant, he finally has gotten a chance to lead a team of his own. But few if any fans of that team like it.
Which explains the timing of the announcement of the news.
It landed late on a Friday night, via a leak to Cowboys-partially-owned-and-heavily-influenced NFL Media posted at 9:43 p.m. ET. The team announced it only two minutes later.
Owner Jerry Jones wants his team to be compelling. In the Sunday Ticket antitrust trial, Jones explained the importance of generating interest.
“What is so important is that you are substantive, that you are interesting,” Jones said from the witness stand. “The facts are that probably well over half the fans of the NFL don’t like the Cowboys and want to kick our ‘you know what’ every time we get out there. And I say that in respect to everybody here. But that’s the way it is because they don’t like me, and they probably don’t like me to some degree if they pay that much attention to it. But it makes us interesting, that the -- it’s so much more than a score or so much more than a tackle. It is a manifestation of an interest, something to support.”
There’s not much to support in the Cowboys’ latest coaching hire, and the timing of the news confirms the Cowboys’ awareness of that fact.
If the Cowboys knew that the promotion of Schottenheimer from offensive coordinator to head coach would have prompted a positive reaction, it would have been leaked and announced on Sunday morning, sucking the oxygen from the buildup to the conference championship games. (Case in point — news of Dak Prescott’s new deal landed on the morning of the first Sunday of the 2024 regular season.) Or maybe the Cowboys would have tried to bigfoot the NFC Championship, between two of their division rivals. (Cases in point — news that Jason Garrett would not return as coach was leaked during a Seahawks-Eagles playoff game five years ago, and news of talks between Jones and Colorado coach Deion Sanders emerged during the Vikings-Rams playoff game 12 days ago.)
Jones knows when and how to detonate an M-80. Based on Friday night’s development, he also knows when and how to light the fuse on a lady finger and run.
That’s what happened on Friday night. In making perhaps the most uninspired head-coaching hire in team history (Dave Campo might have a case otherwise), Jerry knew to not pound on the front door but to slip through a basement window.
The Cowboys went with continuity at head coach by bumping Brian Schottenheimer up from offensive coordinator, but they won’t be bringing back the rest of the offensive staff.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien is set to leave the team. Tolzien’s contract is up and his next stop is not known.
Tolzien joined the Cowboys as a coaching assistant in 2020 and he took on the quarterbacks coach role in 2023. He has also coached at Wisconsin, which is where he played quarterback before embarking on an NFL career.
Tolzien started two games for the Packers in 2013 and he made two more starts for the Colts later in his career.
