The streak continues, for at least another year.
In 1970, the AFL and NFL merged. The move created the AFC and NFC. In turn, it created the AFC and NFC Championship games.
The AFC and NFC Championships have now been played 53 times. In the first 26 years of conference title games, the Cowboys appeared in the NFC’s version of the contest 14 times.
In the next 27 years, the Cowboys have appeared none times.
None. Not once. If you’d told me on January 14, 1996, the day the Cowboys beat the Packers to qualify for Super Bowl XXX (fueled by 150 rushing yards and three touchdowns from Emmitt Smith), that Dallas would not even play in a conference championship for 27 years and counting, I would have called you crazy.
These are the Cowboys. America’s Team. How ‘bout them Cowboys? To go 27 years without advancing to the conference final is incomprehensible.
Only two other teams in the NFC have a longer drought; the Commanders and Lions haven’t played in the NFC Championship since they met in the game played in January 1992.
It will be interesting to see who gets there first, Cowboys, Commanders, or Lions. Right now, many would say the Lions have the best chance of the three.