The label of “America’s Team” has been thrown around in regards to lots of NFL franchises from the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Green Bay Packers to the Kansas City Chiefs. But the moniker has always been most associated with the Dallas Cowboys, and its origin actually began with the Cowboys in 1978.
Sports broadcaster John Facenda of NFL Films was voicing a Dallas Cowboys highlight film when he said the following: “They appear on television so often that their faces are as familiar to the public as presidents and movie stars. They are the Dallas Cowboys, ‘America’s Team.’”
However, one of the Cowboys’ all-time great players believes that this current team is causing the label to slip away. Michael Irvin, who won three Super Bowls in the 1990s with the Cowboys and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said that the offseason antics and the lack of playoff success is causing America’s Team to lose its grip on “America’s Team.”
“When we start talking about the lack of people that showed up at training camp, and [owner] Jerry [Jones] ... how much Jerry wants to promote. That means you want to be in front of people. And if no one’s showing up, that means there’s a lack of belief in Cowboys Nation, you better believe, there is not too much pressure that you can put on [head coach] Mike McCarthy. ... All of this season, it’s only about, ‘What are you doing in the playoffs?’ No matter how good he does in the regular season, no one cares. You gotta get to the playoffs, and let’s see what you do there.”
Irvin’s comment about players not showing up at training camp is in relation to a couple of the team’s biggest starts in CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons. Lamb missed the team’s entire training camp in Oxnard, Calif., as he was holding out while seeking a contract extension. He eventually got what he was looking for and signed a deal that made him the second-highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history, but his missing both training camp and all of preseason may have disrupted some chemistry with quarterback Dak Prescott.
Meanwhile, Parsons participated in training camp, but he also skipped the team’s voluntary OTAs amid his own pursuit of a contract extension. He’s now skipped OTA sessions in back-to-back years, despite saying on his podcast that he wanted to change the culture with the Cowboys and display more leadership.
Over the last three years, the Cowboys have had the type of consistency that most other NFL teams would envy. They’ve gone 12–5 in each season, and only the Kansas City Chiefs—who’ve won two Super Bowls during this span—have more regular season wins (37) than Dallas (36).
However, as Irvin mentioned, Cowboys Nation only cares about what happens in the playoffs, as postseason success during the 1960s and 1970s is what earned the America’s Team nickname for Dallas, and more success in the 1990s is what allowed the Cowboys to maintain the moniker.
The Cowboys have a 1–3 playoff record over the last three years, failing to advance to the NFC Championship Game in any of those seasons. That NFC Title Game drought, however, extends far beyond the last three years as the Cowboys haven’t appeared in that game since their last Super Bowl-winning season in 1995, in which Irvin participated. The 28-year drought without a Championship Game appearance is the fourth-longest active one in the NFL, which isn’t befitting of a franchise known as America’s Team.
One could debate Irvin’s assertion on Dallas losing its grip on the nickname, but it’s hard to argue with the Cowboys actually being America’s Team.
Irvin isn’t the only Cowboys legend who is souring on the current players wearing a star on their helmets as his longtime teammate and NFL rushing king, Emmitt Smith, echoed those same sentiments. He was asked if the Cowboys, who are 1–1, are a playoff team, and Smith isn’t convinced that they are.
“Last week was just a debacle. It just was a debacle, period. And we didn’t rise up like we should have, and maybe we don’t have that talented of a football team to rise up and do what people expect.
“So McCarthy, he has his work cut out for him. [Defensive coordinator] Mike Zimmer has his work cut out for him as well.”
The Cowboys will have their next chance to win back their legends when they host the even more disappointing and winless Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. But regardless of that game’s result, all-time greats like Irvin and Smith know that maintaining the America’s Team nickname comes down to what the Cowboys do in the postseason, if they can get there.
