Super Snub: Dallas Cowboys Left Off 'Dynasty' List by ESPN?!
FRISCO - Three Super Bowl wins in four years. Four consecutive appearances in the NFC Championship Game. Eight future Pro Football Hall of Famers. A roster so stacked and talent so intimidating that it prompted owners to change the rules of the sport.
You'd be hard-pressed to leave the 1990s Dallas Cowboys off any short list of all-time greatest NFL dynasties. But, inexplicably, ESPN did just that Tuesday morning.
On its Get Up! show, host Mike Greenberg unveiled his Top 5 pro football dynasties and somehow snubbed the Cowboys of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin. The '90s Cowboys, in fact, weren't even mentioned in the show's discussion of honorable mentions after the list was revealed.
Greenberg did admit to subjectively tweaking his list of supposed "Super Bowl era" dynasties, allowing in the pre-Super Bowl Green Bay Packers and breaking into two parts the New England Patriots' 18-year run which featured a record six titles.
"If we include the Patriots as one group it's unquestionably No. 1," Greenberg said. "And it's not even close."
Strangely, the teams with arguably the two most dominant periods of pro football were left off the list. Only the Cowboys (1992-93, '95) and Patriots (2001, '03-04) won three Super Bowls in four years.
Instead, ESPN's Top 5 is:
5. Bill Belichick-Tom Brady Patriots 2014-18 - 3 Super Bowl wins, 5 AFC Championship Games in 5 years.
4. Andy Reid-Patrick Mahomes-Travis Kelce Kansas City Chiefs 2019-23 - 3 Super Bowl wins, 4 Super Bowl appearances, 5 AFC Championship Games in 5 years. Chance for historic 3-peat in 2024.
3. Joe Montana San Francisco 49ers 1981-89 - 4 Super Bowl wins in 9 years, the first two before receiver Jerry Rice arrived and one after coach Bill Walsh departed. (Why were the Patriots split into two but not the Niners?)
2. Steel Curtain Pittsburgh Steelers 1974-79 - 4 Super Bowl wins, 5 AFC Championship Games in 6 years, including back-to-back titles in '74-75 and '78-79.
1. Vince Lombardi Packers 1961-67 - 5 championships (including the first 2 Super Bowls) in 7 years with a roster that featured 13 future Hall of Famers.
Let's remove the obvious - and admittedly irrelevant - fact that the '90s Cowboys would run circles around Lombardi's Packers.
And let's try to ignore how close the Cowboys were to having three dynasties on this list. In '66 and '67 Dallas lost NFL Championship Games on last-second touchdowns by the Packers. In '75 and '78 it lost Super Bowls to the Steelers, both by four points.
Over their dominant four-year period from 1992-95, the Cowboys went 59-16 and won three Super Bowls by 35, 17 and 10 points. In the season that interrupted their four-peat, they fell behind the 49ers 21-0 eight minutes into the game before losing 38-28. That was a San Francisco team - led by future Hall of Famer Steve Young - mind you, that won the Super Bowl that season and played in four NFC Championship Games.
During their deserving dynasty, the Cowboys sported Hall of Famers Jerry Jones, Jimmy Johnson, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, Charles Haley, Larry Allen and Deion Sanders. Another member of the defense - Darren Woodson - narrowly missed induction into Canton last week.
The Cowboys' assemblage of players so scared league owners that after the 1993 season instituted a dramatic, foundational change of league rules: Free agency.
If the 1990s Cowboys aren't on the list of greatest NFL dynasties then it's not a list at all.
