Pick Your Poison: Cowboys Rooting Against Both Rivals in NFC Championship Game?
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How synonymous are the Dallas Cowboys to NFC Championship Sunday?
They own the most all-time wins (8) ... despite not appearing in the game in 27 years.
Again shoved from their cob-webbed throne and relegated to spectators, the Cowboys are forced to pick their poison when the San Francisco 49ers visit the Philadelphia Eagles for a berth in Super Bowl LVII.
Root for the long-time playoff rival that eliminated them last weekend with another bitter defeat? Root for the hated NFC East foe that beat them in the title game in 1981? Or somehow root against them both and perhaps piddle around the garage instead?
No way around it: It's the lesser of two evils. But what if they're both equally heinous? "The Catch" or "Bounty Bowl".
Shame, because for approximately the first half of their franchise history the Cowboys weren't haters, but hated. In their first 30 years they played in 16 conference championship games. In their last 27 they've played in exactly zero.
Fitting that owner Jerry Jones told Mike McCarthy this week that he hopes the coach sticks around as long as Tom Landry, because the Cowboys initial icon helped set the bar to irrational standards. Under Landry, the Cowboys played in 12 conference games - 10 NFC Championship Games and two NFL Championship Games before the 1970 merger. Under their other eight coaches, they've played in only four.
If you're under 30 , you likely have no memory of the last time Dallas played in the NFC Championship.
After dismantling the Eagles the previous week, on Jan. 14, 1996 the Cowboys blasted the Green Bay Packers, 38-27, to advance to Super Bowl XXX. How long ago was it? Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin accounted for all five touchdowns at Texas Stadium. Barry Switzer coached it. Pat Summerall and John Madden called it. Brett Favre was decades from being accused of swindling money out of his home state. Bill Clinton was President, and we were paying $1.23 for a gallon of gas.
It was the Cowboys' fourth consecutive appearance in the NFC Championship Game. And their last.
Since then they've been to the playoffs 12 times without advancing that far, a dubious NFL record. Once the stars of conference championship Sunday, the Cowboys have deteriorated into a drought alongside hideous neighbors.
The only teams to not play in an NFC Championship Game since 1996: Washington. Detroit. Dallas.
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