Do Cowboys Need to Teach Washington Commanders 'Super Bowl Math'?
FRISCO - We make typos.
Not often, by God, but it happens.
And when we do, down the hallowed halls of CowboysSI.com HQ, a senior editor comes yelling at the perp. Heads don't roll, no.
But with a simple push of a button, the error gets fixed.
Why won't the Washington Commanders organization execute the simple push of a button.
The Washington franchise, in releasing its new name and marks, mistakenly thinks its championship seasons were "1983, 1988 and 1992.''
It says it right there on the new Commanders logo.
And of course, it's wrong.
The Super Bowl championship campaigns for Washington - even though the games were actually played, according to the calendar, after Dec. 31 - were for the 1982, 1987 and 1991 seasons.
Look at what the ring says from the Cowboys team that won its first Super Bowl of the '90's at the Rose Bowl ...
Just as the Dallas Cowboys' most recent "Super Bowl seasons'' were (that is, the game followed) the years of 1992, 1993 and 1995.
How does almost everybody know this ... except a tiny group in D.C. that includes the owner of the Washington franchise, Daniel Snyder, and his top guy, team president Jason Wright?
“Well, the usual nomenclature for the Super Bowl championships is, ‘the 1983 Super Bowl champions were the Washington Redskins,’” team president Jason Wright said in a recent radio visit when quizzed by The Team 980 host Kevin Sheehan, who'd asked, "You guys got the championship seasons wrong, are you gonna fix it?”
Wright tried to argue, but Sheehan rightly stood his ground.
“No, it’s not ("the usual nomenclature''),” Sheehan said of the goof-up on the team’s new crest. “That’s not true.”
Wright tried again - by actually giving two vastly different answers.
On the one hand, Wright insisted Washington did it right, via "NFL annals.''
“That’s actually how it gets documented in the NFL annals,” Wright said. “We chose to go with the official way that it’s logged in NFL annals.''
Our reply: We have no idea what "NFL annals'' are. The 1985 Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl (even though the actual game was technically played in 1986.) The undefeated Miami Dolphins were from 1972, even though they won the Super Bowl a month into 1973. The Dallas Cowboys' 1990's run began with the 1992 team.
Do the Washington bosses really not know this?
Wright: "We thought it was consistent because the championships that predate the Super Bowls, those were played in the same year as the full season. And we wanted to be consistent across it.”
My reply: Now we're nearing the truth. The bosses wanted to put a neat bow on the dates, even though - as school children know - a neat bow cannot be accomplished here.
Wright: "It’s something that we can easily fix, we can easily fix it the next time we re-do the logo if fans prefer a different methodology.''
My reply: If the "methodology'' used is wrong, it must be immediately changed.
Admit the typo, just like I do. Take all the T-shirts you've already printed with the wrong logo and use them to wash cars or something.
Washington has done enough embarrassing things over the course of Daniel Snyder's ownership tenure. And not being able to count - and then trying to lie about it - is now added to the list.
Heads don't have to roll over the mistake. An ego needs to be swallowed. Some expense needs to be eaten. And a button needs to be pushed.
