Name a more popular sports brand than the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

You can’t. I mean, it’s the Cowboys. It’s America’s Team. It’s glitz and glamor. It’s the star on the helmet. It’s the franchise whose old venue–Texas Stadium–came equipped with a hole in the roof so God could watch His favorite team.

When you think of the Cowboys and their rich history that includes countless Hall of Fame players, two Hall of Fame head coaches, and five Super Bowl championships, you can’t call them anything but NFL royalty.

Then, there’s the national following. Year in and year out, Dallas leads the NFL in television ratings. Also, it’s hard to walk down any street in America without running into a Cowboys fan. And I’m not just talking about a former Dallas citizen who moved elsewhere for work. No, I’m referring to people who may have never been to Dallas. For example, Chris Christie, who was born in Newark and eventually became the governor of New Jersey, is a huge Cowboys fan. He had no problem flaunting this during his time as the highest elected official in the Garden State. Hell, I’m a diehard Steelers fan living in Pittsburgh, and while the black and gold will forever be my top team by a country mile, I have always admired the Cowboys and their history. The Ice Bowl is my favorite non-Steelers NFL game of all time, and it was played five years before I was born.

In my opinion, it’s hard to be a student of the rich history of the NFL without at least respecting the Cowboys’ impact.

And that’s why their nearly three-decade-long run of ineptitude is as tragic as it is laughable. Sure, you can laugh at the Cowboys’ misfortunes–and millions of NFL fans do every year–but that doesn’t mean it’s not a little sad, too.

The 1995 season was a great one for the Cowboys. Led by a star-studded cast that included Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders, Dallas defeated the Steelers by a score of 27-17 to capture the franchise’s third Lombardi trophy in four years. After stumbling in the mid-to-late-’80s, America’s Team was again a dynasty. The Cowboys were an elite organization like they had been from the mid-’60s through the early-’80s.

That has always been the way for marquee teams in any sport. The Steelers may have fallen off a bit after their dynastic run in the 1970s, but they were back in the Super Bowl after 16 years. While they fell short that day against Dallas, they made three more Super Bowls in the 2000s and brought home two more Lombardis.

After decades of dominance, the Yankees finally regressed to the bottom of MLB by the mid-’60s; they mostly remained irrelevant until the mid-’70s when they rose again under new owner George Steinbrenner to become one of the best teams in baseball through the early-’80s. The Bronx Bombers struggled again in the 1980s and early ’90s. However, starting in 1996, New York went on a run where it won six American League pennants and four World Series titles–including three straight–over eight seasons.

It’s been 15 years since the Yankees last appeared in and won a World Series, but I’d be shocked if their drought lasted another 15 seasons. And even if it does, it’s hard to imagine New York not winning pennants and at least coming close.

The Lakers and Celtics have had rough stretches since the 1980s, but they’ve also made it to and won multiple NBA Finals.

It’s hard to name a national brand in any sport without pointing to a fairly recent time when it was at least relevant in a championship sense.

Even Notre Dame, which hasn’t won a national title in college football since 1988, appeared in the championship game as recently as 2012.

Which brings me back to the Cowboys.

That victory over Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XXX was the last time Dallas even appeared on the NFL’s grandest stage. For that matter, the 1995 campaign was the last one where the Cowboys made it as far as the NFC Championship Game.

That’s insane. I mean, it’s the Cowboys. It’s America’s Team. It’s glitz and glamor. It’s the star on the helmet. How can you go nearly three decades without even making it to a game you were in 14 times between 1970 and 1995? Also, back before the AFL/NFL merger, you were in the equivalent of it–the NFL Championship Game–in 1966 and 1967. That’s 16 times in 29 seasons between 1966 and 1995.

How do you go from that to zero times over the next 28 seasons?

If you’re an entitled and arrogant Cowboys fan, why? What has that franchise done for you lately? Hell, if you’re around the age of 30, what has it done for you your whole life?

Is it the new venue, the remarkable AT&T Stadium, which opened in 2009 and is often referred to as the Death Star or Jerry World?

Speaking of which, maybe your arrogance is due to Jerry Jones, who has been the Cowboys owner since 1989. Not only is Jones the Cowboys’ owner, but he’s the team president and general manager. An owner also being the head of football operations and talent evaluation would be fine if the results were there. Yet, they very pointedly have not been since the advent of the Internet.

When Jones bought the team in ’89, he immediately hired his old college buddy, Jimmy Johnson, as the head coach.

That marriage worked, starting with the rebuilding of the once-great franchise through the first two Super Bowls of the Jones era. However, ego eventually reared its ugly head, and Johnson, who was largely credited with being the architect of those magnificent Cowboys rosters of the early ’90s, resigned following the 1993 season. In stepped Barry Switzer and eventually a third Super Bowl.

But Switzer seemed more like a caretaker and a yes-man for Jones than someone in the mold of a Johnson or Tom Landry.

Eventually, the Johnson talent pool dried up, and it was up to Jones to revamp the roster all by himself. He didn’t have to, of course. He could have yielded some power to people who knew what they were doing. I suppose this happened when Jones hired the legendary Bill Parcells as head coach in 2003. Unfortunately, Parcells couldn’t bring the Cowboys back to prominence.

The same can be said for Wade Phillips.

Jason Garrett was somehow able to coach the Cowboys for an entire decade without achieving much of anything.

Mike McCarthy has been trying to shine the Dallas star since 2020, and while he has produced three straight 12-5 campaigns, the Cowboys have still fallen short in the postseason.

What we have now is a Cowboys franchise mired in controversy. There is talk of a rift between Jones and McCarthy. Star receiver CeeDee Lamb is expected to hold out of training camp over a contract dispute. Dak Prescott is a quarterback known for his stats and salary but not his ability to win when it matters most.

Despite Dallas winning the division two of the past three years, the Eagles are considered the team to beat in the NFC East in 2024.

When will this all end? When will Jones finally get the message that he’s probably not the person who should be running the football side of things?

You can say what you want about Steinbrenner and his meddling ways, but it’s hard to argue with the results; the Yankees’ last title came one year before their famous owner died in 2010.

You can argue all day long about Jones, however. Unfortunately, it’s not going to matter. If three decades of futility can’t convince an egotistical owner to make some changes, what or who can?

The Cowboys were known as Next Year’s Champions or always the bridesmaid but never the bride during their years of coming up just short before finally winning Super Bowl XI in 1971.

Today, the Cowboys are like that person on a dating app who talks a good game for a couple of days but ultimately ghosts their romantic prospect right when it’s time to get together for drinks.

In this analogy, their fans are the ones being ghosted.