Cowboys Have Longest Title Draught In Dallas

by Kevin Burton

   Sports fans in North Texas and coast to coast, gather round.

   As we honor the new kings of baseball, the Texas Rangers, who won their first World Series Wednesday, let’s also take a look at the sports landscape in Dallas.

   Clarence E Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star Telegram has a story making my point.  The Dallas Cowboys now have the longest championship draught in North Texas, among teams in the four major sports.

   “As the Rangers and fans across Dallas-Fort Worth continue to lose their collective minds in sheer delirium, it begs the question: What can the Dallas Cowboys learn the North Texas’ newest and latest champion?”

   “Certainly, no team in Dallas-Fort Worth has the pedigree and tradition of the Cowboys and their five Super Bowl titles,” Hill Jr. wrote. “But the Cowboys haven’t sniffed a championship since 1995.”

   “Since then, the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999, the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA title in 2011 before the Rangers in 2023. The Cowboys have the history, but this current team does not know what it takes to be champions.”

   Most of the time neutral fan bases take pity on teams who haven’t won a championship in a long time.  Cubs nation went crazy when the team finally won a title in 2016. The neutrals fell in line with them. I remember wishing both Cleveland and Chicago could win that Series, because Cleveland hasn’t won since 1948.

   The only teams with a long title draught who have been taunted by neutrals are the Boston Red Sox and the Dallas Cowboys. What is the common theme there? Arrogance. You have fan bases in both cases who are full of themselves. 

   In the case of the Cowboys that manifests itself as insufferable superiority. That’s why neutrals such as me, take great pleasure in taunting the Cowboys.

   And now the Rangers have added fuel to the fire. 

   Hill Jr. asked a question, what can the Cowboys learn from The Rangers’ win? Here are some of his suggestions:

Don’t be handcuffed by past failures

   “Much has been said about the Cowboys’ 28-year Super Bowl drought and the pressure to win hanging over the franchise like a dark cloud

   “But consider the Rangers who had never won anything and the angst of Rangers fans with the memory of the team being a strike away from being champions twice in 2011 before having the rug pulled out from under them by the St. Louis Cardinals.”

   “None of that mattered to their current Rangers team. They lived and realized their own destiny to be champions.”

Don’t be discouraged by the ebbs and flows of the season

   “How many times did you give up on the Rangers this season after the hot start?”

   “They blew the division lead. They blew the division title on the final day. They had to start the playoffs on the road. They blew an 2-0 lead against the Houston Astros by losing three straight at home in the American League Championship Series.

   “The Rangers never quit. They never stopped believing in themselves and they are the only team in baseball left standing.”   “

   “In other words, the Cowboys can’t let a 28-16 shocking loss to the Arizona Cardinals and a 42-10 drubbing by the San Francisco 49ers define who they are and keep them from reaching their goals.”

Be road warriors

   “The Rangers set an MLB record by going 11-0 on the road in the playoffs.

   “The Cowboys have been excellent at home with an 11-0 mark at AT&T Stadium dating back to last season. But they will likely have to win on the road to get the Super Bowl and win the title.”

   The Cowboys are 1-2 on the road so far in 2023 heading into Sunday’s showdown game at the Philadelphia Eagles. They have upcoming road games at the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins.

Go for it and never stop trying

   “The Rangers let you know they were serious about spending and trying to win a title when they signed Marcus Semien and Corey Seager in free agency and hired three-time World Series champion Bruce Bochy, who now has his fourth, as manager.

   They added to that haul when they signed Jacob deGrom.

   “But the Rangers didn’t rest on their laurels and say ‘we like our guys.’ They kept the pedal to the mettle.

   “DeGrom got hurt. So they traded for Max Scherzer and added Jordan Montgomery. They never stopped trying. They never thought they had done enough.

   “Jerry Jones and the Cowboys can learn a lot from that attitude.”

Make sure your best play their best in the biggest moment

   “When it came to winning team, the Rangers biggest stars stood out. Time and time again, Adolis Garcia showed up and showed out in the biggest moments in the ALCS and the first game of the World Series with the walk-off bomb that was heard around the metroplex.”

   “And then Seager and Semien took over from there.

   “Seager won his second World Series MVP with a ninth-inning game-tying home run in a Game 1 win, three homers overall.

   “And Semien, who played in all 162 regular season games and 17 playoff games, shook off a playoff slump to rise to the occasion in the World Series. He singled and homered in the Game 5 clincher.”

   “Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence take heed.”

Go and take it

   “The Rangers’ motto was simple. Go and Take it. And they went and took it.”

   “Coach Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys have adopted ‘Carpe Omnia,’ meaning ‘Seize Everything’ as their slogan for 2023.

   “It’s one thing to say it. It’s another thing to do it.”