For the final infographic project this semester, I chose to complete mine on my favorite NFL football team, the Dallas Cowboys. I have watched this team ever since I was going up and have so much background knowledge on them as well as football in general. I wanted to dive a little bit deeper on their five Super Bowl wins, the top two coaches in franchise history, as well as, the top quarterbacks in history.
The Dallas Cowboys have won five Super Bowls throughout NFL history. It has been 25 years since their last Super Bowl win which is very shocking. They have had tremendous talent throughout the years, but are known to be injury prone which jeopardizes their chances at competing in the Super Bowl.
According to DallasCowboys.org, the Cowboys haven’t even appeared in a single Super Bowl game since 1996, but the fans still expect their team to show up every year. However, it is always the same story written over and over again. They start out with an impressive run and ultimately end up ruining it by the first playoff game. Although, the fans keep coming back year after year to support their team with hopes that a Super Bowl birth will happen once again.
Notably, there are two head coaches that stand out when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys franchise. Tom Landry and and Jimmy Johnson are the two coaches who come to mind since they were the most successful with the Cowboys. Each coach has won two Super Bowls with the team which accounts for four of the five championship wins in team history.
According to The Football Database, Landry coached 454 games while Johnson coached 88. It is impressive that Johnson was able to take the team to two Super Bowls in just five years while it took Landry 29 years. If the talent was the same almost every year while Landry was coaching, the team should’ve won the championship title more than two times.
Another coach that should get an honorable mention is Barry Switzer. He was able to lead the team to a single Super Bowl win in 1996 after Johnson left the franchise. Switzer only coached for four years and won a total of 71 games with the Cowboys.
Quarterbacks are arguably the most important player on the team since they are in charge of where the football goes. They are ultimately the play makers who keep everyone in line. Most quarterbacks who have outstanding statistics are typically sent to the Super Bowl, however, this is not always true.
According to The Football Database, Tony Romo never made it to the Super Bowl, although, he did have playoff appearances. He stands at the top of the passing yards list coming in at 34,183 total yards. He completed 248 touchdowns throughout his 14 year career. While Troy Aikman completed 165 touchdowns in 11 years.
An honorable mention would be current quarterback, Dak Prescott. Prescott has 20,804 passing yards in just five years. He has completed 129 touchdowns and has a passer rating of 98 percent. Prescott currently ranks number five on the passing yards list.
To further investigate Cowboys history, I was able to interview my father who has watched the team his whole life. I also interviewed my former roommate who is an avid fan as well.
I talked to my father about what he thinks on all three infographics I created. He knew that the Cowboys have not appeared in the Super Bowl since 1996 since he knows the exact place where he watched the game. He find it completely exhausting having to watch the same team every year with his expectations so low.
He went on to talk about the old days when Johnson was still the coach. “Man, he was by far the best coach this franchise has ever seen. To this day, I will never forgive Jerry Jones for firing him”, said my father. This was by far the most a coach has ever done for a team in such a short amount of time. When it comes to quarterbacks, Roger Staubach was his favorite of all time.
Next, when I interviewed my former roommate, we had a whole conversation about the Cowboys since we watch them regularly when were at Bloomsburg together. I asked her how she feels about the Cowboys not making a football appearance since 1996. She honestly has no idea that it has been 25 years since they last made an appearance and was absolutely shocked by the news.
When it came time to talk about coaches we bonded about former head coach, Jason Garrett, who was by far the worst in history. He was the head coach and was never able to make a Super Bowl appearance. However, when I talked about the older coaches she did not know much about them since we were so used to watching Garrett when we were growing up.
Lastly, I asked who her favorite quarterback was and she responded with the current quarterback, Dak Prescott. I kind of had a feeling this would be her favorite since he has done a lot for the team recently. I told her about how Tony Romo was the leading quarterback in passing yards and she was shocked. She said, “Wow, I didn’t even know that this was possible considering he never even made a Super Bowl appearance in his career.”
References:
https://www.footballdb.com/teams/nfl/dallas-cowboys/head-coaches
https://www.footballdb.com/teams/nfl/dallas-cowboys/leaders/career-passing-yards
Super Bowls
Bloomsburg Infographics 