The Cowboys and the Steelers have much in common. In this article, I hope to explore their link, and find how success can be achieved, through consistency and continuity in both clubs.
The Cowboys-Steelers Connection
The previous article I wrote was on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Their successes are only rivaled by the Dallas Cowboys, who are interdivisional rivals. The Steelers currently have a 2-1 lead over the Cowboys in Super Bowl, but the Steelers won their games during their 1970's dynasty era, while the Cowboys won their sole game so far, in Super Bowl XXX.
The fates of the Steelers and Cowboys are also intertwined. The Cowboys' first regular season opponent was against the Steelers. But the Steelers later were placed in a difference conference from the Cowboys with the existing 10 AFL teams, resulting in inter-conference Super Bowl match-ups. Both teams, though, are scheduled to play every four years in regular season, and their all-time competitive matchup is split at 15-15.
However, despite the evenness of the competitiveness of the Steelers and Cowboys, some Cowboys fans still maintain that they are still the greatest team in NFL history. (Packers?) Nevertheless, they are still the best team in NFL since the NFL-AFL merger, if we look at their overall playoff berths, playoff wins and Super Bowl bids. In each of these three categories, the Cowboys have one more of each as compared to the nearest competitor, the Steelers.
The Steelers and Cowboys are not just compared by results alone. They have similarities in various areas, such as relative stability in coaching and leadership, while they are different in some aspects of football, such as playing styles.
Comparisons between Cowboys and Steelers
As said earlier, the Cowboys are successful, and they can be mentioned in the same breadth as the Steelers, in terms of success. The Cowboys have one more playoff berth, one more playoff win and one more conference championship than the Steelers. While the Steelers can equal the Cowboys in terms of the last two categories, from the NFL standings since the AFL-NFL merger, the Cowboys will still lead in playoff berths anyway, albeit marginally. This shows that the Cowboys managed to field competitive teams in the past 41 seasons or so, just like the Steelers.
Both teams also have a similar delegated management system that persists, under supportive owners.
The Cowboys, especially in their first 29 years, also had a hands-off approach of management that the Steelers also practice. The Cowboys rallied on the trust the owner Clint Murchison Jr. gave to his three main men to run the club - Tex Schramm (general manager and president), Tom Landry (head coach) and Gil Brandt.
Similarly, for now, the Steelers also depended on their current set-up of Mike Tomlin, Director of Football Operations Kevin Colbert and defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, since Tomlin's appointment as head coach in 2007. Colbert and LeBeau were hired at the previous head coach Bill Cowher's tenure. Tomlin and the Rooney family (the Steelers' owners) had ensured the same football operations core, without the Rooneys' interference.
The Cowboys are also similar to the Steelers, in that their host regions are known football hotheads. Both Western Pennsylvania and Texas support football, not just at the professional level, but also in the college and high school levels. Pennsylvania hosts a Big Ten team, the Penn State Nittany Lions, and Pittsburgh itself has the Pittsburgh Panthers, that plays in the Big East. West Virginia Mountaineers and Ohio State Buckeyes play in neighboring states to Pennsylvania. Texas is also big in the college football scene. Texas is home to four Big 12 football programs, and the Big 12 is regarded as one of the most competitive football conferences in college football. Both states also have large high school football followings, that spawned popular culture works such as 'Friday Night Lights' and 'All The Right Moves'.
Culture Clash
However, the Cowboys are all too different from the Steelers.
The Cowboys are known for the white jerseys, classy and dazzling on-the-field performance, based on big, bold and beautiful passing. They are seen as the star of NFL, as they managed to achieve a whole lot as the first expansion team in the NFL, in terms of wins and also date of founding. On the other hand, Steelers are always seen as the men in black, stopping others and having a lot of stars, making strong fundamental plays on the field. They are also seen as the force of continuity, as an old-time NFL team founded in the 1930's, in contrast to the relatively upstart Cowboys.
Perhaps it is in the different styles that they exude, not the wins they generate on the field, is the real determining factor in separating both great teams.
Note: It could be possible that the Steelers could overcome the Steelers as the team with the most playoff wins and equal the Cowboys in terms of Super Bowl bids, in Cowboys' home field. Don't hold our breaths!
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