In the past month I’ve been to AT&T Stadium to watch the Dallas Cowboys in action, and I’ve made the trek to Darrell K. Royal Stadium for a University of Texas Longhorns bout as well. And, as I was making the drive up 35 back to Dallas from Austin, I started thinking about the similarities between the two football programs. They mirror each other in so many ways, with the Cowboys basically being the professional version of the Longhorns (insert NIL joke here). If you’re a fan of one team or the other, that comparison may not be one you’d like to embrace, at least not recently – but in honor of Thanksgiving, let’s start carving this turkey up.
Like everything else in Texas, the Cowboys and Longhorns are both bigger than life. There’s an aura surrounding each that is absolutely real, although pretty much underserved for several decades if you’re strictly talking wins and losses. Over the past 18 years or so for UT, and almost 27 years for the ‘Boys, underachieving has been a way of life. The Longhorns’ last National Championship was in 2005, when Mack Brown, Vince Young, and company took down USC in the Rose Bowl 41-38. Since then, they’ve managed only one Big 12 Championship, and eight different times have finished their season unranked. The Cowboys’ last trip to the NFC Championship game was in 1996 when Troy Aikman, Deion Sanders, and Emmitt Smith took care of the Steelers 27-17 in Super Bowl XXX. They’ve managed only four playoff wins since. Certainly nothing to brag about for either program.
Regardless, whether you call it “drinking the Kool-Aid” or just “good ol’ fan loyalty”, both squads continue to have the blind support of their enormous fan bases, results on the field be damned. For the two games I attended, I saw the Cowboys enjoy a standing-room-only crowd of 93,767 for their matchup vs. Chicago, and the Longhorns pack in 104,203 (2nd largest crowd at DKR ever) vs. TCU. And I can absolutely assure you neither venue is a cheap ticket to attend. Which leads me to another common thread, and Jerry’s favorite subject, money.
The Cowboys have a current valuation of $8 billion according to Forbes, with the Patriots being the next most valuable NFL franchise at a distant $6.4 billion. Meanwhile, down in Austin, the Longhorns shared the financial top spot in college football last year with Texas A&M (that’s another article for another day), both topping the charts at $147 million generated in 2021. You can expect that number to reach even loftier status when they exit “stage left” to the SEC in 2025. Both the Cowboys and Longhorns are cash cows (sorry Bevo), and take tremendous pride in their financial acumen – but is a focus on revenue generation something fans care about? Certainly that’s not the reason for the packed stadiums every Saturday and Sunday.
So, what is going on here? I feel like both are masters at delivering “the tease,” supplying just enough hope (hype?) to keep their fans engaged each season. But why can’t these two teams recreate their former glory years on the field? From the outside looking in, they seem to have everything you’d need to do so. The Longhorns have great facilities, almost unlimited funds and consistent top-rated recruiting classes. The Cowboys have the best of everything, absolutely unlimited funds (albeit in a salary cap world), and off-the-field opportunities for their players like no other NFL team can match. So what’s the problem?
In Austin, perhaps there’s just too much “outside noise” when it comes to decision making, like the hiring and firing of coaches. By “outside” I mean alumni and boosters. A very hefty 27% of UT’s total football revenue comes via donations, and maybe that allows people who shouldn’t be part of the decision-making process to have too much influence. On the flip-side in Frisco, one man controls all things Cowboys, and we all know who that is. But ever since Jimmy Johnson and his big football brain was sent packing to South Florida, results have been consistently bleak in the land of the Star. So maybe “his” influence in football decisions is too great as well?
We’ll still have to see how this season unfolds, and who knows, maybe this will be a successful campaign for one or the other, or maybe even both of them. The Longhorns still have a shot at the Big 12 Championship game after dispatching Kansas 55-14 last weekend, and the Cowboys look to be solidly on pace for a playoff berth after man-handling the Vikings 40-3 on Sunday. Only time will time how this one will end up. More disappointment, or a chance to celebrate? Me personally? I’m betting on the former.
