Chiefs, 49ers a reminder of lost Dallas dynasty
Even as the Cowboys sat idle for the second straight playoff weekend, the tarnishing of the legacy continues. The onceproud Dallas Texans are at it again, and if you don’t like cheering for them on Super Bowl Sunday, then your hope is to watch the 49ers become the first NFC team to win more Lombardi Trophies than the Cowboys.
Two great teams. No great option for Cowboys fans.
Before we get to KC and San Francisco, a word about former Cowboys tight end Dan Campbell. I think without question he had 90% of America cheering for the Lions on Sunday, and although that 34-31 loss will sting in Detroit for years, how would you not want him building and leading and really defining your team? That’s not to mention offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who had so solved the 49ers defense that the Lions rolled up 280 yards before halftime.
How badly would Cowboys’ fans love to have an offensive innovator of his type? Does any part of you see Mike Mccarthy and Brian Schottenheimer devising a plan that has Kyle Shanahan looking that frustrated as it shreds the 49ers for 280 yards in 30 minutes next season? The Cowboys managed all of 197 yards and eight first downs in a 42-10 loss there in October.
Campbell spoke honestly after the game about how much harder it will be for the Lions to get back to the same spot next year. You can say the same about the Cowboys trying to get back to 12-5 with the 49ers, Lions and Ravens on the schedule along with Houston,
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay and the annual battles with the Eagles.
As for the 49ers, it feels like Shanahan is due to walk off the Las Vegas stage with his first trophy after two misfires: Atlanta’s disastrous Super Bowl loss to the Patriots when he was Dan Quinn’s offensive coordinator; and the 49ers losing a 20-10 fourth-quarter lead to the Chiefs four years ago. That would get the 49ers their sixth Super Bowl win, allowing them to regain the NFC lead they held before the Cowboys tied them twice in the 1990s. The Patriots and Steelers each have six. Keep in mind that when Barry Switzer shouted “We did it,’’ possibly becoming the first man to discomfit
Jerry Jones, the Cowboys had a 5-4 lead on Pittsburgh and a 5-0 lead on New England.
But it’s entirely possible — likely, one would say — that Shanahan’s being due to match Sean Mcvay with a Super Bowl ring and young guru status doesn’t mean much to the otherworldly Chiefs.
When I wrote a column early this season about how the former Texans’ run of success and weekly show of Patrick, Travis and Taylor Swift had made the Chiefs America’s Team for the 21st century, some of you scoffed. You pointed to the Cowboys’ continuing ability to generate the top TV ratings in a sport that so thoroughly dominates all competition — not just sports programming,
but shows involving bachelorettes, cooks and farmers taking wives — that the Cowboys still deserve whatever dubious status the “America’s Team” label bestows upon them.
And that’s really the problem. The football world moves along with others inhabiting the competitive roles the Cowboys owned in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘90s, and yet the Jones Family knows that 93,000 people will be in the seats when their team hosts the Saints or the Commanders and another 20 million, give or take, will be watching regardless of team records.
That helmet’s worth a lot of money.
A handful of Cowboys will try their luck at flag football on Sunday, and then it‘s on to the real thing. The Team Formerly Known as Texans (before your time, in most cases) is chasing down the team that stayed in Dallas. Back on display on Super Bowl Sunday once again. They missed 50 years of Super Bowls, and now we can’t get rid of them. For Andy Reid, it’s his fifth Super Bowl, matching him with Tom Landry. A win would move him ahead of both Landry and Jimmy Johnson.
For Patrick Mahomes, after an absurd sixth straight AFC Championship Game appearance in his sixth season as a starter, he will match Roger Staubach in Super Bowl starts and can do likewise in another category with Troy Aikman by collecting his third victory.
Mahomes continues to win, even if his only two consistent receiving threats are a 34-yearold tight end who‘s rewriting all the playoff records and a rookie wideout from SMU. Rashee Rice — one more Dallas connection for this Chiefs team — will get his time in the spotlight, but I doubt his podium will be quite as crowded as Travis Kelce’s. It astounds me the number of people who seem to be bothered by three or four quick cutaways to the suite where Taylor Swift and the Kelce clan celebrate this amazing run by the Chiefs. As someone sings, you need to calm down.
I suppose the 49ers are capable of stopping this run. I don’t suppose they will. Perhaps Dallas will remain tied for third in Super Bowl wins for another year. That only means the team that left Dallas 61 years ago is growing larger and scarier in that rearview mirror. Maybe the last great American dynasty has arrived.