If there were ever an organization that represented the idea that hubris leads to nemesis, it would probably look a lot like the Dallas Cowboys. For the better part of the last two decades, America’s team and its fans have exuded a sense of confidence that they quite frankly have no right to.
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Now that the NFL has announced that Dallas will face its defending champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, in the opening contest of the 2025 regular season, both the team’s fans and pundits are beginning to suspect that the league is trying to punish the Cowboys for their hubris.
On the most recent episode of The Rich Eisen Show, the titled host fielded a call from one fan who boldly stated that the NFL is conspiring against Jerry Jones and his franchise in an attempt to keep the team in its place as the laughing stock of the league.
“I believe the league hates Jerry Jones, everybody just hates Jerry Jones for some reason. They want to get their ratings, and also, they want to see the Cowboys get blown out and embarrassed. It’ll be the first thing on First Take in the morning, Stephen A. Smith is going to do his little monologue, clowning and joking the Cowboys. So, that’s what I believe, that the league just doesn’t really like Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys.”
Given the ridiculousness of the theory, Eisen couldn’t help but think that this is nothing more than a “Cowboys fan complex.” Struggling to find the logic in the theory proposed by Rashawn in Baltimore, the seven-time Sports Emmy Award nominee found himself chuckling at the idea that a blowout loss for Dallas in the season opener wouldn’t be good for anybody.
“Rashawn’s saying that the league hates the Dallas Cowboys, and the only reason why they’re on the first game is because they think they are going to get clowned. Like Rodger Goodell is going to high-five somebody else because the Cowboys are getting blown out? That would be bad. We don’t want to see blowouts.”
However, Eisen’s longstanding on-air producer, TJ Jefferson, believed that there was a bit of credibility to the fan’s suspicions. While he doesn’t believe that the league’s commissioner actually hates the Cowboys, he did assert that Rashawn was “one billion percent right” to highlight the unnecessary amount of media attention that the team receives on a yearly basis.
“We spend way too much time talking about the Cowboys. We don’t deserve to be talked about as much as we do… But we know it’s true. It’s the ratings, not a violin… They have not give us a true reason to talk about them.”
Despite their differences in opinion, both Eisen and Jefferson encouraged the fan to call back into the show more often. When Eisen jokingly mentioned that he’d do his best to get him on with Stephen A. Smith, Rashawn promptly exclaimed, “Oh, I’d love to challenge him.”
Unfortunately, a debate between the ESPN media personality and Rashawn is about as likely as the Cowboys winning the Super Bowl this season. Goodell and his fellow executives may not harbor any ill spirits towards Jones and Dallas, but NFL fans certainly do.
From the team’s nickname to the behavior of its fanbase, the self-assertive, pompous nature of the organization has left the majority of football fans viewing it as nothing more than an organization that is as brash as it is crude. Considering that even Post Malone himself, arguably the most famous Cowboys fan in the world of music today, was recently trolled for wearing a Brandon Aubrey jersey, it seems safe to say that the Cowboys’ golden days are behind them.
Nevertheless, the most polarizing team in NFL history is now preparing to pull off their biggest upset in recent history come Week 1 of the 2025 regular season. Seeing as the game is scheduled to take place at Lincoln Financial Field, America’s team will have to wait that much longer before hearing a loving crowd again.
