Dallas Cowboys

Lore & Background

The Cowboys joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1960. The team's national following might best be represented by its NFL record of consecutive sellouts. The Cowboys' streak of consecutive home sellouts began in 1990. The franchise has made it to the Super Bowl eight times, tying it with the Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers for third-most Super Bowl appearances in history behind the New England Patriots' record 11 appearances and the Pittsburgh Steelers' nine. Their eight NFC championships are second-most in the conference's history behind the San Francisco 49ers' nine. The Cowboys are the only NFL team to record 20 straight winning seasons (from 1966 to 1985) during which they missed the playoffs only twice (1974 and 1984). In 2015, the Dallas Cowboys became the first sports team to be valued at $4 billion, making it the most valuable sports team in the world, according to Forbes. In 2016, the Cowboys also became the most valuable sports team at $4 billion, a record they have held since. As of late 2025, the Cowboys are valued at about $10.1 billion. The Cowboys also generated $620 million in revenue in 2014, a record for the franchise at the time. In 2018, they also became the first NFL franchise to be valued at $5 billion and making Forbes' list as the most valued NFL team for the 12th straight year.

In Their Own Story

It's a Saturday in November, and the sky over Arlington is that flat, pale Texas blue that never quite commits to a season. The parking lots around AT&T Stadium are a sea of white—white jerseys, white hats, white flags snapping in the dry wind off the I-30 corridor. A kid in a size-small #28 Irvin jersey chases a football that's rolled into the gravel between rows. His dad is already three rows back, arguing with a stranger about whether the offensive line should double-team. The smell is diesel and hot dogs and the faint chemical tang of the new concrete still cooling in the shade of the upper deck. The organ swells—'Hail to the Chief,' then the Cowboys walkout, and the noise is a physical thing, a wall of sound that you feel in your sternum. The jumbotron shows a replay of a play from last week, and the crowd roars as if it just happened. A woman in the 200-level clinks her beer can against the stranger beside her. No one knows the stranger's name. It doesn't matter. They are both wearing white. They are both, for the next three hours, part of the same organism. Somewhere across town, in a smaller arena with a different smell—cold air, rubber, the sharp bite of Zamboni fluid—a different kind of roar is building. But tonight, the city belongs to the dome.

Reader's Guide

The Cowboys have won five Super Bowl titles: Super Bowl VI (1971), Super Bowl XII (1977), Super Bowl XXVII (1992), Super Bowl XXVIII (1993), and Super Bowl XXX (1995). The team's home games are played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, which opened in 2009 and took its current name prior to the 2013 season.

Did You Know?

• The Cowboys joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1960.
• The Cowboys' streak of consecutive home sellouts began in 1990.
• The Cowboys are the only NFL team to record 20 straight winning seasons (from 1966 to 1985).
• In 2015, the Cowboys became the first sports team valued at $4 billion, and as of late 2025 are valued at about $10.1 billion.