Choosing your NFL/EFLI team - Optimists

Dallas Cowboys

Colours: Navy blue, silver and white

Mascot: Rowdy

Stadium: AT&T Stadium

Home City: Arlington, Texas

Super Bowl wins: 5 (8 appearances)

Records over last 5 years: 41 wins, 39 losses, 1 playoff appearance

Best Players: Des Bryant, Sean Lee, Tony Romo

Bio: The Dallas Cowboys are like the Dolphins; they are renowned for their successful history and lauded for it. The names from their past line the walls of the Hall of Fame in Canton; Tom Landry, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Tony Dorsett, Emmitt Smith, Larry Allen, Bob Hayes and Roger Staubach. You cannot write the history of the NFL without spending a significant amount of time on a franchise that went to eight Super Bowls in 26 years, and became so successful they earned the nickname “America’s Team”. That was the Dallas Cowboys.

It is no longer what the Cowboys represent. The side has only won two playoff games since 1996. More alarmingly, they haven’t had a winning record since 2009. This Dallas team, unfortunately, has become the epitome of mediocrity.

In the last three years, all with head coach Jason Garrett and quarterback Tony Romo, the Cowboys have put together three consecutive 8-8 seasons, losing out on the playoffs by the slightest of margins despite having some great players on the roster in Romo, Des Bryant, Sean Lee, Demarcus Ware, DeMarco Murray and Jason Witten. They should be better than they are.

To be a Dallas Cowboy fan in this era is to be proud of the history and disappointed in the present. Dallas fans are faithful and optimistic, but they recognise the limitations of a team that hasn’t brought a championship to “America’s Team” since 1995. Whether that is the fault of eccentric owner Jerry Jones I will leave for you to decide…