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Greatest Team Ever
Retired [R] High Elf

This is my tribute team to my favorite NFL team, which Iam a proud season ticket holder of. I have scene some of the greatest games the cowboys have ever played first hand ever since I was 7 years old. Iam a cowboy die hard fantic. I can recount every game they played during that 91-95 season from memory. Since I saw every one of them first hand at the stadium or at my local bar for the away games. It was trully a glorious run that will probally never be repeated. FYI: I became a die hard cowboy fan around 1985 once I realized what da hell was going on. But I do remember the 77 Super Bowl when the Cowboys took down the Broncos. My dad was a big Bronco fan and I remeber hearing him cussing and screaming from the basement were I was doing 7 year old stuff oblivious to the world of the NFL.

<b><div align="center">The Greatest Team Ever: Dallas Cowboys 1991-1995</div></b>
<b>The Case for Greatness</b>

Over the more than a half century of the NFL, legions of players and thousands of teams could see the mountain. Each season one group reaches the peak. But in the league's history only a precious handful of franchises have gotten to spend any signigicant time perched on the summit.

To determine who might be the best player invovlves weighing the importance of the position, considering the player's ability to raise the level of play among his teammates, and measuring the impact of varying rules and styles of play on stars from various eras. Determining the best team of all-time, however, might, quite oddly, be a far less daunting task than picking the finest player if only for one reason-there are so few possiblitites.

For the sake of our analysis we've choosen to begin by setting a pair of absoulutely fixed parameters for judging the Greatest Team Ever.
1) The nominees are graded over a five-year period exactly. Any length of dominance shorter really cannot be considered a dynasty. Some teams may have remained near the peak longer. But there also may have been factors at work in certain eras making such superiority significantly easier.
2)Every club must have won at least two championships during its five-year window and had to have remained etremely competitive for the entire half decade. (This last qualifier eliminates, for example the late '90s Denver Broncos who did cature back-to-back Super Bowls in '97 and '98 but posted sub-par seasons on either side of those titles.
We are left with six contenders:
1) 1963-67 Green Bay Packers
2) 1970-74 Miami Dolphins
3) 1975-79 Pittsburgh Steelers
4) 1988-92 San Francisco 49ers
5) 1991-95 Dallas Cowboys
6) 2001-05 New England Patriots

Those are your finalists for title of The Greatest Ever. We'll compare each side by side in a handful of categories together.

<b>1. Number of Victories</b>
A logical place to start. In our table we've totaled the number of triumphs-regular season plus playoffs-followed by the Super Bowls won for each of our six best.
#1 91-95 Cowboys 71 wins Super Bowls: 92,93 &95
#2 88-92 Niners 70 wins Super Bowls: 88 & 89
#3 01-05 Patriots 68 wins Super Bowls: 01, 03 & 04
#4 75-79 Steelers 67 wins Super Bowls: 75, 78 & 79
#5 70-74 Dolphins 65 Wins Super Bowls: 72 & 73
#6 63-67 Packers 57 Wins Super Bowls: 66 & 67
*the super bowl did not come into being until the last two seasons of the Packers reign (66 and 67). Green Bay also won the title in 1965, the year before the merged NFL and AFL began meetng in what quickly became known as the Super Bowl.

The top three of our list all did so under the present sixteen-game regular season format. Green Bay and Miami played fourteen-game schedules throughout their stretches. The Sixteen-game slate became reality three years into the steelers run. All teams after the Packers had an opportunity to win as many as three playoff games in any single season. Actually, since 1990, wild card teams could win four playoff games in one year, but none of our "dynasties" did so. Only the 1997 Broncos, 2000 Ravens, and 2005 Steelers have won four post-season games en-route to their Super Bowl triumphs.

Green Bay, Miami, and Pittsburgh would all have cerainly won more total games had there simply been more reugular season games to play. But at what cost? More games would have meant more wear and tear and, quite possibly, more injuries. Might this have had a long-term negative effect? There cerainly would have been more year-after-year fatigue. For example: during their five-year reign, the Pack played 77 games. Dallas played 93! The equivalent of one full season of games more for those Cowboys and their bodies.

A look at the winning percentages of each of the franchises might offer more insight.

#1 70-74 Dolphins 81.1%
#2 63-65 Packers 76.6%
#3 75-79 Steelers 76.5%
#4 88-92 Niners 76.4%
#5 91-95 Cowboys 76.3%
#6 01-05 Patriots 74.7%

Although the 70-74 Dolphins have a phenomenal winning percentage, they did not win any playoff games in the first and last year of their dominance and captured just two total championships, as did the niners. Dallas, Pittsburg, New England and the Packers can all claim three rings. Also note the razor-thin differences between numbers 2,3,4,5-three-tenths of 1 percent.

However we must address one other enormous factor-free agency. The Packers, Dolphins, Steelers and Niners faced absoultly no threat of other teams outbidding them for the services of key players. Only Dallas and New England had that challenge. And, during the infancy of free agency (93 and 94) the "Rooney Rule" dramatically limited Dallas' ability to sign other players in the marketplace. During those two years the rule mandated that Dallas and the other three teams who reached the conference championship the previous season could only spend on free agents the amounts in salary given to the players lured away from them and no more. The rule worked as intended. In those inital two seasons of free agency, the Cowboys lost ten players and signed two.

How would those earlier dynasties have fared had free agency existed during their supremacy? Who knows? Oustanding organizations usually adjust very well to change. But, the reality of the situation is that they never had to.

Finally lets tackle another dicey question. How do we measure the various levels of competition eached faced? For example, in the 70's Miami and Pittsburgh had to outplay each other to win the AFC. Once there they often encountered those excellent Tom Landry Cowboys in the title game.

Consider for a moment, though, the NFC of the early 90's that Dallas ruled. Just to win the NFC East they had to conquer the New York Giants, who had won the 1990 Super Bowl. Washington Redskins who took home the 1991 Super Bowl trophy; and a Philladelphia team that had three 10 ten-win seasons during that same period of Cowboy dominance. Once past their division, those wonderful Niners stood stood in Dallas' way. San Francisco won the 88, 89 and 93 Super Bowls. IN addition to all those fine teams, five other NFC franchises (Detroit, Chicago, Minnestoa, Atlanta and New Orleans) all had at least one-ten win campaign of their own between 91 and 95. Talk about a loaded NFC! At one point the conference swept the Super Bowl a whopping 16 straight years (1981-1996)!

<b>#2 Play-Off Victories</b>

During their dominant half decades who totaled the most playoff wins? Here is the list of the NFL all-time leaders in this category.

#1 91-95 Cowboys 11 wins
#2 01-05 Patriots 10 wins
#3 75-79 Steelers 10 wins
#4 88-92 Niners 8 wins
#5 70-74 Dolphins 8 Wins
#6 63-67 Packers 7 wins

Again, the packers suffer from the lack of extra layers in the playoff structure. But Green Bay , the Niners , and the Patriots all had at least one year during their streaks in which they did not even make the playoffs.

Miami, Pittsburgh and Dallas each reached the post-season in all five of their campaigns. But one, and only one, posted at least one playoff victory in each of their dysnasty seasons-the Cowboys. In fact, by doing so Dallas became the first NFL team to ever record at least one playoff victory five consecutive years. The Cowboys extended that mark to six in a row in 96, a record that still stands.

One final, fascinating and remarkable note: From 92 through 95, Dallas posted a gaudy 10-1 playoff record. But inside that sprakling won-loss record lies one incredible fact. All ten of those post-season triumphs came by double figures-a stretch unparalleled in pro football history! Their margin of victory in those ten wins were by, in order: 24,10,35,10,17,17,26,19,11 and 10. That is an average of an extraordinary eighteen points per game! Imagine a stretch in which you won three Super Bowls in four seasons and never had to sweat out the last two minutes in any playoff victory. Should you have difficulty recalling the names of Cowboy placekickers during those glory seasons, there is an excelent reason. They simply were never called on to attempt any crucial playoff-winning field goals.


** To be Continued **
New Team Page Beta
Player Ma St Ag Av Skills Inj G Cp Td It Cs Mvp SPP Cost  
6
Jim Jeffcoat
Lineman
6 3 4 8
Block
 m 10 1 0 0 0 1 6/ 90k
(0)k
  
8
Troy Aikman
Thrower
6 3 4 8
Pass, Safe Throw
Strong Arm, Accurate
   4 4 0 0 2 3 23/ 140k
(90+50)k
  
10
Ken Norton JR
Lineman
6 3 4 8   11 0 1 0 0 0 3/ 70k
(70+0)k
  
13
"the Moose" Johnson
Blitzer
6 3 4 8
Block
Dodge, Tackle, Side Step, Diving Tackle
 -ma, m 26 0 12 0 3 3 57/ 180k
(0)k
  
14
Larry Allen
Lineman
6 4 4 7
Block, Guard, +ST, Dodge
 -av 50 5 3 0 6 8 66/ 190k
(70+120)k
  
17
Xavier Whiteorc
Journeyman Lineman
6 3 4 8
Loner
   0 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 70k
(70+0)k
  
18
Richard Coldfield
Journeyman Lineman
6 3 4 8
Loner
   0 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 70k
(70+0)k
  
19
Leroy Vilehammer
Journeyman Lineman
6 3 4 8
Loner
   0 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 70k
(70+0)k
  
20
Jack Hardshield
Journeyman Lineman
6 3 4 8
Loner
   0 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 70k
(70+0)k
  
21
Xavier Goldwing
Journeyman Lineman
6 3 4 8
Loner
   0 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 70k
(70+0)k
  
22
Osmond Quickeagle
Journeyman Lineman
6 3 4 8
Loner
   0 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 70k
(70+0)k
  
23
Zachary Strongspike
Journeyman Lineman
6 3 4 8
Loner
   0 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 70k
(70+0)k
  
24
Vincent Hardspike
Journeyman Lineman
6 3 4 8
Loner
   0 0 0 0 0 0 0/ 70k
(70+0)k
  
3 players (+2 players missing next game)  
Coach: PainState Re-Rolls (100k): 4  
Race: High Elf Fan Factor: 9  
Current Team Value: 1320k Assistant Coaches: 1  
Treasury: 230k Cheerleaders: 1  
Team Value: 1590k Apothecary: Yes  

Games Played:52 (20/11/21) |TD Diff:7 (95 - 88) |Cas Diff:-33 (52/41/12 - 69/42/27)
Last Opponent: Batman and Robin