washingtonpost.com
'Greatest Rivalry' Is a One-Way Street
Cowboys Have Dominated Redskins
By Jason La Canfora
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 26, 2004; Page E01
On the eve of training camp in July, former Washington Redskins tight end Rick "Doc" Walker addressed the players who would soon be wearing the uniform he held so dear. It is not unusual for Coach Joe Gibbs to invite his old favorites to Redskins Park to address the team, but this particular appearance left a lasting impression.
Walker held up his Super Bowl rings and spoke eloquently about the import of beating Dallas -- the Redskins and Cowboys meet for the 90th time this afternoon in Texas -- and how troubling it is for him to watch the Redskins allow what was once one of the NFL's most gripping rivalries revert to more or less just another football game by losing to the Cowboys with such regularity. In Walker's time, during Gibbs's first tenure here, this was The Game, a twice yearly event that not only captivated two cities, but routinely swayed the power structure of the league and settled division and conference supremacy.
Lately, neither team has been winning much, and the Redskins' abysmal record against Dallas has made the outcome of these games largely a forgone conclusion. The Cowboys have won 13 of the last 14 games against Washington dating from 1997 and today the Redskins will be looking for their first victory at Texas Stadium since 1995, and just their second win there since Gibbs retired after the 1992 season. Gibbs returned to restore luster to the Redskins' organization, and making this rivalry competitive again is part of that agenda. To Walker, doing so is imperative.
"Even talking about beating Dallas has no real meaning here anymore," Walker said during a preseason interview. "It's not a rivalry any more when Dallas kills them, humiliates them, kicks their [backside]. The guys in blue have the sledgehammer and they're using it.
"It's been embarrassing, absolutely embarrassing. It's not on any one person, but it's just the idea that our symbol was allowed to become so disrespected. Our guys fought so hard to make that game special and to me, I might be off on all of this, but I don't care. I hope I am [ticking] someone off and in some small way the young guys understand how important this rivalry was to a group of people. A lot of them do care, I really believe that, but it's got to be a force of one person -- one heartbeat -- and there's been so many individuals coming through here over the last decade that that's very hard to do. But Coach Gibbs is a guy who always made beating the guys in blue a priority, and hopefully he can return us to glory."
Redskins players, who dropped the season's initial game with Dallas, 21-18, at home in a Monday night game in September, say they took Walker's words to heart. While many of them were barely out of diapers the last time these teams met in the NFC championship game -- 1982 -- they are gradually comprehending the resonance of the rivalry. Gibbs's offensive staff was a major part of classic games with the Cowboys in the past, and Walker is hardly the only former Redskin to associate with the team this season. All want nothing more than to see Washington beat the Cowboys.
"Doc Walker said to us, 'How can it be a rivalry if they win every time?' " offensive lineman Chris Samuels said, "That really stood out to me and to the rest of my teammates. . . . We definitely want to get this one and we're pretty fired up to beat them. It's going to be a big game."
Both teams are playing to keep their meager playoff hopes alive at 5-9, but for the Redskins, a victory would mean much more than that. Beating Dallas would give Gibbs a solid building block to take into next season and provide a tangible result in his battle to erase a culture of losing that has seeped into Redskins Park. With a victory, the Redskins would at least finish the season with two wins in the NFC East and would win consecutive games for the first time since going to 2-0 to open 2003. A loss today against a sputtering Dallas team would quell any momentum and leave Gibbs still looking for a truly memorable win in his first season back.
Gibbs has been playing down the significance of any one game this season, and shied away from saying that success against the Cowboys was more meaningful than beating any team in the NFC East. "In this division, all the games are tough," Gibbs said. But deep inside, he burns to beat Dallas, his friends and associates say.
When Daniel Snyder bought the Redskins in 1999, he made beating the Cowboys one of his first priorities, but he has had only one occasion to celebrate to this point, when LaVar Arrington's fumble recovery keyed a 20-14 win over Dallas in the final game of the 2002 season. He grew up an avid Redskins fan at a time when loving them meant despising Dallas. There is a healthy personal rivalry between Snyder and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, and losing these games can lead to visceral reactions.
"The rivalry is not like it used to be," said Sonny Jurgensen, Washington's Hall of Fame quarterback from 1964 to 1974, one of the team's broadcasters since shortly after retiring and a confidant of Snyder's. "But I know it's important for the owners. Jerry and Dan, they certainly talk about it. There are some bragging rights at stake."
Gibbs was hired in 1981, at the peak of Dallas's popularity, and he immediately took aim at the Cowboys. "When we got here you had to go through Dallas to get the Super Bowl," said Joe Bugel, Washington's assistant head coach-offense, and a member of Gibbs's original staff. "That was our whole modus operandi."
Gibbs reached his first Super Bowl in 1983 after beating Dallas in the conference championship, and he and Dallas coaching legend Tom Landry developed a mutual respect while relishing each win over the other.
"I'll tell you this," said Bubba Tyer, a member of Washington's training staff for 32 of the last 33 years. "A lot of people here at the Redskins still dislike Dallas a great deal and want to beat them no mater what. We've done it in the past, and these young guys on our current team, they ought to be teed off about it, because they haven't won a game there since 1995. That ought to [tick] you off right away. I know it still means a whole lot to Coach Gibbs. We had great games with the Cowboys when he was here, and he doesn't like them at all."
Wild Games
Gibbs's disdain for the Cowboys was matched by another Hall of Fame coach. The rivalry with Dallas became bitter during the era of George Allen, who ran virtually every facet of the Redskins' organization from 1971 to '77, taking over a team that had one winning season in the previous 15 years. Dallas was his primary target, the club he wanted his to be measured against; the Cowboys had already had a winning record every season since 1966 (that streak would run through 1985). They were reigning NFC champs when he took over and won the Super Bowl in Allen's first season.
The Cowboys were on their way to becoming "America's Team," while Allen was working to compile a dedicated group of veterans, dubbed "the Over the Hill Gang," who would reach the Super Bowl in the 1972 season, only to lose to the undefeated Miami Dolphins.
"The rivalry really took off when George Allen was here," Jurgensen said. "They were already up there and we were trying to get up there and it was a big challenge for us. We had 24-21 and 34-31 games, and we could always score points, but we couldn't keep them out of the end zone. It was a great rivalry then. It was wild."
On Dec. 31, 1972, the Redskins and Cowboys met for the first time in the playoffs, with a spot in the Super Bowl on the line at RFK Stadium. Over the years, Cowboys players have talked to Jurgensen about their reception when arriving for that game. When their bus arrived at the Crystal City Marriott from the airport there were hundreds of fans waiting for them in front of the hotel chanting, "We want Dallas! We want Dallas!" The environment was equally as hostile inside the stadium, and Washington eased to a 26-3 victory to secure its first Super Bowl appearance.
Ten years later the teams met in the NFC championship game again at RFK Stadium, in Gibbs's second season as coach. Dallas won the only prior meeting in that strike-shortened season, but the Redskins handled them, 31-17, in the rematch and beat Miami a week later for the first Super Bowl title in franchise history.
"Anytime you're having a downer, you just go back and pull out that tape," Bugel said, "because that was the most thrilling game I think we've been a part of, with how we won it in bad weather and hearing that crowd chant in the old stadium. They were rocking and rolling. That was a great, great win. We'll never forget that one. I think it's the greatest rivalry in the NFL. I get goosebumps just talking about it. It means a lot to a lot people, our fan bases and everything."
The rivalry was dead even during Gibbs's first stint. He faced the Cowboys 24 times, including the playoffs, in 12 seasons and had a 12-12 record. Only twice were his teams swept in the season series, and only twice did they sweep the Cowboys. Gibbs's teams reached four Super Bowls and won three; Dallas made the playoffs six times, played in three conference title games and won one Super Bowl during that time.
Advantage Dallas
From Allen's arrival in 1971 through Gibbs's departure in 1992, the Cowboys made 15 playoff appearances, while the Redskins made 13. The teams both qualified for the playoffs on nine occasions in that span, but it has occurred only once since then (1999).
When Gibbs left coaching in 1993, Dallas had just won the Super Bowl, and the Cowboys also won it all in 1994 and 1996. The Cowboys were in the playoffs every year from 1991 to '96 and won six division titles in the 1990s; the Redskins' only playoff appearance and division title since Gibbs retired came in 1999.
Things began to get lopsided in 1997. The Redskins won the first meeting with Dallas but then lost, 17-14, on the road. That was the first of 11 straight defeats to the Cowboys, the longest streak in the history of the rivalry.
While the Redskins occasionally incur the wrath of their predecessors for their woeful play against Dallas, the Cowboys receive pats on the back and congratulations for dominating Washington when former players come into contact with the team, even if the franchise has not fared so well against the rest of the league.
"We talk about the rivalry all the time, because it's a huge rivalry," said Cowboys linebacker Dexter Coakley, who was drafted by Dallas in 1997 and is 13-2 in his career against Washington. "Yeah, different players have come and played for each team, but when you think back and remember 'the Hogs' and those guys and the fans in the end zone with the hog nose on and wearing the dresses, it's a huge rivalry. It's that cowboy and Indian thing, and you want to keep that tradition alive, because there's not a lot of traditions left in the NFL, and this is one that's been going for a long time."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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