This is a list of seasons completed by the Dallas Cowboys American football franchise of the National Football League (NFL). The list documents the season-by-season records of the Cowboys' franchise from 1960 to present, including postseason records, and league awards for individual players or head coaches. The Cowboys franchise was originally founded in 1960 as an expansion team. The team has earned the most postseason appearances (30, which includes another league record of 55 postseason games, winning 33 of them), the longest consecutive streak of winning seasons with 20, the most appearances in the NFC Championship Game (14), and the most Super Bowl appearances (8). The Cowboys have played for 10 NFL Championships and have won five, all five being Super Bowls.
The Cowboys won Super Bowl VI, XII, XXVII, XXVIII and XXX. They also played in and lost Super Bowl V, X, and XIII.
The franchise has experienced two major periods of continued success in their history. The first period of success came from 1966–1985 when the Cowboys played in the postseason 18 times. During this period, they played in two NFL Championships and five Super Bowls, winning two of them, winning a total of 20 playoff games. The second period of success was between 1992–1996 when the Cowboys captured five straight NFC East Division titles and won three Super Bowls going 11-2 in the postseason.
The Cowboys have also experienced failure in their history. The most notable period of failure was from their 1960 inaugural season to 1965, during which the Cowboys did not have a single postseason appearance. They did not win a single game during their first season, compiling an 0-11-1 record that is still the worst in franchise history. Also, they did not have a single winning record in this period. Between 1986 and 1990 the Cowboys had losing records in each season as veteran coach Landry retired and the team was radically overhauled, with the low point being the NFL’s second fifteen-loss season after the 1980 Saints in 1989. After losing the Wild Card Game in 1996, the Cowboys between 1997 and 2008 lost five consecutive playoff games, one after a franchise-record 13-3 season, during which most predicted the Cowboys would break this streak. This streak finally came to an end when the Cowboys finally beat their bitter rival, the Philadelphia Eagles 34-14 after an 11-5 season.
- For complete team history, see History of the Dallas Cowboys
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“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Every morning I woke in dread, waiting for the day nurse to go on her rounds and announce from the list of names in her hand whether or not I was for shock treatment, the new and fashionable means of quieting people and of making them realize that orders are to be obeyed and floors are to be polished without anyone protesting and faces are to be made to be fixed into smiles and weeping is a crime.”
—Janet Frame (b. 1924)
“If a foreign country doesn’t look like a middle-class suburb of Dallas or Detroit, then obviously the natives must be dangerous as well as badly dressed.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“What do you think spies are: priests, saints and martyrs? They’re a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors too, yes; pansies, sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives.”
—John le Carré (b. 1931)
“The seasons change their manners, as the year
Had found some months asleep and leapt them over.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)