Reaction to Cowboys 7 National TV Games

[Zaxor]

I'm not hating. I completely understand why the Cowboys get so many primetime games.

I was just responding to a post that it has to do with football respect. The Cowboys generate high ratings and thus high advertising dollars.

Why do the Cowboys have high ratings? Because their popularity coincidentally exploded in the mid 90s.

long before than...

America’s Team is an established term used to describe the Dallas Cowboys franchise that plays in the NFC East of the National Football League.[1] The term is recognized and often used by media outlets, including ESPN.[2]


Bob Ryan, the Vice President and editor-in-chief of NFL Films, coined this for the Cowboys in 1979. After preparing and editing the team’s 1978 season highlight film he had to come up with a title for the film.[3] He was quoted as saying:

"After the '78 season, the Cowboys had just lost a crushing Super Bowl to the Steelers. I wanted to come up with a different twist on their team highlight film. I noticed then, and had noticed earlier, that wherever the Cowboys played, you saw people in the stands with Cowboys jerseys and hats and pennants. Plus, they were always the national game on television." Drawing upon this inspiration and that of other nationally followed sports teams, such as the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in college football and the Boston Celtics in pro basketball, which Ryan said "are all America’s teams," he decided to use America’s Team as the name of the highlight film.

During the Cowboys' first game of the 1979 season, a nationally televised game against the St. Louis Cardinals (which Dallas won 22-21), the television announcer introduced the Cowboys as America’s Team and the nickname stuck.

 

[Rampage]

only three teams – New Orleans and Atlanta – that open with consecutive road games.
Yes, the months of October and November have a lot of home cooking for the Chiefs with seven of nine weeks at home. Fast start? Not likely with what they’ve been handed. Strong finish? Possible, but let’s not forget the Chiefs road record in December, especially against good teams.
Plus, the Chiefs are scheduled for one nationally televised game: their final week, on the road in New Jersey against the Jets. The Chiefs are the only team that made the playoffs last year that has only one national TV appearance during the regular season.
Football coaches and teams constantly strive for balance, and that’s all that can be asked of the NFL schedule makers. But they failed that task miserably with the Chiefs. The Chiefs get a home game in October against Jacksonville, with the Jaguars coming off their bye week. The next week they host Cincinnati and guess what? The Bengals are coming off their bye week.
The only bone the league threw the Chiefs was they get to stay home for the game after their bye week and host Green Bay, after the Packers played a Monday night game on the road.
There’s no question that the biggest component in how the schedule falls together every season is television. Those of us who watch the game get that, and understand that. Then the schedule comes out and we are left shaking our heads in disbelief. For instance:

• The Dallas Cowboys have seven, count’em seven, national television games this year. Last I looked, Cowboys haven’t won the Super Bowl since the 1995 season and their post-season record in the last nine years is 0-2, same as the Chiefs. This is not the Cowboys of Jimmy Johnson, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith. This is Wade Phillips, Tony Romo and Julius Jones.
• One of those Dallas prime-time games is a Monday night trip to Buffalo on October 8th. I’d love for somebody from the league office to explain that decision, when other games available that weekend include Atlanta at Tennessee (Michael Vick against Vince Young), the Jets and the Giants in New Jersey, Seattle at Pittsburgh (Replay of Super Bowl 40) and Baltimore at San Francisco (strong defense against one of the league’s young and improving offenses.)
• The Cowboys have more nationally televised games than the two teams that played in the most recent Super Bowl. Indianapolis and Chicago have five each.
• Other teams with five national TV games are Denver (did not make the playoffs), New England, Pittsburgh (did not make the playoffs) and the New York Giants.
• The six teams with four national TV games include Cincinnati (out of the playoffs, Green Bay (out of the playoffs), San Francisco (out of the playoffs.)
• Other teams like the Chiefs with just one national TV game are Miami, Buffalo, Carolina, Minnesota, Detroit, St. Louis and Arizona. All of those teams did not make the playoffs last year. Cleveland and Oakland have no national TV.
• The league and networks are ignoring Arrowhead and the Red Sea. If the 2007 schedule holds (it could change under flex scheduling) over the last six seasons (2002-2007) the Chiefs have had only two prime-time games at home. Last year’s Thanksgiving Night broadcast of the Chiefs-Broncos hardly qualifies as national exposure since so many markets do not have access to the NFL Network. There was a Monday night game against New England in 2004. That’s it.

There is an obvious lack of respect among the league officials responsible for scheduling for what the Chiefs are doing here under Herman Edwards and what they’ve accomplished as an organization for the last 18 years in creating the game-day experience at Arrowhead.
The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.
A former beat reporter who covered the Pittsburgh Steelers during their glory years, Gretz covered the Chiefs for the Kansas City Star for nine years before heading up KCFX-FM's sports department. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Board of Selectors. His column appears three times a week during the season.[/quote]


we haven't won a superbowl since 95 yet when was the last time they did? there is only 1 reason to watch the chiefs....Larry Johnson.

 

[jazzcat22]

See below which written by a writer in Kansas City. He's really angst that we are scheduled for 7 national television games in comparison with the Chiefs and other NFL teams. I guess nobody told him that the Cowboys played in games which received the highest ratings on all television networks in 06 against variety of NFL teams and as a result the networks ensured the NFL game each network the opportunity to feature Dallas on at least one national game with each network.

• The Dallas Cowboys have seven, count’em seven, national television games this year. Last I looked, Cowboys haven’t won the Super Bowl since the 1995 season and their post-season record in the last nine years is 0-2, same as the Chiefs. This is not the Cowboys of Jimmy Johnson, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith. This is Wade Phillips, Tony Romo and Julius Jones.
• The league and networks are ignoring Arrowhead and the Red Sea. If the 2007 schedule holds (it could change under flex scheduling) over the last six seasons (2002-2007) the Chiefs have had only two prime-time games at home. Last year’s Thanksgiving Night broadcast of the Chiefs-Broncos hardly qualifies as national exposure since so many markets do not have access to the NFL Network. There was a Monday night game against New England in 2004. That’s it.

• 
  
  And when was the Chiefs last SB........?
  So the NFLN doesn't count as a NATIONAL TELEVISED game for the Chiefs, but the 2 times Dallas is on the NFLN this counts as NATIONAL TELEVISED.
  
  Frgging idiot KC writer. KC has always hated Dallas since they were ran out of toen in 1963.
  
  

 

[dfense]

It's called money and ratings. Dallas is always a big draw on a national audience. If you look at the most watched games in the last few seasons, the Cowboys are always at or near the top.

And I can almost cancel my NFL ticket now. I'll probably get 10 of the boys games on local tv.