There has always been a bitterness between the Commanders and the Cowboys. It stems from the plotting and shenanigans of Clint Murchison and his cronies in securing a team in Dallas. Clint took great pride in getting under George Preston Marshall's skin. At one time the Dallas Cowboys owned the Commanders fight song, Hail to the Commanders. That has never happened to any other team in the NFL. The new generations of Commanders fans may not even care about this fact, but it gnaws at old time fans.
This rivalry as a great football matchup didn't really have a genesis until George Allen and the Over The Hill Gang arrived in Washington. There is a reason why Cowboys fans often say we are the Commanders Super Bowl. It is because of George Allen. He preached hatred of everything Cowboys and his players ate it up. So did the Commanders fans. The Commanders became winners under George Allen, but he made it known that they wouldn't be respected unless they could beat Dallas.
George Allen arrived in Washington in 1971. The Cowboys and Commanders had already been playing each other every year and were in the same Division. 1960 was the only year we didn't play a home and home series. They were division rivals. Allen made it a bitter rivalry.
The Cowboys had won 6 straight games and 3 season sweeps in the years before George Allen was named Commanders HC. From 1971 through 1976 the teams split the series and had some of their most brutal and memorable games. The most memorable would have to be the 1974 Thanksgiving game in which Diron Talbert knocked Roger Staubach out of the game. In came the 3rd string roookie, Clint Longley. He was one of the strangest guys to ever play for Tom Landry. He led the Cowboys to an amazing 24-23 victory. Longley was called the "Mad Bomber" for his deep passes that brought the team back.
Larry Cole called that win, "the triumph of an uncluttered mind." That described Longley to a tee. To put it mildly the mad was odd. From stories of him shooting prarie dogs from his dorm windows at Thousand Oaks during training camp, to his loading a pony into the back seat of his Cadillac to take him to a pasture owned by Charlie Waters, to his fist fight with Roger Staubach so he could get traded, Longley was just plain weird.
In 1977 the Cowboys swept the Commanders again, won their 2nd Super Bowl, and George Allen faded into the District of Columbia sunset.
The bitterness of the rivalry has lasted but it has faded a bit in intensity. The media see only the records of recent years and don't realize the History. The past History of these two teams does fuel a built in animosity for each other. Tom Landry and George Allen have left this earth but the rivalry they built does live on. Probably not with the intensity of the 1970's but it still exists.
For the media to say otherwise is pure folly and myopia. In 1989 when we won only 1 game, how many of us were satisfied that this one game was against the Commanders, in their house? I know I was. Interestingly enough that one win was a payback for 1961. That year the Commanders lone win was against us at their house. The game is best remembered for a foiled plot to release 74 white chickens and 1 black one onto the field at Commanders Stadium. The 1 black chicken was to be representative of the one Black player drafted by the Commanders after political pressure was applied by the Kennedy Administration.
In those days the NFL Drafts were held in late November or early December. The Commanders in late 1961 with a threat hanging over their head, became the last organization in the NFL to integrate. They Drafted Ernie Davis, the first Black man to win the Heisman Trophy. He was a RB for Syracuse. He also refused to play for a racist. His rights were traded to the Cleveland Browns and sadly he died of leukemia before he ever played a down in the NFL. That 1 black chicken was to be a slap in the face on National TV.
In 1962 two acrobats dressed as chickens jumped into the field during halftime and one of them released a live chicken onto the playing field. Clint Murchison loved to embarrass the Commanders and their owner.
The hatred of the rivalry has always been there, but it was most intense in the George Allen days. It has flashes of returning. For instance in 2005 when the Commanders swept us. Prior to that sweep we had streaks of 4 wins and 10 wins. More Commanders trolls showed up here on this site in 2005 after their 14-13 win in Dallas and then after the sweep than any other year. So don't tell me the rivalry isn't still alive.
If we sweep them on Sunday Night it will be their low point of the season. Don't tell them the rivalry still isn't alive either.
Get the broom Cowboys fans. There's some strange colored dirt to be swept away. Maroon, black, and yellow dirt.
Man I hated that team. :skins: 
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