The Dallas Cowboys now have the longest NFC Championship Game appearance drought.
The Washington Commanders shocked the world on Saturday night and went to the Motor City and delivered the top-seeded Detroit Lions a loss in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. You would have thought that exclusive rights for a silver and blue squad to underwhelm so badly in the round in question would belong to America’s Team, but clearly not.
That it is a “shocker” that the Lions of all teams will not be in the NFC Championship Game is still quite the reality to live in. Detroit has significantly turned around their culture and finally reached the penultimate game of the season last year. They were one of two teams who held a longer drought than the Dallas Cowboys do. Obviously they put an end to it.
That left only a single team with a longer drought than Dallas in the Washington Commanders. They had not reached an NFC Championship Game since 1991… until now.
You know what that means. The Dallas Cowboys now have the longest NFC Championship Game appearance drought.
Last NFC Championship Game appearance
- Dallas Cowboys, 1995
- Chicago Bears, 2010
- New York Giants, 2011
- Seattle Seahawks, 2014
- Carolina Panthers, 2015
- Arizona Cardinals, 2015
- Atlanta Falcons, 2016
- Minnesota Vikings, 2017
- New Orleans Saints, 2018
- Green Bay Packers, 2020
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2020
- Los Angeles Rams, 2021
- Philadelphia Eagles, 2022
- San Francisco 49ers, 2023
- Detroit Lions, 2023
- Washington Commanders, 2024
Among the more depressing elements of all of this is that the second team on this list has a drought half the size of Dallas’ given that the Chicago Bears last reached the title game in 2010; their streak will turn 15 next season when they have a chance to end it. Dallas’ streak will turn 30, by far the elder statesman of the group.
Perhaps the only way that this whole thing could become even more depressing for the Cowboys is if their former coach in Mike McCarthy gets the Chicago job and ends that streak before Dallas does with whoever takes over as his successor.
For now, the Dallas Cowboys stand alone. In the worst possible way.
Washington made it back before them!
