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[h=1]Bob Sturm 3h ago[/h] 19 in ’19 highlights the 19 most impactful Cowboys, Rangers, Mavericks and Stars throughout the history of each franchise. Our staff voted on the top 19 from all four combined lists to create these overall rankings. You can find all of our team lists and profiles here.
“A couple years ago during an interview, I was asked, “If I got to coach one game, who would I choose for my starting QB?” It was a very easy question for me to answer. I told them I would choose Troy. “Why?” Because I want to win.” – Norv Turner, presenting Troy Aikman at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, August 5, 2006.
We have lost our collective minds, I must assume.
Because the further we get from the career of the Hall of Fame Quarterback Troy Aikman, the more we hear discussions in various corners of football fandom about whether he was as great as so many in the NFL say.
How can he be ranked as one of the best ever to play the game? How he can be in the Hall of Fame?
58th in all-time passer rating?
73rd in most touchdown passes?
38th in passing yards?
85th in yards per attempt?
57th in yards per game?
61st in fourth-quarter comebacks?
How can a QB with such pedestrian numbers be rated so highly?
How can you try to tell me he is one of the ten best quarterbacks of all-time?
When I say “we,” I must confess I was once part of this group. For I was once young and uninformed. I once had nothing but my book of stats and would argue that Aikman’s numbers were insufficient for consideration as a legend. I would see this personal milestone and that one, and was locked into my “fantasy football” mentality that the numbers were all that mattered.
Thank goodness that we gain wisdom with age. I might not be as young as I once was, but that means I have had plenty of years to visit with wise football men and study what I missed the first time. In my mid-20s, at the start of my career, I would rely on a spreadsheet to show you that Troy Aikman was not as great as the other superstar quarterbacks of his era.
Now, I would like to make the case that he was absolutely everything those around him said he was.
I was very wrong 20 years ago. And I wish to take this opportunity to make things right, despite the fact that he hasn’t thrown a pass in the two decades since.
You see, sports can be nuanced. We want things to be linear and connected and for one plus one to equal two. We want winners and losers, heroes and villains. Sometimes those definitions are clear, but sometimes we need to drop our preconceived agendas and try to understand why a dynasty was a dynasty in the first place.
I have a couple confessions to make while trying to not make this about me. We will spend almost all of this column about Aikman and what I now find to be his undeniable greatness. But I had better tell you a two things really fast.
“I’m a big stats guy. The thing about Troy Aikman that is tough to get past is the fact that he had one season in his career where he had more than 20 touchdowns. 20 touchdowns? That’s very pedestrian.” – a much younger Bob Sturm on NFL Films
Now, please allow an older and hopefully wiser Bob Sturm to proceed. [HR][/HR]
We certainly throw the term “dynasty” around too easily these days. The truth is that championships are rare, and the ability to pack multiple titles into a short amount of time is as rare as it gets in a league with as much parity as the National Football League. I believe a proper definition of the word dynasty as it pertains to our sports world should be “winning at least three titles in a span of time no longer than twice the number of years as titles.” In other words, being a dynasty requires at least three titles in six years (or four in eight, five in ten, etc).
By that definition, we have six dynasties in the “Super Bowl era” to consider:
Bart Starr. Terry Bradshaw. Joe Montana. Troy Aikman. Tom Brady. Tom Brady.
Are their individual merits better than the best ever? No. But when you combine the individual merits and the team accomplishments, these are the decade-by-decade legends. The 1960s belonged to Starr, the 1970s to Bradshaw. Montana owned the 1980s, Aikman the 1990s and Tom Brady was somehow king of two different decades in pretty ridiculous fashion.
Starr is probably most like Aikman in that his career raw numbers won’t set the fantasy world on fire, but his efficiency numbers in his era are top of the charts. Montana and Brady will probably be able to stand on either side of the divide without a big issue.
What makes Troy Aikman worthy of every bit of praise he gets? Several things come quickly to mind. Before we get to the biggest and most obvious one, I think we should also work our way in that direction.
The term “bus driver” describes safe quarterbacks whose individual numbers do not measure up with the best in their era. If you aren’t careful, you might think Aikman — with only one season over 20 touchdowns — might be one of those bus drivers. Let’s be very careful to not fall victim to a lack of context on that front. Let’s not confuse quantity with quality. Because the Cowboys and Aikman did not lack for passing quality.
Note what the Cowboys offense was capable of between 1991 through 1995. We might call that the peak of the Dallas dynasty, between the real blasting off of the Jimmy Johnson era and the end of the ride at Super Bowl 30. We might call it the prime of Troy Aikman (who was between 25 and 29 years of age in those years). We might remember how things were before Michael Irvin’s career ended so suddenly and the roster was torn apart by free agency. We might consider life before the end of Jay Novacek’s career. We might notice all of the coaches who were plucked away to coach in their own opportunities elsewhere. The Cowboys had an elite offense that put up big points and never once did their passing offense rank outside of the top of the league. Heck, in 1995, they were the most efficient passing offense in the NFL from a net yards/attempt standpoint. In 1994, they actually even performed better and still ranked second.
In other words, this is not the work of a bus driver. This is simply a team that could kill you on the ground or through the air, and to suggest that the passing offense was being carried, protected or lagged behind the running game is pure fiction.
DALLAS COWBOYS OFFENSIVE RANKS, 1989-2000
“A couple years ago during an interview, I was asked, “If I got to coach one game, who would I choose for my starting QB?” It was a very easy question for me to answer. I told them I would choose Troy. “Why?” Because I want to win.” – Norv Turner, presenting Troy Aikman at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, August 5, 2006.
We have lost our collective minds, I must assume.
Because the further we get from the career of the Hall of Fame Quarterback Troy Aikman, the more we hear discussions in various corners of football fandom about whether he was as great as so many in the NFL say.
How can he be ranked as one of the best ever to play the game? How he can be in the Hall of Fame?
58th in all-time passer rating?
73rd in most touchdown passes?
38th in passing yards?
85th in yards per attempt?
57th in yards per game?
61st in fourth-quarter comebacks?
How can a QB with such pedestrian numbers be rated so highly?
How can you try to tell me he is one of the ten best quarterbacks of all-time?
When I say “we,” I must confess I was once part of this group. For I was once young and uninformed. I once had nothing but my book of stats and would argue that Aikman’s numbers were insufficient for consideration as a legend. I would see this personal milestone and that one, and was locked into my “fantasy football” mentality that the numbers were all that mattered.
Thank goodness that we gain wisdom with age. I might not be as young as I once was, but that means I have had plenty of years to visit with wise football men and study what I missed the first time. In my mid-20s, at the start of my career, I would rely on a spreadsheet to show you that Troy Aikman was not as great as the other superstar quarterbacks of his era.
Now, I would like to make the case that he was absolutely everything those around him said he was.
I was very wrong 20 years ago. And I wish to take this opportunity to make things right, despite the fact that he hasn’t thrown a pass in the two decades since.
You see, sports can be nuanced. We want things to be linear and connected and for one plus one to equal two. We want winners and losers, heroes and villains. Sometimes those definitions are clear, but sometimes we need to drop our preconceived agendas and try to understand why a dynasty was a dynasty in the first place.
I have a couple confessions to make while trying to not make this about me. We will spend almost all of this column about Aikman and what I now find to be his undeniable greatness. But I had better tell you a two things really fast.
- I grew up as a cheesehead and at my first opportunity bought a share of the Green Bay Packers so that I could be a part-owner of the sports franchise I was raised to love. Aikman and his team destroyed the Packers season after season in my formative years. (Eight times in five years, to be exact, including three playoff games in three years). I believe this affected me and my ability to see things for what they were during this time of personal torture.
- I currently work for Mr. Aikman as his research assistant on FOX broadcasts. I have been doing so since 2016 on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. I don’t believe this affected me and my ability to see his career for what it was, as my transformation was complete years before that ever happened. But you probably should be aware of that just in case.
“I’m a big stats guy. The thing about Troy Aikman that is tough to get past is the fact that he had one season in his career where he had more than 20 touchdowns. 20 touchdowns? That’s very pedestrian.” – a much younger Bob Sturm on NFL Films
Now, please allow an older and hopefully wiser Bob Sturm to proceed. [HR][/HR]
We certainly throw the term “dynasty” around too easily these days. The truth is that championships are rare, and the ability to pack multiple titles into a short amount of time is as rare as it gets in a league with as much parity as the National Football League. I believe a proper definition of the word dynasty as it pertains to our sports world should be “winning at least three titles in a span of time no longer than twice the number of years as titles.” In other words, being a dynasty requires at least three titles in six years (or four in eight, five in ten, etc).
By that definition, we have six dynasties in the “Super Bowl era” to consider:
- The 1961-1967 Green Bay Packers (five in seven years)
- The 1974-1979 Pittsburgh Steelers (four in six years)
- The 1984-1989 San Francisco 49ers (three in six years. Also, four in nine years if you run it back to 1981 — which doesn’t quite fall inside the dynasty guidelines but is still quite the run)
- The 1992-1995 Dallas Cowboys (three in four years)
- The 2001-2004 New England Patriots (three in four years)
- The 2014-2018 New England Patriots (three in five years)
Bart Starr. Terry Bradshaw. Joe Montana. Troy Aikman. Tom Brady. Tom Brady.
Are their individual merits better than the best ever? No. But when you combine the individual merits and the team accomplishments, these are the decade-by-decade legends. The 1960s belonged to Starr, the 1970s to Bradshaw. Montana owned the 1980s, Aikman the 1990s and Tom Brady was somehow king of two different decades in pretty ridiculous fashion.
Starr is probably most like Aikman in that his career raw numbers won’t set the fantasy world on fire, but his efficiency numbers in his era are top of the charts. Montana and Brady will probably be able to stand on either side of the divide without a big issue.
What makes Troy Aikman worthy of every bit of praise he gets? Several things come quickly to mind. Before we get to the biggest and most obvious one, I think we should also work our way in that direction.
The term “bus driver” describes safe quarterbacks whose individual numbers do not measure up with the best in their era. If you aren’t careful, you might think Aikman — with only one season over 20 touchdowns — might be one of those bus drivers. Let’s be very careful to not fall victim to a lack of context on that front. Let’s not confuse quantity with quality. Because the Cowboys and Aikman did not lack for passing quality.
Note what the Cowboys offense was capable of between 1991 through 1995. We might call that the peak of the Dallas dynasty, between the real blasting off of the Jimmy Johnson era and the end of the ride at Super Bowl 30. We might call it the prime of Troy Aikman (who was between 25 and 29 years of age in those years). We might remember how things were before Michael Irvin’s career ended so suddenly and the roster was torn apart by free agency. We might consider life before the end of Jay Novacek’s career. We might notice all of the coaches who were plucked away to coach in their own opportunities elsewhere. The Cowboys had an elite offense that put up big points and never once did their passing offense rank outside of the top of the league. Heck, in 1995, they were the most efficient passing offense in the NFL from a net yards/attempt standpoint. In 1994, they actually even performed better and still ranked second.
In other words, this is not the work of a bus driver. This is simply a team that could kill you on the ground or through the air, and to suggest that the passing offense was being carried, protected or lagged behind the running game is pure fiction.
DALLAS COWBOYS OFFENSIVE RANKS, 1989-2000