Dallas Cowboys Fan Lament: What to Do When Your Team is No Longer Likeable?

I’m a Cowboys fan. Will always be a Cowboys fan. But I don’t like the team. How do I reconcile that? It ain’t easy.

When you’re a die-hard sports fan, it’s a pretty simple equation – if you’re a fan, you must like the team. Part and parcel, right?

If it were only that simple.

It really hit me on Monday night when I was watching the Washington Commanders upset the Bengals. There was our old defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn, on the sideline giving out positive energy. Kliff Kingsbury, the offensive coordinator and QB whisperer, called a flawless game. Jayden Daniels was as cool and efficient as you’d want from your rookie signal-caller.

No, I wasn’t struck about their performances. It was something above that. This was a likeable team.

That’s saying something from me. I’ve never liked Washington, going back to their grating coach George Allen back in the Swinging Seventies. It didn’t help matters when my dad, for some odd reason, adopted that team as his favorite one to root for. My dad gleefully trolled the Cowboys way before Stephen A. Smith and was compensated a lot less for it. (I still loved him, of course.)

Washington’s likeability factor sunk even more under the toxic ownership tenure of Dan Snyder. But now that he sold it off, it looks like the black cloud over the franchise has magically lifted. The joy around Daniels and his performance was undeniable. I’m not saying the Commanders are going to win the NFC East, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

Which brings me back to the Cowboys, who just pile on reason upon reason for not liking them, and that's not even including their horrendous three-game home losing streak. Let’s do a quick Top 5 list, shall we?

1. Toxic Ownership – Let’s not split hairs, but the Jones family isn’t exactly the bastion of good behavior. A year doesn’t go by that Jerry isn’t caught in some kind of compromising position that involves bathrooms, party buses, paternity suits, and Jamie Foxx live streams – stuff that doesn’t even touch actual football.

2. No Accountability – Jerry likes to say that the reason he makes the best GM for Dallas is that the buck stops with him, conveniently glossing over the fact that he can’t be fired. Yes, I know typical business owners can’t fire themselves either, but if they do a crappy job, they go out of business. There’s zero chance that ever happens to the Cowboys.

3. Arrogance – This one extends beyond the Joneses into other parts of the organization – that sense of entitlement simply because we’re the Cowboys. When you’re going on three decades without reaching the Super Bowl or even the conference championship game, you have no right to feel that way. None.

4. Stubbornness – Going back to the Joneses, they dig in their heels even when they’re obviously wrong. Their insistence that they didn’t pursue running back Derrick Henry because he was (a) too expensive and (b) not really needed by Dallas illustrates why these Cowboys are incredibly stubborn to a fault.

5. Misplaced Priorities – Actions speak louder than words, as do outcomes. The Cowboys are the most valuable sports franchise in the world and have not won a title since the 1995 season. It’s easy to surmise which area gets the most effort and attention, right? It screams out that the bottom line isn’t winning but profits. That’s not particularly likeable either.

I don’t know, maybe likeability isn’t all it is cracked up to be. Or maybe…just maybe…this is our lot in life as Cowboys fans until there’s an ownership change.

In the 22nd century.