Those playoff losses were before my time, but wasn't that when they coined "Next year's Champions" for our 'Boys?
"Next Year's Champions" was the title of a book written by Steve Perkins, who was a local Dallas Cowboys beat writer for the Dallas Times Herald. That book covers the 1968 season. In both 1966 and 1967, the Cowboys narrowly lost the NFL Championship game to the Green Bay Packers. It was thought 1968 finally was going to be the Cowboys championship year, but instead they lost to the Browns in the playoffs.
Don Meredith, at the age of 31, retired following the 1968 season ... his announcement came in July of 1969. That's my first clear memory of the Cowboys - news coverage of Meredith's very surprising retirement.
I don't remember the term "next year's champion" being used all that much. The phrases you'd always hear were "can't win the big one" and "perennial bridesmaids."
For those who don't know - something to keep in mind is that these Cowboys teams were outstanding teams. The regular season records for the two Cowboys teams that lost to the Packers: 10-3-1 and 9-5. The 1968 team went 12-2 before losing to the Browns in the playoffs. The 1969 team was 11-2-1 before losing to the Browns in the playoffs. That 1969 Cowboys team was great fun to watch. Among other things, rookie RB Calvin Hill had an outstanding year and was named Rookie of the Year.
The string of 1966-1969 post season losses was mind-numbing and soul crushing in a Buffalo Bills losing 4 straight Super Bowls kind of way. It was as thoroughly demoralizing as can be imagined.
I don't recall if it was the Dallas Morning News or the Dallas Times Herald, but the headline in one of those papers following the 1969 playoff loss to the Browns was "Swell, Another Booby Prize". ("booby prize" referred to the "Playoff Bowl" - the game that the losers of the first round playoff game played to determine 3rd place)
The 1969 playoff highlights clip (above) does not include one of the iconic moments of Dallas Cowboys defeat ... a moment that happened in that 1969 game.
There are some dark moments on that list -- Meredith getting sacked in the closing moments of the 1966 Championship game, Bart Starr scoring in the Ice Bowl (1967), Bob Lilly throwing his helmet after Super Bowl V, Jackie Smith dropping the TD pass vs. the Steelers, Joe Montana and "The Catch," "No, Danny, no," and so on.
The iconic dark moment in the 1969 playoff game vs. the Browns happened at the end of the game. It was already clear that the Cowboys were going to lose; they were simply too far behind. But in garbage time, the Cowboys managed a score and even though the situation was truly hopeless, Landry called for an onside kick, because that's what you do.
The Cowboys' kicker, Mike Clark, was an old school kicker; he kicked straight-on, not "soccer-style," as they used to say. Anyway, it was his job to kickoff. However, when he attempted the onside kick, he completely missed the ball. He whiffed on the ball, entirely. He swung his leg, but didn't even touch the ball. No contact. At all. And in that single tragically comical moment, four seasons of gut wrenching disappointment were crystallized. It was a quintessential moment of haplessness. It was a moment that made you say "I've seen it all now. Just shoot me and put me out of my misery." It was an absurdly ridiculous end to a massively disappointing game ... a terrifically disappointing end to a season that had followed a series of seasons that had ended in massive disappointment.
So, after Clark misses the ball on the onside attempt, the Cowboys are flagged for delay of game. There is still time on the clock. So the Cowboys line up again, try another onside kick, and this time Clark manages to make contact with the ball, but does so only anemically. And the ball fails to travel 10 yards. Pure exasperation are the only words for it.
The 1969 game was the last time the Cowboys and Browns met in the playoffs. The AFL-NFL merger happened in 1970. The Browns, along with the Steelers and Colts, moved to the AFC side of the new NFL. Many in Dallas were happy to see the Browns go to the AFC, because it meant the Cowboys would never again play the Browns in a playoff game; henceforth, the only way the Cowboys could play the Browns in post-season would be in the Super Bowl.
So the 1969 playoff game was the ultimate low point for the franchise. It was as agonizing as any agony could be.
... until Super Bowl V.
