You’ve felt it at least once during the last few years. It’s that moment where you settle in to watch the one available NFL game, whether it’s on Sunday night or Monday night or Thanksgiving, and you see to your resignation and disgust that, yet again, you’re watching a Dallas Cowboys game. You sigh, you curse the NFL and Jerry Jones … and you watch anyway.
We’re coming up on three decades since the Dallas Cowboys qualified as a legitimate on-field dynasty. Multiple generations of NFL players, and six head coaches, have cycled through Dallas since the Cowboys last raised a Lombardi Trophy. Kansas City won as many playoff games in 2024 as the Cowboys have in the entire 21st century. If this is “America’s Team,” well, what does that say about America?
The truth is that Dallas’ woeful on-field record has little to do with its preeminence as a brand. Sure, every season brings a new candidate for “America’s Team” — the Chiefs a few years back, the Lions this year — but Dallas still holds the belt. Like it or not, the Cowboys are still America’s Team in all the ways that really matter: money, ratings and branding.
“If you just look at the data, the Cowboys brand continues to do really well on all the metrics,” says Dr. Mike Lewis, a professor of sports marketing in Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business. “AT&T Stadium, they can do more than 100,000 in there based on the seating configuration. The social media numbers are as good as just about anyone in the league.”
Teams that focus only on the on-field product are thinking too small. Jerry Jones is thinking much, much bigger … and that’s why in the world beyond the standings, the Cowboys rule.
TV ratings: The Cowboys continue to thrive in the ratings; the NFL claimed 72 of the top 100 broadcasts in 2024 per Nielsen ratings, and Dallas occupied 13 of those slots. Only Kansas City matched Dallas with 13 appearances. Baltimore, Green Bay and San Francisco had 10 appearances, and Buffalo nine, suggesting that for every team but Dallas, at least some measure of recent success is necessary to get prime broadcast slots.
It’s worth asking the chicken-and-the-egg question: Are the Cowboys doing huge ratings because of their time slots, or do those time slots do huge ratings because they feature the Cowboys?
You can get a clue by looking at where the Cowboys games fall on the overall list. The highest-ranked Cowboys game, a wild card playoff against Green Bay, was “only” the 10th-most-watched program of 2024, ranking behind five other NFL games and four election-related broadcasts. The rest of the Cowboys’ 13 total appearances, including Thanksgiving, Sunday night and Sunday afternoon games, are scattered throughout the rankings, ending with the Week 11 Monday night matchup against Houston at No. 98.
Franchise valuation: Putting an exact dollar figure on a franchise is like looking up home prices on Zillow — the numbers might not be exact, but they’ll start to get you in the vicinity of truth.
By all accounts, Dallas is the most valuable franchise in American sports. Forbes values Dallas at $10.1 billion, CNBC puts the Cowboys at $11 billion, and Sportico is in the middle at $10.3 billion. Forbes ranks Dallas as the most valuable sports franchise on Earth, with the Warriors, Rams, Yankees and Knicks rounding out the top 5. Not a bad return for Jerry Jones’ initial $140 million investment.
Value assessments point to the Cowboys’ vast sponsorship revenue and profitable operations as reasons for why the team stands well above any of its NFL counterparts.
Fan support: The Cowboys consistently lead Emory University’s annual Fandom Rankings, ahead of such expected stalwarts as the Packers, Steelers and 49ers. The rankings measure fans’ willingness to attach themselves to a team via social media, ticket sales, merch sales and other tangible actions, and the Cowboys brand remains strong regardless of how the team performs.
“You crunch all the available data on fandom metrics, and the Cowboys continue to be America’s Team, even though those ‘90s Super Bowls fade more and more into the past,” Lewis says. “It’s the magic of fandom.”
Will continued futility erode the Cowboys’ standing? Perhaps, perhaps not. More than any other pro sports team outside of, say, the Yankees, the Lakers and Manchester United, Dallas has transcended its competitive foundations. The brand, rather than the trophies, defines Dallas now. It’s an attitude, not a winning percentage.
One largely untapped venue for the Dallas brand: overseas markets. There, far removed from week-in, week-out struggles, fans can attach themselves to America’s Team without worrying about on-field futility. But there’s a caveat to international interest.
“In that case, I don’t think you can [maintain popularity] just with Super Bowls,” Lewis says. “You need some sort of marquee player, someone that captures international attention. But that part of the equation is tough, because the rest of the world doesn’t play football. … To go global, you need a Michael Jordan.”
Perhaps the Cowboys’ greatest enemy is mediocrity both on and off the field. Say what you will about Jerry Jones, but nobody has a lukewarm opinion of him. He’s a polarizing figure, the most famous owner in American sports, and much of the Cowboy love-and-hate is a direct result of Jones’ own personality. When Jones is no longer involved with the day-to-day operations of the team and offering up his opinions on a daily basis, will the Cowboys continue to be a force? Or will they become like, say, the Chicago Bulls, whose key offering is ‘90s nostalgia?
For now, though, the Cowboys brand remains strong, and you’ll be seeing Dallas on TV a dozen times or so later this season, count on it. How ‘bout dem Cowboys, indeed.
