Cowboys have to make up for lost years

IRVING, Texas - Displayed in the lobby are the uniforms, lined up chronologically from left to right: Don Meredith and "Bullet" Bob Hayes, Chuck Howley and Bob Lilly, Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith. They represent tradition, bridging the generations of excellence.

The hallway walls are lined with paintings that further evoke the glory days. Tex Schramm, coat slung over his shoulder. Tom Landry, the man in the hat. Michael Irvin, Cliff Harris, Rayfield Wright. Framed photos of every team in franchise history.

The five Super Bowl trophies are out of sight - but never far out of mind - at the Dallas Cowboys' Valley Ranch training facility.

"This is a storybook franchise," linebacker Bradie James said earlier this week. "So much tradition. And you're really judged by championships. Not just how good you are as a player. Not just how you do statistically. It matters how many wins you have. And you want to be in that elite with guys like Emmitt Smith and Moose Johnson and Troy Aikman and all those guys. Because those guys won championships."

And that's the problem for this team as it prepares for tonight's first-round playoff against the Eagles at Cowboys Stadium.

The Cowboys haven't even won a playoff game, much less the whole enchilada, since December 1996. And they're constantly reminded of it.

"We're taking it serious around here," wide receiver/punt returner Patrick Crayton said. "The drought and the haven't-won-a-playoff-game-since-'96 and the December woes. All that stuff we take personal around here."

Not a single player who will suit up tonight was with the team then. And they've burned through a succession of coaches, too. Barry Switzer gave way to Chan Gailey who was replaced by Dave Campo who was sacked to make way for Bill Parcells. Now Wade Phillips, in his third season, will give it another shot.

Owner and general manager Jerry Jones said this week that he finds it hard to believe that a franchise that has been so successful for so long - only the Steelers, with six, have won more Supes - has come up so empty in recent years.

"It's surreal to be sitting here having to even answer that question," he said pensively. "I wouldn't have dreamed that in '96 we wouldn't have [won] a playoff, and I wouldn't have dreamed that we would have had the turnover in the coaches that we've had.

"You could have told me then that with Bill Parcells for 4 years that we wouldn't win a playoff game? I would have had to pinch myself there. I really thought in 2007 we were going to have some playoff success. So when I look back at all of that, I just think, 'How did that happen?' ''

It might be hard to believe, but it's true. And the reality is that great traditions are a mixed blessing.

They can be a blessing, providing a goal and tangible proof that it can be reached. It can also pump up the pressure and become an anvil around the neck of the players when high expectations go unmet for too long.

James insisted that the players won't feel burdened by the need to break a 13-season playoff shutout streak.

"It's like any other game. The pressure? We've had pressure during the season and we've definitely responded to that," he said. "We've responded and we've won. So there's no need to put any pressure on ourselves. You just go out there and play as best as you can. That's what it all boils down to.

"As far as the drought, it falls into that December thing. We couldn't win in December. We haven't won a playoff game. And the only way we can right those wrongs is to go out there and win."

Quarterback Tony Romo also shrugged off the idea that the ghosts of playoff failures past would have anything to do with what happens tonight.

"It's an old saying, but you are what you are," he said. "We're a team that went 11-5 and won the NFC East and still has a long way to go to get to where we want to go. The process has started to shape. We gave ourself a chance to accomplish those goals. That's the first step. There are a bunch of different things you have to do to reach your goal.

"Every [playoff game] is different. A lot of it is the team you're playing against. A lot of it is the team you have. A lot of it is improvement you've had over the course of a few years. I'd like to think I'm better than I was in the last two. I'm a completely different player, and we're a completely different team. Those past games have absolutely no bearing on anything right now.

"But that doesn't guarantee anything."

It's been said that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. The Cowboys' players are constantly made aware of their history in hopes that they can duplicate those achievements. *