The Redskins-Cowboys rivalry started before Dallas even had a team. In the 1950s Washington owner George Preston Marshall started the NFL’s largest television network before the league had a deal with CBS.
From 1955 through 1962, Redskins games were seen all over the south — from Virginia to Miami. The network also tracked southwest from Florida to New Mexico. Yes, in the 50s, the most popular team in Dallas was the Redskins.
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When the Cowboys entered the league in 1960 they were surrounded by Redskins fans in the southwest and then all the way east across the Deep South. In college towns from Austin to Atlanta, it was the upstart Cowboys battling with the diehard Redskins fans for attention and loyalty. In what would become the largest turf war in NFL history, Dallas and Washington would battle throughout the south for fans. This was not about two cities it was about at least 15 states and millions of fans.
The NFL got their first real national TV deal on CBS in 1962 and there was talk of moving the Cowboys to the Western Division. But the Redskins — and the rest of the NFL — wanted the Cowboys to stay in the east. All involved knew that the war being waged between Washington and Dallas would be good for the league.
The south, where that war was being fought, was where the NFL needed marketing and branding help. The huge number of Redskins fans and the growing number of Cowboys fans needed to be rivals for the good of the league.
Both Marshall and Cowboys owner Clint Murchison were college football guys. Marshall tied up the SEC and the ACC towns while the Cowboys won over the old South West Conference towns in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas — all former Washington outposts. This was cut throat marketing at a time when Jerry Jones was looking to get into the University of Arkansas and Dan Snyder was not even born.
It took Dallas till the late 60s before they had captured their share of the Redskins’ southern base. However, most of the fans of SEC, from Birmingham to Gainesville, and the ACC, from Winston-Salem to Charlottesville, were still wearing the burgundy and gold.
Expansion and relocation brought New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Carolina and Jacksonville into the league, but the Cowboys were America’s Team and the Redskins still maintain a strong southern base.
It may not be the good ol’ days, but no one could kill off what is still, to this day, the biggest turf war in NFL history and one of longest and best rivalries.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on dcexaminer.com.
