Former quarterback Troy Aikman was part of the golden era of the Dallas Cowboys when he won the Super Bowl three times. So, it’s hard for him to accept the fact that Jerry Jones’ camp has not lifted the Lombardi since 1996, leading to a 30-year drought. As he opened up, he held Jones accountable. 

“There have been four playoff wins in 30 years,” he said on the Dallas Dialogue with Dale podcast on August 3. “So, it’s just unacceptable.”

To Aikman, the fact that Jones makes himself the Cowboys’ general manager without trusting anyone else with the role plays a big role. 

“I’ve heard Jerry say that the reason he hasn’t hired a general manager is that no one can guarantee him that making a change at GM and replacing himself would guarantee that they would be any better,” he said. “But if that’s your philosophy, well then you would never fire the head coach either.

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“You have to make changes in how you’re doing it if for three decades, you’ve been unable to win back-to-back playoff games to get into a championship game.”

Dallas now owns the longest NFC title game drought of any team in the conference. The calculation makes it tougher for Jones to accept the brutal reality. 

The Cowboys’ last NFC Championship Game appearance came on Jan. 14, 1996, when they beat Brett Favre and the Packers 38-27. Since then, every other NFC team has reached the conference title game at least once.

For Aikman and his teammates, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin, it’s harder to accept the decline. 

After all, the trio led Dallas to three Super Bowls in four seasons. All three times they won by double digits: 52-17 over Buffalo, 30-13 against the Bills, and 27-17 over Pittsburgh.

Jones now desperately tries to bring that era back in Dallas. However, he ensured not to hand the reins to anybody else anytime soon. 

“[When] I bought the team, I think the first thing to come out of my mouth … somebody asked, ‘Did you buy this for your kids?’ I said, ‘Hell no. I bought it for me,'” Jones told reporters in January 2025. “And I didn’t buy an investment. I bought an occupation, and I bought something I was going to do.”

This season, analysts are hopeful about the chances of the Cowboys breaking the drought. They rarely struggled when their starting quarterback stayed healthy, recording just three losing seasons between 2005 and 2023. Those three occurred when Tony Romo or Dak Prescott played six games or fewer.

While their offense has always been strong, doubts prevailed about their defense. But this time, they revamped their defense with additions like Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller and Malachi Lawrence, along with a new defensive coordinator, Christian Parker.