The Dallas Cowboys have been a staple on NBC’s Sunday Night Football since its inception.
The Cowboys last won a Super Bowl in 1996 but have always been a rating darling, so it should never come as a surprise when they’re on primetime football, no matter their record.
The answer to why the Cowboys receive such unique coverage than the rest of the league is Cris Collinsworth, an analyst on the Sunday Night Football broadcast since 2009.
Until last season, the Hall of Fame broadcaster had been next to Al Michaels for the entirety of his career on NBC.
Michaels has since departed for Amazon Prime, which has left Mike Tirico to take over the play-by-play duties.
As Collinsworth prepares for a second season next to Tirico, he appeared on The Dan Patrick Show, where he discussed a bevy of topics, including the relationship between how much coverage the Cowboys will receive and how good they will be. Patrick asked how close those two entities are.
“Historically, it was they were really great for a decade, and then they really weren’t for a long time,” Collinsworth told Patrick. “And yet, if NBC had their choice, we would do 17 Dallas Cowboys games. Right? I’m not kidding. It doesn’t matter what their record is.”
“It’s insanity, but it’s true,” he said. “They draw the ratings. They get it done.”
“Every opening night, we want the Dallas Cowboys if we can get ‘em,” Collinsworth added.
The Cowboys have three Sunday Night Football games in 2023:
Week 1 at the Giants, Week 5 at the 49ers, and Week 14 hosting the Eagles.
As for Sunday Night Football, the NFL reserves the rights to flex games, and it may be used up to twice between Weeks 5-10 and at the league’s discretion during Weeks 11-17.
“They are an intriguing team. I think they always will be…Look at me, I can’t do this with any other team.
You can kind of go off the top of your head and go, ‘Hey, Cowboys. I got ’em. I know what’s going on with ’em.’ It’s craziness, but the Cowboys continue to be America’s Team and that is no lie,” said Collinsworth.
