Troy Aikman isn’t soft-pedaling the Cowboys’ drought, and he isn’t placing the blame anywhere but on Jerry Jones.
Speaking recently on the Dallas Dialogue with Dale podcast, the Hall of Fame quarterback said Dallas fans have every right to be frustrated with a franchise that has gone 30 years without reaching an NFC Championship Game. Aikman, who won three Super Bowls with the Cowboys in the 1990s, said he never imagined the 1995 title would still be the club’s last one.
“Cowboys fans deserve better,” Aikman said. “This is the Cowboys, the flagship franchise, and the fact that the Cowboys in 30 years have not made it to a championship game, let alone a Super Bowl, it’s hard to fathom.”
For Aikman, the issue is bigger than one bad stretch or a few unlucky breaks. He pointed to a pattern that has repeated itself for decades: regular-season success, big expectations, and the same January ending.
“To me, you have to make changes in how you’re doing it, if for three decades you haven’t made an NFC Championship Game,” he stated. “It’s just unacceptable.”
The Cowboys have only four playoff wins in those 30 years, a number that only sharpens the frustration around a team that keeps presenting itself as a contender. Aikman said the structure at the top is the problem, with Jones serving as both owner and general manager.
Jones has argued that there’s no guarantee a new general manager would change the outcome. Aikman pushed back on that thinking.
“If that’s your philosophy, then you’d never fire the head coach either,” he explained. “You’d never make any changes because there are no guarantees whatsoever.”
Aikman also revisited one of the most debated chapters in Cowboys history: who really drove the success of the 1990s teams. He made his view clear by crediting Jimmy Johnson, who was fired by Jones after seeking more personnel control.
“He knows why we won with Jimmy Johnson,” Aikman said. “Every player in that locker room felt, and I think knew, that Jimmy was calling the shots.”
In Aikman’s telling, Johnson handled talent evaluation and accountability and functioned as the real general manager in many respects. Barry Switzer later won the final title of that era, but nothing comparable has followed under Jones’s complete control.
Now consulting for the Miami Dolphins and working on Monday Night Football, Aikman said he still pulls for Dallas. But his patience for the current setup has run out. He wants accountability, and he wants change.
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