House Cowboys

The Wound

Three thrones in four winters in the early 1990s. And then nothing — not a conference championship appearance since, which is now thirty years of the most valuable, most televised, most discussed house in the realm arriving every January with nothing to show.

Every autumn they are declared rich. Every winter they are eliminated by someone poorer. It has happened so many times that the realm has stopped finding it interesting, which Dallas finds more insulting than the losing.

The Lord

Dak Prescott. Reliable, well-paid, and permanently on trial. He has been good for a decade in a house where good has never been the question. The question is January, and he has not been given many chances to answer it.

Last year: 7–9–1. Not even a proper failure.

The Knights

• Rashan Gary — on the Watch, taken from Green Bay this spring.
• Brandon Aubrey — the Reckoner, twenty-eight million, and genuinely one of the best things about watching this house.

Ancient Grudges

• House Eagles. The rival that keeps doing the thing Dallas keeps promising. Unforgivable, and getting worse.
• House Commanders, House Giants. Old, loud, and full of grievances that predate everyone currently involved.

What Changed This Spring

Gary by trade, Javonte Williams extended, Aubrey paid. Modest work for a house of this size — Dallas spent the offseason patching rather than rebuilding, after a season that finished under .500.

Prophecy

“This is the year.” Said every August. Said with real feeling.