Washington-Cowboys rivalry evolves, loses luster heading into Thanksgiving showdown

Former Redskins president Bruce Allen once gave a simple reason for why he viewed every game between Washington and the Dallas Cowboys to be meaningful: “It’s Cowboys and Indians.”.

This year’s Thanksgiving Day showdown between the Cowboys and The-Team-No-Longer-Known-As-the-Redskins still has some of the trappings of the storied history of this classic NFL rivalry, even if Washington decided to ditch its longtime nickname and American Indian imagery months ago.

“Neither one of these teams — what have they done in 20-something years?” former Redskins great and Hall of Fame running back John Riggins told The Washington Times.

“You can’t have a great rivalry when you’ve got two teams and every year they’re 0-8 when they play the game.

Brian Mitchell likes to say that he’s the one person who played in the NFL who hates the Dallas Cowboys more than anybody.

As a running back for Washington throughout the 1990s, Mitchell played in the rivalry 20 times, including twice on Thanksgiving.

He went on to join the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants in the early 2000s, ensuring he’d be matched up against the Cowboys every year.

Mitchell said he hated the Cowboys flaunting the “America’s Team” brand, how Dallas fans living in the District liked to brag that “D.C.” stood for “Dallas Cowboys,” how “pompous” the Cowboys came across.

Now an analyst for NBC Sports Washington and a local radio host, Mitchell said there’s an age gap between those who are deeply invested in the Washington-Cowboys rivalry and those who aren’t.

He added that younger fans — those with memories of playoff-less seasons instead of Super Bowls — don’t get the rivalry.

“It has to be something for people to feel like it is,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said the rivalry isn’t dead, it’s just dormant.

The buzz would return, he said, if Washington and Dallas were consistent winners.

Over the last year, Washington and Dallas have each made changes in hopes of restoring some luster to once-premier franchises.

Despite the uneven year for both teams, Thursday’s game will almost surely be a ratings hit.

slot — where the Cowboys always draw big numbers, especially when matched up against their biggest rival.

Two years later, the game averaged 30.5 million on Fox — a 14% jump from the year prior.

Richard King, a Columbia College Chicago professor who specializes in American Indian studies, said that the Cowboys and Indians depiction that came with the Redskins-Cowboys rivalry made it the “perfect trope” for two teams who don’t like each other.

For Riggins, the Cowboys were always the opponent who “got my attention.” The former running back, who recently launched his own podcast “The John Riggins Show,” said that he always wanted to measure himself against the best, and in those days, the Cowboys were the standard.

For one, he said it would be especially tough to be in a season without fans — Riggins notably hated practice, preferring games for the atmosphere.

On Thursday, Riggins will still tune in to watch Washington.

For Thanksgiving, he plans to have five people — his immediate family and his mother-in-law — over to his home, where Riggins is in charge of the cooking.

Though Riggins will have his hands full in the kitchen, he’ll be paying close attention to Washington and Dallas — just not with the same enthusiasm