'Greatest Rivalry' Is a One-Way Street

Cowboys Have Dominated Redskins

The Cowboys wrapped up halfback Kenny Watson, but the Redskins won on Dec. 29, 2002, for their lone win against Dallas in their past 14 meetings. (Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)

On the eve of training camp in July, former Washington Redskins tight end Rick "Doc" Walker addressed the players who would soon be wearing the uniform he held so dear. It is not unusual for Coach Joe Gibbs to invite his old favorites to Redskins Park to address the team, but this particular appearance left a lasting impression.

Walker held up his Super Bowl rings and spoke eloquently about the import of beating Dallas -- the Redskins and Cowboys meet for the 90th time this afternoon in Texas -- and how troubling it is for him to watch the Redskins allow what was once one of the NFL's most gripping rivalries revert to more or less just another football game by losing to the Cowboys with such regularity. In Walker's time, during Gibbs's first tenure here, this was The Game, a twice yearly event that not only captivated two cities, but routinely swayed the power structure of the league and settled division and conference supremacy.

Lately, neither team has been winning much, and the Redskins' abysmal record against Dallas has made the outcome of these games largely a forgone conclusion. The Cowboys have won 13 of the last 14 games against Washington dating from 1997 and today the Redskins will be looking for their first victory at Texas Stadium since 1995, and just their second win there since Gibbs retired after the 1992 season. Gibbs returned to restore luster to the Redskins' organization, and making this rivalry competitive again is part of that agenda. To Walker, doing so is imperative.

"Even talking about beating Dallas has no real meaning here anymore," Walker said during a preseason interview. "It's not a rivalry any more when Dallas kills them, humiliates them, kicks their [backside]. The guys in blue have the sledgehammer and they're using it.

"It's been embarrassing, absolutely embarrassing. It's not on any one person, but it's just the idea that our symbol was allowed to become so disrespected. Our guys fought so hard to make that game special and to me, I might be off on all of this, but I don't care. I hope I am [ticking] someone off and in some small way the young guys understand how important this rivalry was to a group of people. A lot of them do care, I really believe that, but it's got to be a force of one person -- one heartbeat -- and there's been so many individuals coming through here over the last decade that that's very hard to do. But Coach Gibbs is a guy who always made beating the guys in blue a priority, and hopefully he can return us to glory."

Redskins players, who dropped the season's initial game with Dallas, 21-18, at home in a Monday night game in September, say they took Walker's words to heart. While many of them were barely out of diapers the last time these teams met in the NFC championship game -- 1982 -- they are gradually comprehending the resonance of the rivalry. Gibbs's offensive staff was a major part of classic games with the Cowboys in the past, and Walker is hardly the only former Redskin to associate with the team this season. All want nothing more than to see Washington beat the Cowboys.

"Doc Walker said to us, 'How can it be a rivalry if they win every time?' " offensive lineman Chris Samuels said, "That really stood out to me and to the rest of my teammates. . . . We definitely want to get this one and we're pretty fired up to beat them. It's going to be a big game."

Both teams are playing to keep their meager playoff hopes alive at 5-9, but for the Redskins, a victory would mean much more than that. Beating Dallas would give Gibbs a solid building block to take into next season and provide a tangible result in his battle to erase a culture of losing that has seeped into Redskins Park. With a victory, the Redskins would at least finish the season with two wins in the NFC East and would win consecutive games for the first time since going to 2-0 to open 2003. A loss today against a sputtering Dallas team would quell any momentum and leave Gibbs still looking for a truly memorable win in his first season back.

Gibbs has been playing down the significance of any one game this season, and shied away from saying that success against the Cowboys was more meaningful than beating any team in the NFC East. "In this division, all the games are tough," Gibbs said. But deep inside, he burns to beat Dallas, his friends and associates say.

When Daniel Snyder bought the Redskins in 1999, he made beating the Cowboys one of his first priorities, but he has had only one occasion to celebrate to this point, when LaVar Arrington's fumble recovery keyed a 20-14 win over Dallas in the final game of the 2002 season. He grew up an avid Redskins fan at a time when loving them meant despising Dallas. There is a healthy personal rivalry between Snyder and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, and losing these games can lead to visceral reactions.

"The rivalry is not like it used to be," said Sonny Jurgensen, Washington's Hall of Fame quarterback from 1964 to 1974, one of the team's broadcasters since shortly after retiring and a confidant of Snyder's. "But I know it's important for the owners. Jerry and Dan, they certainly talk about it. There are some bragging rights at stake."

Gibbs was hired in 1981, at the peak of Dallas's popularity, and he immediately took aim at the Cowboys. "When we got here you had to go through Dallas to get the Super Bowl," said Joe Bugel, Washington's assistant head coach-offense, and a member of Gibbs's original staff. "That was our whole modus operandi."

Gibbs reached his first Super Bowl in 1983 after beating Dallas in the conference championship, and he and Dallas coaching legend Tom Landry developed a mutual respect while relishing each win over the other.

"I'll tell you this," said Bubba Tyer, a member of Washington's training staff for 32 of the last 33 years. "A lot of people here at the Redskins still dislike Dallas a great deal and want to beat them no mater what. We've done it in the past, and these young guys on our current team, they ought to be teed off about it, because they haven't won a game there since 1995. That ought to [tick] you off right away. I know it still means a whole lot to Coach Gibbs. We had great games with the Cowboys when he was here, and he doesn't like them at all."