I completely understand the sentiment that the Dallas Cowboys don’t deserve the title of “America’s Team.” It is more a marketing scheme than anything directly connected to their on-field success, of which they have very little for roughly the past 30 years.
Much like the gross commercialization of the holiday season, the title of “America’s Team” has never been about what actually matters to the Football Industrial Complex. That’s why Jim Nantz’s claim that the winner of the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions’ titanic matchup on Sunday effectively becomes “America’s Team” is so false.
Because the NFL — and all of its main broadcast partners — will unfortunately never EVER center the Bills and Lions quite like they do the Cowboys. In fact, they’ll never center anyone like Dallas. Full stop.
"I think that the winner of this game is the new "America's Team.'"
– Jim Nantz is HYPED for Bills vs. Lions pic.twitter.com/vCAjjkn2WQ
— NFL on CBS (@NFLonCBS) December 15, 2024
I get that there’s a great likability factor between the Bills and Lions. I know it’s hard to really dislike either team and that both current iterations of the respective organizations are a ton of fun to watch.
But until they inexplicably get all these random national TV games they don’t deserve, until all the major sports networks and outlets turn seemingly every little (irrelevant) tidbit of Cowboys drama into a story everyone has to hear about, the winner of Bills-Lions does not get this nickname. Nantz is just trying to hype up his game for the watching audience … as if everyone who loves football in America isn’t going to watch anyway.
It’s gonna take a lot more than one regular season game in December to supplant the myth (because that’s all they are) that is the Cowboys.
