The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). They are based in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. The team is scheduled to play its home games at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington beginning in the 2009 season. The Cowboys joined the NFL as a 1960 expansion team. The team's national following might best be represented by its NFL record of consecutive games in front of sold-out stadiums. The Cowboys' streak of 160 sold-out regular and post-season games began in 1990, and included 79 straight sellouts at their home, Texas Stadium, and 81 straight sell-outs on the road.

An article from Forbes Magazine, dated September 10, 2008, lists the Cowboys as the most valuable sports franchise in the United States, and second in the world (behind the United Kingdom's Manchester United), with an estimated value of approximately $1.612 billion, ahead of the Washington Redskins ($1.538 billion) and the New England Patriots ($1.324 billion). They are also one of the wealthiest teams in the NFL, generating almost $269 million in annual revenue.

The Cowboys have been one of the most successful teams of the modern era (since 1960). The team has won five Super Bowls and eight conference championships. The Cowboys have more victories (41) on Monday Night Football than any other NFL team; the Miami Dolphins are second with 39 and the San Francisco 49ers are third with 38. They hold NFL records for the most consecutive winning seasons (20, from 1966 to 1985) and most seasons with at least ten wins (25). The team has earned the most post-season appearances (29), a league record of 56 post-season games (winning 32 of them), the most division titles with 20, the most appearances in the NFC Championship Game (14), and the most Super Bowl appearances (8). The Cowboys also played in two NFL championship games before the NFL's 1970 merger with the American Football League. The Cowboys became the first team in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in just four years (a feat that has been matched only once since, by the New England Patriots). They are second only to the Pittsburgh Steelers with most Super Bowl wins (tied with the San Francisco 49ers with five each). The Cowboys' success and popularity has earned them the nickname "America's Team". Before the 2008 season an ESPN's Page 2 statistical comparison of all teams since the AFL-NFL merger had the Cowboys narrowly beat out the Pittsburgh Steelers for the top of its Ultimate Power Ranking.

Franchise history

main: History of the Dallas Cowboys Originally, the formation of an NFL expansion team in Texas was met with strong opposition by Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall. This came as little surprise to the would-be Dallas team owners, Clint Murchison, Jr. and Bedford Wynne, for Marshall's Redskins had enjoyed a monopoly as the only NFL team to represent the Southern States of the US for several decades. To ensure the birth of their expansion team, the men bought the rights to the Redskins fight song, "Hail to the Redskins" and threatened to refuse to allow Marshall to play the song at games. Needing the song, which was a staple for his "professional football team of Dixie," Marshall capitulated, and the city of Dallas, Texas, was granted an NFL franchise on January 28, 1960. This early confrontation between the two franchises was an omen of what would become one of the more significant rivalries in the NFL, which continues to this day.