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1992 Dallas Cowboys

1992 Sports: An Epic Shot & A Repeat Barrage

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This article offers a snapshot of 1992 sports, a year defined by an epic shot in the NCAA Tournament, and a parade of teams either closing repeat titles, getting close to doing such, or starting repeat runs.

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The Shot Heard ‘Round The World: To a previous generation this phrase means Bobby Thomson’s walkoff home run to win the 1951 National League pennant for the New York Giants. To another generation it’s the dramatic end to the Duke-Kentucky regional final in the NCAA Tournament.

Duke was the #1 seed in the East and the favorite to win repeat national titles, a feat not done since the UCLA dynasty. Kentucky was back in the limelight, after a brief stretch in the NCAA doghouse, and rebuilt by Rick Pitino. The Wildcats were the #2 seed, and the two teams squared off in Philadelphia.

For forty minutes of regulation and then 4:58 of overtime, the game already earned a special place in college basketball lore. Bobby Hurley scored 22 and dished 10 assists for Duke. Jamal Mashburn scored 28 and grabbed 10 rebounds for Kentucky. It was the Wildcats that took a 103-102 lead with two seconds left. Then came the play that’s now shown on highlight reels every March.

Duke’s Grant Hill, already with six assists to go with ten rebounds,  took the ball under his own basketball and rifled a three-quarters court bullet pass that national Player of the Year Christian Laettner caught, as the Kentucky defenders did not contest the pass. Laettner was 9-for-9 from the floor when he caught the pass and had scored 29 points. By the time he finished coming down, spinning and putting up a turnaround jumper from the foul line, you could make that 10-for-10 with 31 points and one of college basketball’s great finishes.

The Final Four was still ahead and it was a good one, as Duke turned back a stiff challenge from Indiana, and had to pull away from Michigan in the second half to win their second straight national title. But the play, and the game everyone remembers took place in Philadelphia. Click here to read a complete account of the 1992 Final Four.

The Fab Five: Michigan reached the NCAA final, and doing it as a 6-seed made it surprising, but not necessarily historic on its face. Kansas, after all, had won a national title in 1988 out of the 6-hole and N.C. State did the same in 1983. But those teams had senior leadership. Michigan was different—they started five freshman, the first team ever to do so and reach the national championship game.

Chris Webber and Jalen Rose would go on to have solid NBA careers, and Juwan Howard a pretty good one. Jimmy King and Ray Jackson didn’t have an impact at the pro level, but were solid college players. Together, they made history in Ann Arbor.

Michigan had to beat the top two seeds in the Southeast Regional at Lexington, ironically the same site the Wolverines had to go through en route to the 1989 NCAA title. Rose scored 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while holdover Eric Riley put up a 15/10 in the win over 2-seed Oklahoma State.

Then it was overtime against top seed Ohio State, the biggest non-football game these two archrivals have ever played. Rose was again strong, with 20 points and he was the regional’s Most Outstanding Player. Webber posted a 23/11 and Michigan survived, 75-71.

At the Final Four, the Wolverines survived Cincinnati, and led Duke by a point at the half before the dream finally ended. But what a historic ride it was.

Jordan Goes Back-To-Back: Repeat championships were the order of the day in basketball, not just in college, but at the NBA. Michael Jordan’s Bulls had joined Duke in making 1991 their breakthrough year, and now the Bulls joined the Blue Devils in ratifying their place in history in 1992.

Chicago dominated the regular season with 67 wins, thanks to Jordan’s 30 ppg and he won his third MVP award. The Bulls got one stiff challenge in the playoffs, when Pat Riley’s New York Knicks took them to seven games in the second round, but otherwise, Chicago was mostly in control and sealed their second straight title by beating Portland four games to two. Click here to read a complete account of the 1992 NBA Finals.

Seven-Game Battles In The East: We mentioned Chicago and New York going at it for the full seven games in the NBA’s Eastern Conference semi-finals. They weren’t the only ones. The Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics also went the distance, as the Eastern semis provided the 1992 NBA postseason its strongest element of drama.

The Knicks had been taken over Pat Riley, the head coach of the Showtime-era Los Angeles Lakers. They were built around Patrick Ewing in the middle, who’d averaged 24 points/11 rebounds a game, and a good point in now-Golden State head coach Mark Jackson, who distributed eight assists a night. Xavier McDaniel, Gerald Wilkins and John Starks filled in the gaps, and the Knicks relied heavily on a physical brand of defense.

Jordan did not have a deep supporting cast around him. Scottie Pippen averaged 21 ppg and was an excellent defender, but beyond Horace Grant’s rebounding, the Bulls were dependent on their star. New York got 34 points/11 rebounds from Ewing in the opener, as the Knicks swiped Game 1 and took homecourt advantage.

Chicago won Game 2 and then reclaimed homecourt edge with a 94-86 win in Game 3, as Jordan and Pippen were too much for Ewing, who didn’t get any help. The Knicks turned around and dominated the fourth quarter of Game 4 though, tying up the series.

The Bulls’ defense contained Ewing in Game 5 and Jordan lit up Chicago Stadium for 37 points in a eight-point win, but New York again owned the fourth quarter at Madison Square Garden, pulling away to win Game 6.

Game 7 was tight for the first half and Chicago only led by five. But it was Jordan’s day, and he racked up 42 points, with the Bulls pulling away to a 110-81 win.

Cleveland had the misfortune of being in Jordan’s conference at the time of his rise, but this was a good 57-win basketball team that had Brad Daugherty in the post, Larry Nance at forward and sharpshooter Mark Price on the perimeter.

Boston was at an in-between point in their history. They still got contributions from Robert Parish and Kevin McHale, and when Larry Bird’s back allowed him on the floor, the Legend averaged 20 ppg. The Celtics were led though, by up-and-comer Reggie Lewis and his 21 ppg, and other new faces like Kevin Gamble, Dee Brown and current Denver Nuggets coach Brian Shaw.

Bird’s back was ailing badly by this point in the season and he was coming off the bench for limited minutes. Daugherty slapped up a 26/17 game in the opener, keyed a big Cleveland rebounding edge and a 101-76 rout. But behind the mix of the old and new—27 from Parish and 26 from Lewis—the Celts took Game 2, 104-98.

Boston nearly took complete control of the series back at the Garden. Parish and Ed Pinckney led a decisive rebounding effort that resulted in a 110-107 win. Game 4 went to overtime, but the Cavs got a combined 78 points from Nance, Price and Daugherty and escaped, 114-112.

Daugherty’s 28/9 performance led Cleveland to an easy rout in Game 5. Then Bird came into the starting lineup and gave his team 37 minutes in Game 6, as the Celts came back with a rout of their own.

It was time for another Game 7 and Bird did start and give 30-plus minutes. But Daugherty again had a 28/9 game on his home floor and Cleveland’s fast start held, en route to a 122-104 win.

Cleveland gave Chicago a fight, but the Bulls were able to close out in six games, with the security of a home Game 7 still in their back pocket. It was the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs where the drama was in 1992.

How Bout ‘Dem Cowboys: The Dallas Cowboys considered themselves the NFL’s proudest franchise, but they hadn’t won the Super Bowl since 1977, nor been there since 1978. They hadn’t even played for the NFC Championship since 1982, when they lost a great battle in San Francisco. Perhaps it was appropriate then, that the signature moment on the way back to glory came in Frisco.

Dallas had reached the second round of the playoffs in 1991 and they opened ’92 by sending a loud and clear message to the rest of the league, with a 23-10 thumping of defending Super Bowl champion Washington on Monday night football, a game not nearly as competitive as the score makes it sound.

The Cowboys were 6-1 and playing a key regular season game against Philadelphia the only team to beat them in the early going. An Eagle win would pull them into a tie for first and give them the tiebreaker. Dallas trailed 7-3 in the third quarter and it was tied 10-10 in the final period, but behind 163 rushing yards from Emmitt Smith, Dallas churned out a 23-10 win and they never looked back in the division. They finished the season 13-3 and got the #2 seed in the NFC.

Philadelphia awaited again in the second round of the playoffs, after Dallas rested up with a first-round bye. Troy Aikman threw two first-half touchdown passes , the Cowboys built up a 17-3 lead and coasted 34-10.

That set up the battle with top-seeded San Francisco in a battle between the two teams considered the best in football. The two offenses alone combined for 13 Pro Bowlers and each was in the top five of the NFL defensively.  In the first half, the battle looked even as the teams went to the locker room tied 10-10.

It was the Cowboys who delivered the blows coming out in the second half, driving for a touchdown immediately after kickoff and taking a 24-13 lead into the early part of the fourth quarter. But San Francisco came back with a short touchdown pass from Young to Jerry Rice, and when the Cowboys were pinned back inside their own 20, the Bay Area crowd still had hope.

Aikman threw a simple slant over the middle to Alvin Harper. The receiver broke through and turned it into a huge play, taking it all the way down inside the 49er 10-yard line. A short touchdown pass by Aikman sealed the 30-20 victory. Ultimately, turnovers were the difference, with Dallas playing mistake-free while San Francisco gave it away four times.

The Cowboys were favored to win the Super Bowl over the Buffalo Bills and they did just that. After a somewhat rocky start, the turnover edge from the NFC Championship Game turned into the turnover landslide of the Super Bowl. Dallas forced a Super Bowl record nine, and rolled to a 52-17 win. They were back atop the NFL world, and it wouldn’t be for the last time with this cast of characters. Click here to read a complete account of the 1992 Super Bowl.

Toronto Breaks Through: The World Series trophy had yet to live the confines of the United States. The Montreal Expos spent the first half of the 1980s knocking on the door, but never breaking through. The Toronto Blue Jays took up the mantle of Canada starting in 1985, but hadn’t made it over the top.

The Blue Jays got unexpectedly tough battles in the AL East, with both the Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles overachieving and hanging in the race to the final week. Toronto went out and acquired starting pitcher David Cone at the trade deadline to shore up the weakest area of their team, and they hung on.

Toronto faced Oakland in the American League Championship Series, but the A’s weren’t quite as awe-inspiring as the team that beat the Blue Jays in the 1989 ALCS. The big moment came in Game 4. The Blue Jays lead the series 2-1, but were trailing this game by a 6-1 count after six innings and the A’s had MVP closer Dennis Eckersley awaiting.

Instead, it was second baseman Roberto Alomar who took over. He doubled to start a three-run rally in the eighth. Then he beat Eckersley with a two-run homer in the ninth to tie it. Toronto won 7-6 in eleven innings and eventually closed it out in six games. Alomar hit .423 for the series and was named ALCS MVP.

The World Series was now in Canada for the first time, and this close to the prize, the Blue Jays didn’t let it slip from their grasp. They beat the Atlanta Braves in six games to bring home the championship. Click here to read a game-by-game account of the 1992 World Series.

NLCS Epic: It was the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 7, and the Atlanta Braves trailed the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0. How it gotten to this point, the Braves must have surely wondered.

It was a rematch of the previous year’s NLCS, where Atlanta had upset Pittsburgh with consecutive road wins in Games 6 & 7. Now the Pirates were trying to return the favor.

Atlanta had gotten off to a great start in this NLCS, winning the opener 5-1 behind John Smoltz and then routing Pittsburgh 13-5 in Game 2. It was a then-unknown knuckleballer named Tim Wakefield who settled things down for the Pirates, winning Game 3 by a 3-2 count. Atlanta took Game 4 thanks to four hits from Otis Nixon, but Pittsburgh stayed alive with a 7-1 in Game 5. Ironically, that was the same score by which the Pirates won Game 5 of the 1979 World Series, another elimination setting that still sent them on the road needing two more.

The Pirates looked ready to wake up the echoes of ’79, when they blasted Tom Glavine for eight second-inning runs in Game 6, making Wakefield’s second series win an easy one. Then Pittsburgh ace Doug Drabek took that 2-0 lead into the ninth inning the next night and the comeback was just about complete.

But Terry Pendleton opened with a double down the line. An error and a walk loaded the bases and got Drabek out of the game. A sac fly and another walk had the bases reloaded and the score now 2-1. Pittsburgh closer Stan Belinda got Brian Hunter to pop out, and now all that was left was unknown pinch-hitter Francisco Cabrera.

Cabrera lashed a single to left, and Barry Bonds, playing his final year in the Steel City came up throwing. But his arm wasn’t good enough to throw out slow-footed Sid Bream who came around from second base with the game’s winning run. Atlanta was going back to the World Series. Pittsburgh hasn’t back to the postseason—nor even had a winning season—since.

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Alabama Returns To The Top: The Alabama football program hadn’t won a national title in the post-Bear Bryant era and only occasionally had they even challenged for one. That finally changed under Gene Stallings. Though the Tide didn’t have a demanding schedule, they kept winning, and when that included a victory over a good Florida team in the first-ever SEC Championship Game—the first conference championship game in college football history, Alabama got a crack at top-ranked Miami in the Sugar Bowl.

‘Bama  shocked the nation by not simply beating Miami, but routing the ‘Canes, 34-13. Under the leadership of Gene Stallings, and a stalwart defense, they were back atop the college football world. Click here to read a complete account of the 1992 Sugar Bowl.

The Penguins Join The Repeat Barrage: We’ve seen that Duke and the Chicago Bulls both repeated. The Toronto Blue Jays and Dallas Cowboys set the stage for doing the same in 1993. Miami football came within one game of doing so. With this seemingly as the theme for 1992, should we be surprised that it extended to the NHL?

Pittsburgh was led by the goal-scoring trio of Mario Lemieux, Kevin Stevens and Joe Mullen, and though they started the playoffs slow, the Pens eventually got postseason fire. They won their final 11 games, including a sweep of the Chicago Blackhawks to hoist the Cup.  Click here to read a more complete account of the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals and the playoff ride of the ’92 Penguins. 

1992 Dallas Cowboys: The Start Of A Dynasty

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The 1992 Dallas Cowboys entered the season primed to make a run at the Super Bowl. Jimmy Johnson had been brought to Big D in the spring of 1988 awash in controversy. Arkansas oil man Jerry Jones had bought the team and made the firing of NFL legend Tom Landry, coming off a 3-13 season, his first priority. The first year was awful at 1-15, but the Cowboys pulled the trigger on a trade that would speed the rebuilding.

Johnson dealt Herschel Walker, the team’s top running back to Minnesota for several draft picks and a few veteran players. And when the coach cut the veterans he was able to redeem them for picks. Dallas moved quickly to 7-9 the following year and likely would have made the playoffs had second-year quarterback and current Fox analyst Troy Aikman not been injured the final two weeks.

In 1991, Dallas did make the playoffs, going 11-5 and winning an NFC wild-card game. They came into 1992 with Aikman at quarterback, future Hall of Famers Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin at running back and receiver respectively, and Jay Novacek at tight end. The offensive line  was the crown jewel of the team though—a unit that had Pro Bowlers in Nate Newton and Mark Tuinei was the NFL’s best front-five since the Washington Redskins’ Hogs that were in their final moments this season and no offensive line since has come close to being as good, with free agency preventing continuity.

Defensively, the Cowboys didn’t produce a single Pro Bowl player while having the league’s top-ranked defense under coordinator Dave Wannstedt, but they would make an early season trade to get a big playmaker in pass-rushing end Charles Haley. The Cowboys were loaded for bear and lying in wait when the defending champion Redskins came to town to open the season on Monday Night Football.

Special teams made the difference in the opener. Dallas blocked a punt for a safety that began the scoring and then holding a 16-7 lead in the second half, Kelvin Martin returned a punt 79 yards for a touchdown. The final was 23-10, but the Cowboys had controlled the line of scrimmage behind Emmitt’s 140 rushing yards, and as a Redskins fan watching this game in his college dorm, all I remember about this game is that the ‘Skins had no shot from the get-go.

Dallas closed September by beating the Giants and Cardinals before going into their bye week. On other side of the bye to begin October awaited another key NFC East Monday Night showdown, on the road in Philadelphia.

The Cowboys’ Monday night trip to Philadelphia didn’t work out well. After being tied 7-7 after a quarter and trailing only 10-7 at the half, the game got away from the ‘Boys. Philadelphia had a ferocious defense led by a Hall of Fame pass rusher in Reggie White, and a dominant defensive front that included Clyde Simmons and future ESPN radio personality Mike Golic.

Linebacker Seth Joyner was similar to Haley, a hybrid was more naturally a pass rusher. Eric Allen manned the corner and Andre Waters was at strong safety, giving Eagles’ coach Rich Kotite a tremendous package of talent. Offensively, the athletic Randall Cunningham played quarterback and the team had a new acquisition in the backfield, one Dallas was quite familiar with—Herschel Walker. He scored a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns, Aikman threw three interceptions and this time it was Dallas who was whipped on the ground. The final was 31-7.

Dallas licked their wounds, came back and won their next three, including a 17-10 win over playoff-bound Kansas City, setting up a November 1 rematch with Philadelphia in Big D. The Cowboys held first place in the NFC East by the time the Eagles came to town, as Philadelphia’s inconsistency led them to drop a pair since the Monday Night battle.

This one was another tough defensive game and the Eagles were behind the eight-ball with Cunningham out. The new quarterback was Jim McMahon, a veteran of the 1985 Super Bowl champion Bears, but well past his prime now.

Philadelphia’s defense was up to the challenge in the first half, and Dallas trailed 3-0 at intermission. But in the third quarter an Aikman TD pass was the highlight and the game went to the final period knotted 10-10.

From there, the big offensive line and Emmitt took the game over. Smith finished with 163 rush yards, including a fourth-quarter touchdown and the Cowboys won 20-10. At 7-1, they were in command of the division. Through November they had a brief hiccup when they lost at home to the non-contending Los Angeles Rams, and then barely squeaked by the Cardinals a week later.

But a Thanksgiving Day feast upon a Giants’ team that was already light-years removed from the one that won the Super Bowl two years earlier got them back on track. Dallas went out to Denver and won an exciting 31-27 battle with John Elway. Johnson’s team had an opportunity to clinch in a December 13 game at Washington.

A Dallas division title wasn’t in serious doubt when they took the field in Washington’s old RFK Stadium, but there would be something symbolically sweet about making it official on the site of the defending champs, while perhaps dealing a death blow to the Redskins’ wild-card push.  Dallas took an early 10-0 lead and led 17-7 at half.

The fourth quarter was a disaster. Three of the teams’ four turnovers came in the final period. One was an interception in the end zone when a TD would have sealed it and instead a long return by Washington linebacker Andre Collins set up a field goal that made it 17-13. The final one was a fumble by Aikman after he was sacked deep in his own end that was recovered and walked in for a touchdown.

It ended up a 20-17 loss, and the temper tantrum Johnson threw on the plane home is one of this Dallas’ era enduring legends. The Cowboys closed the season with workman like wins over Atlanta and Chicago to end 13-3 and get the #2 seed in the NFC playoffs, behind San Francisco.

Dallas began their drive at what they hoped would be their first Super Bowl appearance since 1978 and their first title since ’77. In fact, this proud franchise hadn’t even played for the NFC title since 1982. They took care of that latter omission right away.

Philadelphia had won its wild-card game with New Orleans on the road and played well for one quarter of this rubber match in the old Texas Stadium. An early field goal gave them a 3-0 lead, but Aikman tossed a 1-yard touchdown pass to his blocking tight end Derek Tennell, threw another to his Pro Bowl tight end in Novacek and it was 17-3 by the half. The Dallas defensive front was locked in and dominating, as tackles Russell Maryland and Tony Tolbert had two sacks apiece.

It’s tough to do much of anything offensively when you’re beaten straight up the middle and the Eagles offense indeed did nothing. Not until Emmitt had piled up 114 yards on the ground, and the lead stretched to 34-3 did Philly find the end zone. On the other side of the NFC bracket San Francisco held off Washington 20-13 and set up a battle most NFL observers considered to be the de facto Super Bowl.

San Francisco had a lot of the same core players from the teams that dominated the 1980s and won four Super Bowls, but there was one very significant change. Joe Montana was no longer the quarterback as his continual back injuries had moved Steve Young into the job. Montana still wanted to play and his negative attitude toward Young in the media only added to the pressure the new 49er quarterback felt to prove himself with a championship. Montana would be traded to Kansas City in the offseason. In 1992 the present was about Young and Aikman trying to validate themselves by getting a ring.

Dallas drove inside the five-yard line but had to settle for a Lin Elliot field goal. San Francisco drove back and finished the job with a touchdown. Before the quarter was out, the 49ers had the game’s first mistake when Pro Bowl guard Guy McIntyre was called for holding, nullifying a 63-yard Young-to-Jerry Rice touchdown pass and the Niners ended up punting.  In the second quarter it was the 49ers settling for a short field goal and the Cowboys getting to the end zone. It went to the locker room 10-10.

Dallas’ offense came right out of the gate with a touchdown drive to start the second half and though Frisco mounted a drive of their own it ended with a field goal and the Dallas offense was locked in. A long 79-yard drive stretched early into the fourth quarter and a 16-yard pass from Aikman to Emmitt made it 24-13 and Young had only seen the ball once the entire half.

Dallas had a chance to blow it open when linebacker Ken Norton intercepted a pass deep in Frisco territory. On fourth down and short, Johnson opted to go for it—an understandable decision, for the way offenses were playing, the need to make it a three-score rather than a two-score game was logical. But the move didn’t work and Emmitt was stuffed. San Francisco countered with a touchdown drive that ended with a short Young-to-Jerry Rice touchdown pass and with the score 24-20 the crowd in Candlestick was rocking.

With the ball inside their own 20, Dallas needed to make something happen. Aikman threw a slant across the middle to secondary option Alvin Harper, who took it 70 more yards. The Niner defense wasn’t able to hold and the Cowboys got a touchdown that clinched the game and the NFC Championship.

The Super Bowl opponent was the Buffalo Bills, making their third straight appearance on the sports world’s biggest stage. Buffalo had lost the previous two games, dropping a heartbreaker to the Giants in 1990 and losing decisively to the Redskins a year ago. Now the Cowboys were the latest NFC East team to get a crack at Marv Levy’s team.

Buffalo had a Hall of Fame quarterback in Jim Kelly who called his own plays in an aggressive no-huddle offense. Thurman Thomas could do it all out of the backfield and Andre Reed was one of the top receivers in the NFL. Across the front line, Buffalo was the only team who could come close to matching Dallas, with Pro Bowl linemen in Wil Wolford, Howard Ballard and Jim Richter.

Defensively they could get after you with Hall of Fame defensive end Bruce Smith, blitzing linebacker Cornelius Bennett, the sure and steady Shane Conlan in the middle and top defensive backs in safety Henry Jones and corner Nate Odomes.

As to why it was assumed Dallas was a vastly better team than Buffalo was a mystery to me at the time. And really, how anyone knew it in advance is still a mystery today. But there’s no denying what happened on the football field in Pasadena on January 31.

Buffalo’s top special teams player Steve Tasker struck first, blocking a punt to set up an Bills’ touchdown. Dallas found the end zone twice before the quarter was out, with Aikman hitting Novacek for one, and defensive tackle Jimmie Jones scooping up a fumble on the goal line and scoring the second. It wouldn’t be the last turnover the Cowboys would get on this day.

The Cowboy defense stopped Buffalo inside the 5-yard line and forced a field goal cutting the score to 14-10. At this point Aikman and Irvin hooked up on consecutive scoring passes to make it 28-10. It was already getting out of hand at halftime and the Bills were turning to backup quarterback Frank Reich. Kelly had a knee injury that had kept him out of playoff wins against Houston and Pittsburgh, though he had returned for the AFC title win at Miami.

Reich had acquitted himself more than adequately this January—against Houston he led his team back from a 35-3 deficit to win in the greatest comeback in NFL history. He was also the author of the greatest college comeback in history when his Maryland team had rallied from 31-0 down to beat Miami 42-40 back in 1984. The coach of that Miami team? Jimmy Johnson.

There would be no comebacks in this Super Bowl though. Buffalo briefly made it interesting at the end of the third quarter when Reich connected with Don Beebe on a 40-yard touchdown pass to make it 31-17. But the Cowboy defense had already intercepted Kelly twice, they would pick off Reich two more times and Buffalo put the ball on the turf an astonishing eight times. Five were recovered by Dallas as part of their record-setting nine turnovers forced.

This was the obvious difference in a game where passing and rushing stats were mostly even and Buffalo had made a big special teams play. Aikman was flawless, going 22-for-30 for 273 yards, four touchdown and nary a pick to be found. Emmitt, the NFL’s leading rusher during the season, produced his third straight 100-yard game of the postseason.

Dallas scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns and it would have been four if not for the game’s most memorable play. Cowboy defensive tackle Leon Lett scooped up a fumble and had a clear path to the end zone. He stretched out his arms in celebration a couple yards to soon and a hustling Beebe knocked the ball out and through the end zone, which gave Buffalo the ball on the 20. It was an embarrassing moment for Lett, a tough and hardworking player who got a little carried away in the moment and paid a disproportionate price in terms of media coverage afterward. But for the Cowboys as a whole, it was a minor blot on a fabulous Sunday. They had won 52-17.

Johnson’s Cowboys would be back the next year to defeat these same Bills. In 1995 Johnson would be gone, but the players and coaching staff he’d put together carried Barry Switzer to a third championship. They were the dynasty of the early 1990s and it began in 1992.

The 1992 Super Bowl: Dallas Buries Buffalo

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The Buffalo Bills came to the end of the 1992 NFL season the same way they’d reached the previous two—as AFC champions. But the Bills yet to win the sport’s ultimate prize and the pressure was on in the 1992 Super Bowl to win their first title.

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Even though they had the experience, oddsmakers liked the Dallas Cowboys. They were young and for some the youth was a concern. But the Cowboys had also been a better team all year long, and were favored by 6 ½ points when they arrived in Pasadena.

Dallas had gone 13-3 during the regular season and won big battle in San Francisco to claim the NFC Championship. Buffalo, unlike its previous runs through the AFC, had not been head and shoulders above the rest. The ’92 Bills came the wild-card route.
They started by producing the greatest comeback in the history of the NFL playoffs, falling behind the Houston Oilers 35-3 and ultimately winning 41-38. More decisive victories against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Miami Dolphins on the road followed.

The fact the Cowboys would win this game 52-17 and force a Super Bowl record nine turnovers can make it seem like this game was a fait accompli from the beginning. Certainly, then-Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson does his best to convey that notion in his book Turning The Thing Around.

I have hard time thinking Johnson was really that cocksure—while he’s never lacked for confidence, this is also a coach who six years earlier on the college level had been completely outcoached when leading Miami into a national championship battle with Penn State. If Johnson could blow that game, with a vastly superior talent edge than what he had in 1992, how could he be so sure now?

Nor did the game play out like a mismatch, at least early on. Buffalo’s brilliant special teams player Steve Tasker blocked a punt and set up a quick touchdown. The Cowboys started to force the turnovers, one that set up a touchdown and one that produced the points directly. Even so, trailing 14-7, Buffalo drove to a 1st-and-goal at the 4-yard line.

It was here that the superior talent of Dallas really began to show. The Cowboys came up with a goal-line stand. The ensuing Bills’ drive got them to 3rd-and-1 at the four-yard line and Dallas stopped that play to. Possessions that should have given Buffalo 14 points had resulted in just three.

Meanwhile, Troy Aikman was getting in rhythm. He’d rifled a 19-yard touchdown pass to Michael Irvin on the first real drive the Cowboy offense put together. Dallas now led 21-10. Then came the sequence that realistically decided the game.

Buffalo running back Thurman Thomas took a swing pass and fumbled it away late in the first half. Aikman immediately took complete advantage and gunned another touchdown pass. A game in which the Bills had their share of chances, saw them trailing 28-10 going into the locker room.

The Bills remained nominally in the game. Even though starting quarterback Jim Kelly was injured, it was backup Frank Reich who’d led the epic rally against Houston, and it was 31-17 after three quarters. But Aikman came through again, with a 45-yard-touchdown pass to Alvin Harper to finally blow it open for good.

All that was left was for Dallas defensive tackle Leon Lett to get himself remembered in a less than positive way. Lett recovered another Buffalo fumble and took off for the goal line. In the open field and near the goal line he started to stretch his arms out in celebration. A hustling Buffalo receiver, Don Beebe, stripped the ball. By now, the score was 52-17 so it didn’t matter, but Lett’s hotdogging made him the subject of more than a few jokes. Though we should note in fairness that it’s not all that different from what most players do today. Lett just got busted on the game’s biggest stage.

And Dallas had busted Buffalo on the biggest stage. It was the Cowboy organization’s first Super Bowl title since 1977, and the 1992 Dallas Cowboys were leading the way for a dynasty just getting started.

Return To The Top: 1992 Dallas Cowboys & Alabama Football

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1992 was a year where there’s no clear-cut city that had a dominant year in sports. Pittsburgh certainly makes a good case for itself. Mario Lemieux led the Penguins to the Stanley Cup. Jim Leyland and Barry Bonds took the Pirates into the National League Championship Series for the second year in a row. And first-year head coach Bill Cowher put the Steelers back on the map as the top seed in the AFC playoffs before flaming out against Buffalo.

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The great city of Pittsburgh would indeed make a good choice. But we can do better, with just a little geographic creativity.
Let’s go down south into SEC country, in the state of Alabama. The Crimson Tide won their first national championship in 13 years, as Gene Stallings produced the program’s first crown since Bear Bryant retired.
Now, who would be the NFL choice here in this state that has no professional sports? You might say New Orleans, or you might jump over the Gulf of Mexico into Florida and say Tampa Bay or even Miami.
All are possible. But given the history of those franchises, and the fact that one more tradition-rich is also in the south, isn’t it reasonable to speculate that a large chunk of the Alabama fan base roots for the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday? I won’t cop to being an expert—I’ve never even been in Alabama, much less have my finger on the state’s professional sports pulse, but it seems like reasonable conjecture.
And those Dallas Cowboys also won a championship in 1992, and did it with a similar storyline to Alabama football. The Cowboys had not won a Super Bowl without Tom Landry, it had been 1977 since they won a championship, 1978 since they played for one and 1982 since they even reached the NFC Championship Game. That’s the same timeframe (within a year) that it been for Alabama, and ’82 was Bryant’s last year.
The Dallas Cowboys and Alabama football each returned to the top in 1992 and made it an extra special year for that element of the Crimson Tide fan base that puts on a Cowboy hat come Sunday afternoon.
Read more about the 1992 Dallas Cowboys
Read more about 1992 Alabama football

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SportsNoteBook Articles

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