Brian Schottenheimer Downplays Cowboys' Super Bowl Drought, 'Not Wired' to Focus on It

The last time the Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl, "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men topped the Billboard charts, movies like Toy Story and Jumanji had recently released and the original Tekken video game had released on the PlayStation a few months prior.

So... it's been awhile. But the team's new head coach, Brian Schottenheimer, isn't focusing on the 29 years that preceded him.

"I don't get caught up in [Super Bowl] drought," he told reporters Tuesday. "This is one year. This is the first year of mine. When the season's over, we move on. We do. You move on, 2024 is over, now it's 2025. Are we gonna win the Super Bowl this year? I hope. I think we are. If we don't, you move on. I'm not wired that way because I'm competing every day to try to win a Super Bowl. If I'm looking back and worrying about that, I'm not focused on what really matters, which is making sure we have an incredible practice today."

The expectation for Schottenheimer—just as it was for Chan Gailey, Dave Campo, Bill Parcells, Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy before him—is to restore the organization to the prominence that saw it win five Super Bowls between the 1971-95 seasons.

But he doesn't find the organization's prior pedigree, and the lofty expectations that accompanies it, to be burdensome.

"Not when the head coach sits up here and talks about how the ultimate goal is to win a world championship. I think it's to be celebrated," he told reporters. "We want to win a Super Bowl. We don't hide from that."

It probably isn't terribly burdensome for the players either, simply because the majority of them weren't even alive the last time the team actually won a title.

In fact, since their last championship, the Cowboys haven't even reached the NFC Championship Game and have won just five playoff contests in total. Quarterback Dak Prescott is just 2-5 in the postseason, paling in comparison to contemporaries like Patrick Mahomes (17-4), Josh Allen (7-6), Jalen Hurts (6-3) and Joe Burrow (5-2). He has as many playoff wins in his career as Jayden Daniels compiled during his rookie season with the Washington Commanders.

There's no doubt that Jerry Jones has created quite the brand in Dallas during his ownership. From a business standpoint, the Cowboys are top notch. But winning on the bottom line and winning on the field are two very different things, and the Cowboys continue to fall short when it comes to the latter.

Schottenheimer's job is to end that trend. He may not be focused on the title drought, but basically everybody else—from Jones and the fans to local and national media members—most certainly are.