Dancing Tour of 90’s Continues

By: Matt

Reality TV show Dancing With The Stars has made a tradition of inviting an NFL player to compete in every season. While the competition has featured modern players such as Jason Taylor and Warren Sapp, the inclusion of Michael Irvin in this year’s competition completes a re-run tour of the NFL in the 1990’s.

In the last stretch of the 20^th century there were two titans of the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers. During the 90’s both teams won their then record fifth Super Bowl and from 1992 to 1995 no other team came close to a Super Bowl win. The Cowboys and 49ers each featured the greatest skill position players of the decade now recognized as some of the more successful Dancing With The Stars competitors. 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice holds nearly every meaningful receiving record and finished second in the reality TV competition; Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith holds the record for all-time rushing yards and is the only professional athlete to ever win the Dancing title. Michael Irvin, the only current Hall of Fame member of the three, was the leading receiver on the Cowboy’s dynasty of decade. During the 90’s no teams were able to compete with the Cowboys and 49ers and they often made moves to counter the other. The Cowboys began by stealing 49ers linebacker Charles Haley, the 49ers countered by stealing former Cowboy Michael Norton Jr, and Deion Sanders, arguably the greatest cornerback of all-time, played for both teams, winning a Super Bowl in each of his first seasons. During the early 90’s the Cowboys and 49ers faced each other in three consecutive NFC Championship games and renewed, and intensified, a lost rivalry from the late 70’s and early 80’s (the Cowboys and 49ers had faced each in NFC Championship games in each of the prior two decades with each team winning once).

After the Cowboys 1995 Super Bowl victory injuries to the teams’ quarterbacks, Hall of Famers Steve Young and Troy Aikman, de-railed the two titans and in 1996 the Green Bay Packers, and their age-less wonder Brett Favre emerged as the new dominant power in the NFC. While the often legendary battles between the Cowboys and 49ers seem like a distant memory to some, nearly 15 years have passed since the final playoff match up between the two teams and neither has been to a Super Bowl since. While history is never forgotten, time has began to fade the luster of this once great match up and younger football fans fail to realize that two teams that are now borderline playoff contenders were once the two greatest teams in football. Despite the occasion re-airing of the 1992 NFC Championship Game the great rivalry has faded into the past; however, thanks to Dancing With The Stars, some of the greatest players on the two greatest teams on the 90’s are able to remain on-screen for one last season. Maybe someday legendary quarterbacks Aikman and Young will have their Dancing showdown.

Note: Lawrence Taylor, the greatest Defensive player of the 1990’s and Super Bowl winner has also competed on Dancing With The Stars.