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QuickTake:
Sometimes all the pieces are in place — as with Jerry Jones’ Cowboys after Phil Knight helped bankroll their 1995 comeback attempt. Yet it took Jimmy Johnson to coach them to a championship. Now it’s Dan Lanning in the role, trying to lead a Knight-backed, wants-for-little program to that one, last, elusive thing ...
The window seemed wide open when Phil Knight took the field at Giants Stadium for Cowboys-Giants in Week 1 of the 1995 NFL season.
Dallas wasn’t today’s Cowboys; they were Dem Cowboys, with future Hall of Famers Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman and Charles Haley. After titles in 1992 and ’93, their bid for a three-peat was cut short by San Francisco in the ’94 NFC title game.
But in 1995, Dallas didn’t just regroup by signing the best available free agent in All-Pro do-it-all Deion Sanders. Owner Jerry Jones had also figured out a way to finance it all.
Enter Knight, whom Jones walked out in front of a jeering New York crowd as news broke of a deal that would rock the NFL: Jones and the Nike CEO had brokered an exclusive sponsorship that would pay the Cowboys nearly $20 million over seven years.
Five months later, the Cowboys won the Super Bowl.
“It’s probably the most fun I had as CEO of Nike,” Knight reflected in the recent Netflix documentary “America’s Team.”
Financially, the Nike-Dallas deal was a windfall that helped reset NFL licensing. Today, all NFL jerseys don the Swoosh, and the Cowboys are valued at $12.8 billion, according to Sportico.
On the field, though, the window slammed shut when the lights went off at Sun Devil Stadium after Dallas’ 27-17 Super Bowl win over Pittsburgh. The Cowboys haven’t been back to a Super Bowl since — a span with just five playoff wins.
Jones is still at the helm. The money is still there. The Star just hasn’t aligned. And with Jones at 82, time is running short.
One box left to check
Knight is 87 now and long removed from running Nike. While the co-founder of the world’s biggest sports apparel brand will always have influence, his Ducks are where his thumb is still on the controls — and have been since he started putting his financial weight behind the program following the 1996 Cotton Bowl.
Like Jones did with Dallas, Knight has turned Oregon into best-in-class everything — facilities, uniforms, brand. While valid questions linger for 2025 (How does Oregon replace Dillon Gabriel at quarterback? Who breaks out at receiver?) they’re asked alongside a No. 7 preseason ranking and playoff visions come December.
The Ducks have been near here before: the 2000s under Mike Bellotti, the four-year Chip Kelly microwave. But the window, it seems, is wider than ever.
With what Oregon has and is building, No. 7 should be the floor for years to come, right?
Should be.
What went wrong for Dallas — OK, among the many things — began with Jimmy Johnson’s departure. He was Jones’ first hire, the coach who delivered the first two Super Bowls of the ’90s. After his firing in 1994, players like Irvin later said Dallas “could have won four or five straight [Super Bowls]” had he stayed.
Dallas had everything. Without the right coach, it had nothing.
The Ducks thought Kelly was the right coach, but after a national title game and four straight New Year’s Six bowls, he left before they could find out.
They thought Mario Cristobal was, but after four seasons of building massive talent reserves through recruiting, he left for Miami just as, in his words, the Ducks were “just getting started.”
Oregon hasn’t treated its coaches like the Cowboys did. It’s Oregon that’s often been left at the altar. But the fragility of success is the same. Even when everything’s in your corner, one move can trigger a cascade.
Thirty years later, Jones is still chasing what Johnson brought him.
Nearly 30 years after putting his financial weight behind the Ducks, Knight is still chasing what it’s like to have a Jimmy Johnson.
It very well could be Dan Lanning. Oregon’s 39-year-old coach has won 35 games through his first three seasons — more than any coach in school history. He arrived as an unknown to a fanbase worried about a flight risk. He’s planted roots. His kids are in school here. He’s signed through 2030 and works on a campus where fans and administrators wear his words — “The Grass is Damn Green in Eugene” — on shirts.
Appreciate that. Don’t take it for granted. Celebrate the victories.
But know that there’s still one box left to check.
The window is open. Can Lanning be the one to finally get Knight and the Ducks through?
