The 1999 season was the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

' 40th in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) and second under head coach

Chan Gailey Thomas Chandler Gailey Jr. (born January 5, 1952) is a former American football coach. Most recently in 2020, he was the offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). Gailey has previously served as the head ...

. The Cowboys were looking to return to the playoffs, improve on their 10–6 record from the previous season and head to the Super Bowl for the final time in the 1990s. While the Cowboys were unable to repeat as division champions or match their win total from 1998, their 8–8 record enabled them to qualify for the playoffs as a wild-card team. The Cowboys lost to the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

, ending their season in the opening round of the playoffs for a second consecutive year. Gailey was fired at the end of the season. The Cowboys would not return to the playoffs until

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Offseason

NFL Draft

Hall of Fame Game

* Cleveland Browns 20, Dallas Cowboys 17 (Overtime) ''NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book'', Workman Publishing Co, New York, , p. 369.

Regular season

The season began at Washington with a come-from-behind victory over the division-rival

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

. Trailing by three touchdowns entering the fourth quarter, they rallied to tie the game. Then free agent acquisition

Raghib Ismail Raghib Ramadian "Rocket" Ismail (born November 18, 1969) is an American former American and Canadian football wide receiver and kick returner. He played college football at Notre Dame before moving on to both the Canadian Football League (CFL) ...

hauled in the winning touchdown catch in overtime while Troy Aikman threw for a franchise-record five touchdowns in a single game (since matched by

Tony Romo Antonio Ramiro Romo (born April 21, 1980) is an American sportscaster and former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at Eastern Illino ...

). The team started with a 3–0 record, but a week 5 injury to wide receiver

Michael Irvin Michael Jerome Irvin (born March 5, 1966) is an American sports commentator and former professional football wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). In 2007, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame ...

against the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

eventually forced him into retirement. Afterwards, Dallas struggled down the stretch as age and injury began to take their toll. The team again made the playoffs despite an 8–8 season, but lost once more in the first round to the

. Despite leading the team to consecutive playoff berths and seemingly re-igniting the Dallas offense,

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

was fired by owner

Jerry Jones Jerral Wayne Jones (born October 13, 1942) is an American businessman who has been the owner, president, and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL) since February 1989. Early life Jones was born in Los Ange ...

after the season. A notable addition to the team was fan favorite

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

Dat Nguyen Dat Tan Nguyen (; vi, Nguyễn Tấn Đạt, ; born September 25, 1975) is a former American football linebacker who played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He played college foo ...

, the only (to date)

Vietnamese-American Vietnamese Americans ( vi, Người Mỹ gốc Việt, lit=Viet-origin American people) are Americans of Vietnamese ancestry. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American ethnic group after Chinese ...

to play in the NFL. This marked the final season for future

Hall of Famer A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...

Michael Irvin and longtime Cowboys fullback

Daryl Johnston Daryl Peter "Moose" Johnston (born February 10, 1966) is a former fullback in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at Syracuse University. He was the General Manager of the San Antonio Commanders of t ...

. Irvin and Johnston both suffered season-ending (and as it turned out career-ending) injuries early in the season. Irvin was the last Cowboys player to have played for

Tom Landry Thomas Wade Landry (September 11, 1924 – February 12, 2000) was an American professional football player and coach. He was the first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League (NFL), a position he held for 29 seasons. Dur ...

. The annual

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden a ...

game featured the return of former Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson to Texas Stadium as

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

head coach. It was the only game Johnson ever coached in Texas Stadium as a visiting coach. The Cowboys won 20–0. The Cowboys lost four games in which their defense only yielded 13 points in each contest.

Schedule

Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Standings

Playoffs

Roster

Publications

''The Football Encyclopedia''
''Total Football''
''Cowboys Have Always Been My Heroes''

References

External links

*
Pro Football Hall of Fame

Dallas Cowboys Official Site
Dallas Cowboys seasons

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

{{Americanfootball-season-stub