Road to the Super Bowl: NFC East

Welcome to this episode of the Road to the super bowl series, Real Bookie. I’m glad to see you here, on this one you’ll learn about the NFC East

There is arguably no franchise in the National Football League more commonly known than the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas came to the National Football League as an expansion team back in 1960.

From 1960 until 1971, the Cowboys played at the Cotton Bowl. Then, from 1971 until the 2008 season, it wasTexas Stadium. Now, since 2009, the Cowboys are at AT+T Stadium.

Located in Arlington, Texas, is a retractable roof stadium commonly known as “Jerry World” for long-time owner Jerry Jones or “The Death Star”. Ground broke for the $1.3B project in 2005, and the first game was in 2009.

The franchise originally started as the Dallas Steers, then moved to the Dallas Rangers. The organization later announced they would be the Cowboys to make sure they did not get confused with the Dallas Rangers.

Head Coach Tom Landry went 250-162-6 in his career. The Cowboys hold the record for most consecutive winning seasons. They did that for 20 seasons from 1966-1985. Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, and Emmitt Smith are all in the history book and known as some of the best players in all of the league.

The Dallas Cowboys have won five Super Bowl titles. The first one was in 1971 at Super Bowl VI.

Outside of the Super Bowl titles, the Cowboys have 10 conference championships. Dallas has won their division 24 times in team history.

Troy Aikman is first on the list, with 165 games started. In those games, he won a franchise-best 94 games. Second, Tony Romo with 156 starts. He won 61% of his games, with 78 wins. Third is Roger Staubach, with 114 starts and 85 wins. That’s the best winning percentage in franchise history.

Current quarterback Dak Prescott is currently 4th on the list for most starts in franchise history.

The Dallas Cowboys became the first sports team to be valued at $4B. According to Forbes, the Cowboys were the most valuable sports team in the world. That was in 2015. Later, in 2018, the Cowboys became the first franchise to be valued at $5M. The Cowboys made Forbes’s list of most valued NFL teams for the 12th straight year.

The Cowboys have a mascot whose name is Rowdy.

One of the two teams that reside in the Big Apple – is the Giants. The franchise has been around for nearly 100 years, playing its first season of professional football in 1925.

The New York Giants have made six venues their home. The first location was Polo Grounds that served the Giants for 30 seasons. Then, it was time to move to Yankee Stadium from 1956-1973.

Next, the Giants moved to the Yale Bowl for a season, Shea Stadium for a season, before heading to Giants Stadium in 1976. Giants Stadium was the home of the Giants until 2009. In 2010 – MetLife Stadium opened up, and the Giants and Jets both arrived at their new home.

When it was built, it was the most expensive stadium in the United States.

In 1937 they changed their name to the New York Giants. There have been several stories as to why they are named the Giants, but simply put: they were called Giants because they got their name from all the giant buildings that make up New York City.

Heading into the 2023 season, the New York Giants had 715 franchise wins and 25 in the postseason. Eli Manning, with 366 career passing touchdowns, is the franchise record, and is in the Top 10 in NFL history.

Lawrence Taylor and Michael Strahan are both in the record books for sacks and sit in the Top 10 in career sacks.

Tiki Barber finished his career with over 10,000 rushing yards and another 5,183 rushing yards, making him one of the best offensive players of all time for New York.

The Giants have won 8 League Championships, they have been in the postseason for 33 seasons. New York had a run in the early 2000s where they made the postseason 6 seasons out of 9 years.

Eli Manning holds all the records for the Giants. In fact, his 4,895 competitions, 8,110 attempts, 57,023 yards, 366 touchdowns, and 244 lead them all.

Phil Simms is next on the list, as he finished with one touchdown shy of 200 in his career. The other two guys on the list with more than 100 passing touchdowns as the signal caller for the Giants were Charlie Coerly and Fran Tarkenton. Other guys on the list include Kerry Collins, Y.A. Tittle, and the most recent quarterback Daniel Jones. Jones needs 22 passing touchdowns to become 6th on the franchise list.

The New York Giants have the second most members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It is quite a task to keep up with all the names on the list. The first two inducted were Tim Mara and Mel Hein.

A few notable names of the years for the Giants include Fran Tarkenton in 1986. Lawrence Taylor in 1999, Bill Parcells in 2013, Michael Strahan in 2014, and the most recent inductee into the Hall of Fame was former General Manager George Young. He went in during the 2020 season.

The Philadelphia Eagles have been around since 1933 and have formed one of the most intense fan bases in all of professional sports. Let’s take a look at some of the history of the Philadelphia Eagles that you might not know.

The Philadelphia Eagles have called six locations their home over the years. When the organization started, it used the Baker Bowl for its first three seasons. After that, the Eagles went over to Philadelphia Municipal Stadium. That did not last long before moving to Shibe Park—another short stay before moving to Franklin Field in 1958. Finally, in 1971 – Veterans Stadium, also the home of the Philadelphia Phillies, was their new home. In 2002 the Eagles finally finished there and moved into their new location at Lincoln Financial Field.

Bert Bell was the founder of the franchise back in 1933. They started as the Frankford Yellow Jackets. The team went out of commission, and the owner then founded the Eagles. The story is that Bell decided the team strictly on his own. The word is he looked up into the sky and there was a billboard with an Eagle on it, and that’s how he decided what the name of the team would be.

The Philadelphia Eagles have four League Championships, but three of them came before the merger of the AFL-NFL. Philadelphia has just one Super Bowl title, and that was in Super Bowl LII (52).

Doug Pederson was the head coach, and Nick Foles was the starting quarterback. Foles won the Super Bowl MVP with 373 passing yards and 3 touchdowns in the win.

Philadelphia has won five conference championships.

The Eagles have 16 divisional championships.

The team has been to the postseason for 29 seasons. Recently, the Eagles have made the postseason in five out of the last six seasons.

The list of the Philadelphia Eagles quarterbacks is pretty impressive. The Eagles have some talented names that have been the starter over the years. The most successful quarterback in Eagles history was Donovan McNabb, with 92 wins in his career. Ron Jaworski is second, with 69 wins, while Randall Cunningham won 63 games.

The Eagles currently have 22 players and 3 coaches and executives in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 13 of those went in with a different team but spent some time with the Eagles.

The very first player to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame from the Eagles was halfback Steve Van Buren. He played from 1944-1951 and was inducted in 1965.

In the 1970s, Pete Pihos was inducted in 1970. Pihos played with Philadelphia from 1947-1955.

The four most recent Eagles players inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame were offensive tackle Bob Brown, defensive end Reggie White, safety Brian Dawkins and wide receiver Harold Carmichael.

The Philadelphia Eagles are known for being part of the first game ever to be seen on television. NBC sent an 8 man crew to Brooklyn to see them take on the Brooklyn Football Dodgers. The 1943 team, the Eagles, and Steelers merged their team. This was due to World War II.

The Eagles are also known as the only team to ever beat Vince Lombardi and his Packers twice in the postseason.

The Washington Commanders certainly have an interesting history within their 91 years of professional football. The Commanders started as the Washington Redskins, and had quite the controversy over the years to change their name. The team has played over 1,000 games and is just one of five teams in the National Football League with over 600 wins. Let’s take a look at some important history when it comes to the Washington Commanders.

The Washington franchise started their games back in 1932 at Braves Field. They spent one season there, before moving to Fenway Park for the 1933-1936 seasons. That’s when they finally found a place they could call home – Griffith Stadium. They played at Griffith Stadium from 1937-1960. Then – the franchise moved to the beautiful Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and called that home until 1996. Finally, FedEx Field was built, and from the 1997 season on that’s where the organization has played.

As many know, the organization started as the Washington Redskins. In recent years, that has turned to controversy, only to see them change to the Commanders.

Joe Gibbs was one of the most successful head coaches in the organization with over 600 wins, and 23 more in the postseason. Joe Theismann is a name many remember for his time as the signal caller. Art Monk was an elite receiver for Washington.

The franchise has won five league championships. The first two were before the merger.

Heading into the 2023 season, Washington has reached the postseason 25 times. The best runs for the franchise came from 1971-1976 and then again in 1982-1987, where they reached the postseason 5 out of 6 seasons.

There are five quarterbacks that most Washington football fans are familiar with. Each of those five quarterbacks made a mark on the franchise with their success on the field. The first name, and the leader in passing yards, is Joe Thiesman. Thiesman leads the franchise with 25,206 passing yards. After that, Sonny Jurgensen has 22,585, Sammy Baugh with over 21,000, while Kirk Cousins and Mark Rypien round out the Top 5.

The Washington Commanders organization has 15 players in the HoF. There are 10 others that spent some time with the organization in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. They have 7 guys in management as well.

The Washington Commanders added a new mascot when they went from the Redskins to the Commanders. “Major Tuddy” is a hog, which signifies the offensive line that dominated the league in the 80s and 90s.

The Commanders have the oldest marching band in the National Football League. They have been around since 1937. They play “Hail to the Commanders” after each touchdown scored at home.