Two bye weeks per season? Cowboys capitalized the only time it's ever happened
The NFL’s release of its 2024 schedule had fans once again weighing- among the matchups and travel schedules and kickoff times- the merits or disadvantages of their team’s assigned bye week.
The rigors of a 17-game season are real, and the bye week is one of the first things each locker room in the league looks at when their slate is officially announced. For some, the week off this year will come as early as the first weekend in October, while some squads will have to grind all the way until early December for a break.
Fourteen teams- almost half the league- will have a stretch of 12 consecutive regular-season games either before or after their bye this season. (And then it rolls right into the playoffs… for the “lucky” ones.) Keep in mind that in 1960- the Cowboys’ first year of existence- 12 games was the season.
Many around the NFL have suggested that as the regular season has grown to 17 games- and will likely expand again to 18- each team should have two bye weeks to lessen the physical toll taken on players and cut down on injuries. San Francisco tight end George Kittle has been a vocal advocate of it, especially after missing time in 2022 with a lower-leg injury. ACL tears, in particular, hit a seven-year high in 2021, the first year that teams played 17 games.
It’s worth remembering that the league has played a two-bye season once before. And while it was a wild and often weird ride, it did end with a championship parade in Dallas.
The year was 1993. And for the first time ever, the NFL played an 18-week regular season, giving each team two bye weeks during their 16-game schedules. The primary reason? The new television deals that had just been signed. But then-commissioner Paul Tagliabue (shockingly) admitted that the league was also “sensitive to the possible over-exposure of our sport” and that the extra time off for teams would “allow for greater scheduling flexibility, ease the player injury factor, and reduce team travel burdens.”
The Cowboys had byes scheduled for Weeks 4 and 8 of the ’93 season, but the drama started on opening night. With running back Emmitt Smith holding out amid a contract dispute, the defending Super Bowl champions looked lost and dropped a 35-16 Week 1 game on the road in Washington.
September 6th 1993
Washington Redskins 35 – Dallas Cowboys 16
No Emmitt still mired in contract holdout
RFK Stadium
Washington, DC
Attendance 66,345#90sCowboys #DallasCowboys pic.twitter.com/BxViGM4NN8— 90’s Dallas Cowboys (@90s_cowboys) September 7, 2022
A rematch of Dallas’s Super Bowl XXVII blowout win over the Bills (seven months earlier) went Buffalo’s way in Week 2. Defensive end Charles Haley famously threw his helmet at owner Jerry Jones following the 13-10 loss.
Smith had his new deal in time to suit up versus the Cardinals in Week 3. Although the Cowboys pulled out the win, most viewed the Week 4 bye as a chance to reset and start the season for real in Week 5.
Three straight wins followed, putting Dallas at 4-2 when their second bye week came in Week 8.
The back half of that 1993 season included some of the most memorable moments- both good and bad- in Cowboys history. Week 9 was the storied Halloween night game in Philadelphia, when Smith rushed for 237 yards, the most he would compile in a single game over the course of his Hall of Fame career.
Quarterback Troy Aikman went down with a leg injury in a Week 10 win over the Giants on the afternoon that Tom Landry was inducted into the Ring of Honor. Backup passer Jason Garrett was benched midgame in Week 11; Bernie Kosar came on in relief and guided Dallas to a close win over the Cardinals. The team was not so lucky in Week 12, losing to Atlanta on a day when Smith rushed for one single yard, his lowest total ever in a Cowboys uniform.
Then came Thanksgiving Day and the infamous “snow game” versus Miami at Texas Stadium. Defensive tackle Leon Lett’s misguided attempt to smother a blocked field goal gave the Dolphins an extra chance at the kick, which they made for a gutting 16-14 win.
At 7-4 with five games remaining, the NFC East was turning into a horse race, with the Cowboys trailing the Giants in the standings as December began. Dallas ripped off four straight wins heading into Week 18; New York went 3-1 over that same span, setting the stage for a winner-take-all season finale.
What happened at Giants Stadium that January afternoon is now remembered, simply, as “The Emmitt Smith Game.” Smith heroically played through a shoulder separation to rack up 237 yards of offense with only one usable arm. The three-point overtime win gave the Cowboys the division title and a first-round postseason bye.
Happy 55th, Emmitt Smith!
"The Emmitt Smith Game"
January 2, 1994
(Broadcast/radio/film merge)The #Cowboys legend with one of NFL history's guttiest performances to lock up the NFC East and the #1 seed
Separates shoulder, tallies 229 total yards, TDpic.twitter.com/s4Kr6bCjoF
— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) May 15, 2024
Four weeks later, Dallas had dispatched Green Bay and San Francisco in the NFC playoff bracket and got their revenge over Buffalo and the Georgia Dome by winning their second straight Super Bowl.
Was it the two bye weeks? Probably not (though the first certainly gave Smith a little extra re-acclimation time to get himself up to speed).
But the NFL scrapped the double byes after just a single season. With just 28 teams in the league then, the off-weeks were distributed poorly (entire divisions had the same bye weeks) and left some weekends with just 10 total games. That left the networks trying to boost some putrid matchups as heavyweight showdowns for the national audience.
TV ratings actually dropped for the 1993 season, prompting the league to return to one bye per team the next season.
But now with 32 teams, giving players an extra bye week during the season would be far more feasible while not watering down the TV lineup. But with the likelihood of an 18-game schedule coming in the near future, two byes per team may actually be a necessity.
An 18th regular-season contest would reduce the preseason schedule by a game. But the season almost certainly wouldn’t start any earlier; it would have to run later. That would, most analysts agree, push the Super Bowl to President’s Day Weekend, which would have the added benefit of keeping the Super Bowl on a Sunday while giving much of the country the next day off, thanks to the holiday.
And while that kind of hypothetical calendar would naturally have a snowball effect that in turn probably impacts dates for the scouting combine and NFL draft, it feels like the inevitable end result of the NFL desperately wanting to create an 18th game for every one of its franchises.
But, hey, it worked out for Cowboys Nation the last time players got an extra week off during the season.
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