The Dallas Cowboys are basically the official team of FOX

The Dallas Cowboys are America’s Team. Week in and week out the Cowboys dominate conversation around your local water cooler and the sports world at large. They are the straw that stirs the proverbial drink as far as NFL discussion is concerned.

A big reason for this is obviously the team’s popularity, but they have a way of making themselves polarizing on top of it all which enhances things more. But at the end of the day the reason why the Cowboys are discussed so much is because they are seen so much. They are front and center all of the time, no matter where you look.

They have effectively become the official team of one of the league’s major broadcast partners.

FOX has effectively become the official broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys

As a whole the NFL has four main broadcast partners: FOX, CBS, NBC, and ESPN. Amazon exists as a fifth thanks to their package for the Thursday night games, but they are obviously not a television network. Call it five if you’d like.

Each of these networks has their “main” game of the week with their top announcing crew that covers it. For FOX that crew is Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen, Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi in a game that is referred to as America’s Game of the Week. CBS sends Jim Nantz, Tony Romo and Tracy Wolfson to their top game of the week. Obviously NBC has Sunday Night Football with Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth and Melissa Stark whereas one day later Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Lisa Salters handle things on Monday nights on ESPN. As noted Amazon now has the Thursday night show with Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit and Kaylee Hartung.

Traditionally speaking (in terms of modern history) FOX has been the “big stage” for the top NFC games of the week. As the Cowboys are an NFC team they have found themselves playing in it a lot over the years and earlier this season their top color analyst Greg Olsen even joked during a game how they are basically the official crew of America’s Team.

I was curious to figure out exactly how often FOX’s top crew has done a Dallas game relative to how often they have done other teams.

Top FOX crew games this season

As noted there are mostly NFC teams there with the big-time AFC ones usually only showing up against a top NFC contender or big market squad like in the case of Chicago playing the Kansas City Chiefs. But if you thought that Dallas appeared quite a bit there then you are definitely right.

The Cowboys have had this crew call their games more than twice as often as any other team.

Number of times a team has had a game called by FOX this season:

• Dallas Cowboys, 7
• San Francisco 49ers, 3
• Philadelphia Eagles, 3 (one against Dallas)
• Detroit Lions, 3
• Chicago Bears, 2
• Los Angeles Rams, 2 (one against Dallas)
• Green Bay Packers, 2
• Seattle Seahawks, 2
• Kansas City Chiefs, 1
• Baltimore Ravens, 1
• Cleveland Browns, 1
• New England Patriots, 1 (against Dallas)
• New York Giants, 1 (against Dallas)
• Carolina Panthers, 1 (against Dallas)
• Buffalo Bills, 1 (against Dallas)
• Miami Dolphins, 1 (against Dallas)

Sunday will mark FOX’s seventh time calling a Dallas game this season, obviously the one against the Miami Dolphins as noted by the bottom of the teams list. That will officially be 7 of 15 games this season for the Cowboys where the Burkhardt/Olsen/Andrews/Rinaldi crew is doing their game on television. Basically half! Although it is “only” 7 out of 16 games for the crew itself given that they do not have a bye week like the Cowboys do.

The Cowboys have a propensity for being a number one crew’s game though, even when they are not on FOX. Counting this week in Miami the Cowboys have now had 14 of their 15 games called by a top crew.

Top broadcast crews to call Dallas Cowboys games this season

• Week 1: NBC
• Week 2: CBS
• Week 3: N/A
• Week 4: FOX
• Week 5: NBC
• Week 6: ESPN
• Week 7: BYE
• Week 8: FOX
• Week 9: FOX
• Week 10: FOX
• Week 11: FOX
• Week 12: CBS
• Week 13: Amazon
• Week 14: NBC
• Week 15: FOX
• Week 16: FOX

This listing will reach 15 out of 16 games next week when the Cowboys host the Detroit Lions on Saturday night, the evening in which Jimmy Johnson will be enshrined in the Cowboys Ring of Honor. Thankfully because it is an ESPN game that will mean that Troy Aikman will be on hand to witness the festivities.

The Dallas Cowboys are, and remain, America’s Team. Everybody wants a piece, they just have to fight FOX off for the biggest possible slice.