Dan Quinn remembers well when the Cowboys and Redskins were a big deal.
Quinn was born in 1970 and raised in New Jersey. He has said on more than one occasion that he grew up watching the NFC East.
He recalls the Giants’ Bill Parcells’s two Super Bowl teams, the Cowboys coached by Tom Landry, the Eagles by Buddy Ryan, and the Redskins by Joe Gibbs.
Regarding the Week 12 match-up this week of the Cowboys coming to Washington, Quinn wasn’t shy Wednesday with the media, saying, “For me and for the guys, man, it’s like, Washington-Dallas Week, let’s get down.”
Whether Quinn watched, in particular, the Cowboys at Redskins 1982 championship game, I don’t know. But the fact he referred to this week as “Washington-Dallas Week” reveals in itself that Quinn does have a knowledge of the rivalry and what it was 40 years ago.
OTD 1983 #NFCChampionship@TheDexterManley deflects a pass that’s Darryl Grant picks off for a touchdown #HTTR pic.twitter.com/FPzWsKwIwu
— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) January 22, 2024
The Cowboys won two Super Bowls in the 70s with QB Roger Staubach at quarterback and the “Doomsday defense.” QB Danny White never had a Doomsday defense when he led the team to three consecutive NFC Championship games before losing all three, the last to the Redskins in 1982.
The Redskins won the NFC East three consecutive seasons (1982-84), and went to four Super Bowls under Gibbs (1981-92) winning three, along the way winning and losing some big games to the Cowboys.
Quinn was asked Wednesday what the game means for the former Cowboys and his message to them.
“I haven’t talked to them much different about that. You probably know from now, I don’t make one [game] too often bigger than another. I just think they’re all really important and we absolutely go after it as hard as we can.”
But of course, Quinn is more than aware that NFL divisional rivals are more intense regular season games.