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1971 Dallas Cowboys season

NFL team season

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ4574481 ↗
Source-derived summary

The 1971 Dallas Cowboys season was the franchise's 12th season in the National Football League (NFL), the first at the new Texas Stadium in suburban Irving, Texas, and the 12th season under head coach Tom Landry. The Cowboys led the NFL with 406 points scored. Their defense allowed 222 points.

For the sixth consecutive season, the Cowboys had a first-place finish. They won their second-consecutive NFC championship, then defeated the Miami Dolphins 24–3 in Super Bowl VI to capture their first Super Bowl championship. They were the first team from the NFC to win a Super Bowl since the 1970 merger of the NFL and the American Football League (AFL), and subsequently, the first team from the NFC East division to win the title.

NFL draft

The 1971 NFL draft was widely regarded as one of the weakest in the franchise's history, although the Cowboys recoupled draft picks by trading Tody Smith and Ike Thomas to other teams. Third-round selection Bill Gregory played seven seasons with the Cowboys, winning two Super Bowl rings. Eighth-round selection Ron Jessie was cut after the Cowboys acquired San Diego Chargers All-Pro Lance Alworth, but later enjoyed a long and successful NFL career with the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams.

Roster

Preseason

Season recap

The Cowboys opened the new Texas Stadium with a 44–21 win over the New England Patriots on Oct.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “1971 Dallas Cowboys season” as nFL team season. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dallas, Cowboys and season.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1971, 1970—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Dallas, Cowboys and season providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “1971 Dallas Cowboys season”, the useful work is to connect “nFL team season” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4574481. The first chronological checks are 1971 and 1970.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “1971 Dallas Cowboys season” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.