The Bird Gauntlet: Weird history is up for grabs for (and on the side of) the Dallas Cowboys in 2020

There are a lot of coincidences in the game of football. Heck there are a lot of coincidences in the game of life.

Last week the NFL released the schedule for the 2020 season and we are all looking for when coincidences will go the Cowboys’ way. Obviously, we want to see them have as much success as possible in 2020 which means that they will need to win a lot of games. That’s common sense.

Ultimate success is obviously measured in Super Bowl wins, but the Cowboys have a chance to pull something else off this upcoming season. The stars have aligned and something that nobody else in NFL history has ever accomplished is officially on the line. They’ll write books about this if it happens.

The Dallas Cowboys can win The Bird Gauntlet in 2020!

Lombardi Trophies, gold jackets, and bronze busts are nice, don’t get me wrong, but what about a nest to celebrate the greatest achievement of all?!

Recently a reddit user noted that the Dallas Cowboys, along with the New York Giants and Washington Redskins possibly through the playoffs, have something unique on their 2020 schedule - The Bird Gauntlet. This is exactly what it sounds like. It is a schedule that consists of games against all of the teams in the NFL that features bird mascots.

Obviously the Cowboys play against the Philadelphia Eagles every year so that takes care of one of the five teams with a bird mascot. There are four more across the NFL in the Atlanta Falcons, Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, and Seattle Seahawks. Dallas just so happens to play against all five of these teams in the regular season in 2020.

Due to the NFL’s rotating schedule system the NFC East plays against the NFC West (Cardinals and Seahawks) and AFC North (Ravens) this season. That takes care of three of the remaining four. Dallas finished in second place in the NFC East last season and as the Atlanta Falcons finished in second in the NFC South the two teams will square off against one another as a result of it. Washington or New York could only successfully pull off The Bird Gauntlet by drawing the Falcons in a playoff matchup as they do not play them in the regular season.

As the Eagles themselves are a bird mascot team they obviously cannot complete the gauntlet even if they drew Atlanta in the postseason. The best chance for this happening in the foreseeable future is obviously if the Cowboys do it this season.

Arizona might be the easiest of these five games although with DeAndre Hopkins added to the mix they are obviously going to be tough. Atlanta is hardly a walk in the park, but just simply aren’t on the level of Seattle or Baltimore. Beating Philadelphia is hard any season, and doing so twice is even more difficult.

For what it’s worth, NFL Research pointed out that the last time The Bird Gauntlet was completed was 1992 (this was before the Baltimore Ravens were in the NFL). The team that did so was the Washington Redskins and I don’t think I have to remind you who won the Super Bowl that year.