FRISCO — The NFL has released its schedule for the 2025 season and once again the Dallas Cowboys are a key feature spread across some primetime spots and major game days. Much to the chagrin of their haters, they claim these spots coming off a 7-10 campaign in 2024.
The Cowboys have six primetime appearances and a total of eight standalone games counting their matchups on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Dallas will also set a record this season with four Thursday games on the schedule.
Regardless of these tokens of the schedule, Cowboys fans have grown accustomed to seeing their team in the spotlight and not fitting into the traditional mold.
However, there was a concerted effort to make a separate change to the team's schedule. The Cowboys will have less representation in FOX's "America's Game of the Week."
Mike Mulvihill, the President of insights and analytics at FOX Sports, revealed to The Athletic that this was done in order to give other teams more of the spotlight around the league both within the NFC and AFC.
"Of our 4:25 p.m. games, only three of them are Cowboys games,” Mulvihill said. "In other years, we've gone looking for five or six Dallas games at 4:25. What we wanted for this year was more AFC, more Philly, but also more Detroit and a little more Washington to try to capitalize on the Jayden Daniels story. I think we have a better mix of teams than we've had in the past."
Last season, the Cowboys took that 3:25 p.m. slot on FOX three times in the first six weeks. FOX's No. 1 broadcast crew with Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady actually called Cowboys games the first three weeks of the season, getting their fourth in Week 6 in Dallas' blowout loss to the Detroit Lions.
It's a noticeable change but a positive one in the grand scheme for the league. The Cowboys are always a draw, but there are other proven contenders and stories to monitor throughout the NFC that should take some precedent this season.
More than anything though, Cowboys fans want to see their team winning these marquee matchups and rebuilding their contending status.