The Dallas Cowboys are the greatest American football franchise since 1960.

I would like to restate my resources from my case above in round 2 as they seem to have been miss linked. Sources from round 2 argument in order of appearance: http://www.forbes.com... http://www.forbes.com... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://michigan-football.com... http://www.nfl.com... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://fanpagelist.com... REBUTTAL I want to start by thanking my opponent for accepting this challenge. I also would like to say thank you for your patience as this is my first debate on this site and have had a couple of miscues. Now for my rebuttal. First let us look at my opponent's case. He states that the Pittsburgh Steelers are a greater NFL franchise, since 1960, than the Dallas Cowboys. Although I would agree they are a close second, I believe my evidence is too great to make that assumption. My opponent uses only two pieces of evidence to come to his conclusion. I would like to start with his first piece. Hall of Fame. Rebuttal I do agree with my opponent that one of the greatest INDIVIDUAL achievements in virtually any professional sport is to be inducted into the Hall of Fame (HoF). Notice the word that stands out in that statement, individual. This is not to say that having more HoF players doesn't make an impression on being better, only that it is more of a personal achievement than a team/franchise one. With that stated I believe my opponent has misguided you with his evidence. His list of Steelers HoF players/coaches violates the rules of the topic being debated. There are numerous players/coaches on his list that never played post 1960. They may have been inducted into the HoF after 1960, but never contributed to the team any time during or after. The players/coaches that this refers to are as follows: Years played/coached for Steelers are in parentheses. <1> Bert Bell (1941-1946) Jack Butler (1951-59) Bill Dudley (1942, 1945-1946) Walt Kiesling (1937-1939)(1940-1942, 1954-1956) Subtract these four players/coaches from his original list and he has not twenty-one but seventeen HoF awards. Now let us compare that to the Cowboys list of hall of fame players/coaches. The Cowboys have fifteen total. <2> Since the Cowboys were established in 1960 everyone of these players/coaches contributed after then. Pay close attention to the fact that Steelers HoF players Bobby Layne (1958-1962) and Ernie Stautner (1950-1963) only had a select few years in the 60's. <1> During 1960-1963 the Steelers only had two winning seasons. Out of these four seasons there winning percentage is as follows. 1960 = .458 , 1961 = .429 , 1962 = .643 , 1963 = .607. <3> The only playoff berth during this time was in 1962 where the Lions beat them. With all of this stated, how much did these two players really contribute during the 60's? If we were to subtract these two players from the Steelers list the Cowboys would have the same amount of players/coaches in HoF. Then could we come to the conclusion that the Cowboys list of HoF is essentially equal to the Steelers list? One could even say that we have had more HoF players play for us. With this <4> list we have had a total of twenty-one players/coaches that at some time have played for the Cowboys. Since the 60's the Steelers have only had eighteen. <1> I understand that getting into the HoF is a great achievement, but how much does this contribute to the overall greatness of a franchise? Super Bowl. Rebuttal I would have to again agree with my opponent. The Super Bowl is the apex of what all NFL franchises goals are set to attain. But, how much of this do we take into account when measuring total greatness? Should we say that it stands for 80%? Is it fair for it to merit that much? It's hard to put a number on this but I think everyone could agree that there are other factors that have to be taken into account aswell. There is no arguing that the Steelers have more Super Bowl wins than the Cowboys. However I will state this fact. The Cowboys are ahead in the all time series with the record being Cowboys 16 wins Steelers 15. <5> Cross Examine In my case I stated four premises. i. The Cowboys are more valuable than any other franchise. ii. The Cowboys have the highest overall winning percentage. iii. The Cowboys retain the most fans. iv. Therefore The Cowboys are the GREATEST franchise since 1960. I will start with premise one. I agree that it is more important that a team has success in sports rather than in the market. Let me ask one question that will open up what I mean by how value contributes to greatness. What makes a teams value grow? Is it only the way you run your business side of things? Or, is it the combination of success, advertisement, performance of players, being a great business man, etc.? You stated that value is meritless when it comes to ranking greatness. I would strongly disagree with you on this. Without value there is no franchise to be great. No need to bring up premise two being as it is fact so I will skip to premise three. The source you used <6> I believe actually benefits my case more than yours. Two key points this poll points out. One, you selected the Steelers as the greatest franchise, not the Broncos. Also as you can see by that poll the Cowboys still finished ahead of the Steelers. Two, the article states that "Despite their best start since 2007, the Cowboys dropped out of the top spot for the first time since 2006. They were ranked fourth. It is only the second time in 14 polls that Dallas has not finished either first or second." I believe this clearly proves premise three. iv. Therefore The Cowboys are the GREATEST franchise since 1960. Conclusion You have failed to falsify all four of my premises. The two cards of evidence you presented fail to outweigh my evidence to prove that there is any other franchise that is greater than the Cowboys since 1960. Thanks! Sources <1> http://www.profootballhof.com... <2> http://www.profootballhof.com... <3> http://en.wikipedia.org... <4> http://en.wikipedia.org... <5> http://en.wikipedia.org... <6> http://www.si.com...#