Cowboys countdown to kickoff rolls to Day 13 in its ranking of franchise-defining games

The Dallas Cowboys’ long off-season tradition of looking back is in full swing as Yahoo Sports’ “100 iconic games” countdown reaches Day 13, part of a broader build-up to the opening kickoff of the 2026 NFL season. The series aims to spotlight games that shaped the identity of the franchise, not just one type of win or one signature era.

According to the project, the rankings do not rely on a single metric. Instead, the organizers say they weigh multiple factors, including how big a game was for the organization, how memorable it was for the fan base, and whether unusual events made it stand out in the historical record. The series also leans on NFL lore and Cowboys “firsts,” along with matchups where Dallas simply dominated.

That multi-lens approach matters because the Cowboys’ postseason and prime-time history is too wide-ranging to fit neatly into one category. Iconic games for Dallas often connect to more than the final score. They can reflect a particular style, a shift in momentum for a team-building stretch, or a moment that became shorthand for the franchise itself. The countdown format is meant to capture that variety rather than force every entry into a single box.

Day 13’s place in the sequence is also a reminder of how the series is constructed. The countdown is designed to run for 100 days, linking each day as it moves toward the start of the 2026 season. In other words, the “iconic” list is not presented as a static debate, but as a staged editorial journey that will continue to add chapters until kickoff.

If there is a single theme implied by the series description, it is that Dallas history is treated as layered memory. The organizers describe entries across different types of games, including those that became part of NFL-wide storytelling and those that were pivotal in Cowboys history on their own terms. The project also suggests an emphasis on games that fans feel immediately, because “memorable” is placed alongside more formal measures like size of the moment or dominance.

For readers, the practical next step is to track which kinds of games show up as the countdown progresses. Because the series credits criteria like unusual events and “firsts,” viewers can expect some entries to be notable for more than conventional stat lines. At the same time, the promise of “variety” means the list could move between postseason and regular-season milestones, between close calls and runaway performances, and between headline-grabbing storylines and less obvious franchise turning points.

As always, it is worth keeping one caveat in mind with ranking projects: they are editorial creations, not official NFL records. Without seeing the full list and the specific Day 13 game details, the most verifiable takeaway is the series’ stated method and the intent to compile a broad, franchise-wide ledger of the Cowboys’ most enduring moments.

Day 13 therefore functions less like a single scoreboard update and more like a checkpoint in a narrative countdown. The remaining entries will determine whether the series balances consensus favorites with surprise candidates, and whether its stated weighting of lore, novelty, and dominance ultimately produces a list that feels comprehensive to the way Cowboys fans experience the team’s history. Next, the series will continue one day at a time toward kickoff 2026, with each installment adding another piece to the franchise’s public mythology.