With Saturday’s win over the Detroit Lions, the Washington Commanders snapped the NFC’s longest active championship game drought and passed that designation to another team that hasn’t reached the NFL’s final four since the ’90s, the Dallas Cowboys.

It’s been 29 years since the Cowboys last reached the title game in 1995, which now stands as the longest drought after Detroit and Washington snapped their droughts in successive years.

For a once-bitter rival like Washington to get back before Dallas has to be especially irritating for the Cowboys knowing all the turmoil that franchise has been through over the last 25 years. And just to add a little more salt to the situation, the Commanders were generous enough to leave Dallas a blueprint to do it themselves one day. The owner needs to sell the team.

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Not only have the Commanders been through two name changes since they last reached the title game — RIP to the Washington Football Team — they’ve also been through two ownership changes. The first happened just a few years after their last title game appearance, and it was for the worst. Dan Snyder bought the team in 1999 and set it back the last two decades. His forced sale to Josh Harris in 2023, though, has apparently set the team free. That might just be what the Cowboys need, too.

Though Dallas has experienced far more success under Jerry Jones than Washington ever did under Snyder, the bulk of that success came in the first decade. The last 20 years have just been a bunch of disappointment. Thus, the drought.

Of course, Jones won’t sell, so he’ll just keep holding the team back as long as he can. But at least Washington showed them the way.