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Cowboys Vs. Chiefs Sparks ‘America’s Team’ Debate

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Anthony Goss | Last updated May 14, 2025 8:01 PM ET

FRISCO — The NFL has turned to its cash cow yet again for some major prime time spots. Once more, the Dallas Cowboys are a featured entity on the league's holiday schedule.

This time around, "America's Team is double-dipping with their usual Thanksgiving Day contest and another matchup on Christmas Day. But its the Turkey Day matchup causing a fuss on social media.

Dallas will host the Kansas City Chiefs in arguably one of the league's highest profile matchups of the season. The game has the potential to set regular season viewership records.

However, there is much debate in determining who the "A" side of this bout actually is. Former Chiefs backup Chase Daniel believes it to be his team and even made a case as to why they have overtaken the claim to being "America's Team."

"If you talk about on-field success, the sustained success of the Chiefs has brought global brand recognition," he said Wednesday on FS1's "The Facility." "If it wasn't Cowboys [versus] Chiefs this game would pull 38, 39 million. But because of the Chiefs, it's going to pull 50 million.

.@ChaseDaniel says the Chiefs have overtook the Cowboys as “America’s Team” pic.twitter.com/04YG1cCVcW
— The Facility (@TheFacilityFS1) May 14, 2025

"Last year the Chiefs are the most watched football team of anyone on average... The NFL is better when the Cowboys are good, but when you look at what the Chiefs have done, it's really hard not to say the Chiefs aren't the new 'America's Team."

The success is undeniable and frankly Cowboys fans will not even argue that point. But Daniel is getting his evaluation of brand power mixed up in the first place.

The Cowboys are consistently the backbone to any major matchup, regular season or playoffs. The league understands that allotting them special treatment on these holiday broadcasts or in a prime time slot raises the floor of the product they put out.

Now Kansas City's own widespread fan base will be able to fully capitalize on the floor the Cowboys set. But if the latter is removed from the equation, the Chiefs themselves are simply less of a draw.

That's not how nicknames work. Dallas doesn't get to be 'The Windy City' because a storm blows through or 'The Big Apple' because Kroger has a fruit sale. https://t.co/3uD8YmhVPM
— fishsports ✭ (@fishsports) May 14, 2025

Any claim the Chiefs or another franchise makes to the "America's Team" moniker simply have no legs and are just odd in practice. The Cowboys claimed that title first and that brand has lasted through some rough years.

Nonetheless, the brand power of both sides will drive this much anticipated holiday season matchup. Hopefully the teams can deliver on the hype.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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