Cowboys' Jerry Jones Teases Changes to NFL Schedule for Rivalry Games

Ahead of a rare meeting between the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones recently suggested that in-state rivalry games could become more of a norm soon.

Sunday's matchup between the two Texas teams will be just the eighth showdown between the Cowboys and Texans since Houston joined the NFL in 2002. During Friday's radio appearance on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, Jones indicated that the league is considering scheduling more geographic rivalry games between teams from opposing conferences.

"You can add that in the mix, and I'm not saying it's not in the mix," Jones said (h/t Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. "It's just that other things come up and you have a different reason for the scheduling. We obviously have a rotation involved that is the best as far as fair, complete competition year-in, year-out, around the entire league. But it's certainly something that I would look at.

"And I wouldn't just narrow it down to Dallas and Houston," he continued. "I'd look at the entire league, you saw a game on TV [Thursday] night between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. They're in the same division, but those kinds of proximities, those kinds of 'my town against your town, and who's the best town?' Which I think is a fundamental of our game of football. 'My town against your town. My school against your school.' That's a big part of it. It's hard to emulate any place but in the United States to get that rolling."

Other options for such rivalry games include the New York Jets and New York Giants, the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, the Baltimore Ravens and Washington Commanders, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jacksonville Jaguars, and more.

If Jones gets his wish, it will be interesting to see if the NFL tries to implement these rivalry games as part of the current 17-game schedule, or as a way to increase the regular season to 18 games.