Dallas Cowboys brazenly mail season-ticket holders playoff tickets, too

The Dallas Cowboys have gone 8-8 each of the past three seasons, and the Tony Romo-led team hasn't reached the NFL playoffs in four years. So season ticket holders will probably be a bit surprised when they open their envelopes this week and find not just the usual preseason and regular-season slips, but also a sheet of playoff tickets — along with a ticket to the NFC Championship game, which hasn't featured the Cowboys since 1995.

ESPN Dallas notes that the seemingly cocky move may actually just be smart business; NFL teams struggled to sell out playoff games last season, because season-ticket holders were understandably wary of paying for a slate of additional tickets up front. The league changed its policy following that debacle, so now season-ticket holders can buy playoff tickets after a team clinches a certain game. On the Dallas tickets, fans merely have to pay for the additional tickets if the team reaches the playoffs, at which point the barcodes on the extras will activate. And, the team is betting that since seat holders already have the physical ticket, they're more likely to pay for it in the event of a playoff game, leaving fewer open tickets for the team to move.

Logical, this plan is. But sports fans are not logical, and sending out playoff tickets before a single preseason game — let alone a regular season one — has been played may prove to rub Cowboys fans the wrong way. You don't talk about the no-hitter in progress, and you don't touch the Stanley Cup until you've earned it. The Cowboys may have just jinxed themselves into a fourth 8-8 season.

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