Bad week in Dallas extends to Cowboys' website

Three years ago, the Dallas Cowboys tried to expand their web presence by acquiring the “Cowboys.com” domain name.

The only problem?  The Cowboys thought they’d secured it for $275, but in reality the price was $275,000.

Now, the day after one of the most embarrassing losses in franchise history, the Cowboys are missing out on the spike in traffic that would have occurred at DallasCowboys.com, given the firing of coach Wade Phillips.  As it turns out, someone allowed the registration of the domain name to expire.  Though the Cowboys will have an opportunity to rectify the situation before someone else can squat on the site, the address currently points to the Network Solutions website.

Bottom line?  It looks like someone other than Wade should be providing a “vivid example of accountability” today.

UPDATE:  Victor Godinez of the Dallas Morning News has the details regarding the snafu.  The Cowboys allowed the registration to expire, and then they quickly reacquired it. 

42 responses to “Bad week in Dallas extends to Cowboys' website

  1. Someone should have posted it hours earlier when it actually happened, not now when it is up and running…….you failed again Florio!

  2. What are you talking about? Your link went directly to the Cowboys official site, and I didn’t see anything about Networks Solutions. It looks like any old official team website.

  3. $275,000 to Jerry Jones = $275 for the rest of us. Considering the multi-million dollar fiasco he’s presiding over this season, I doubt he’ll worry too much about a domain name.

  4. Oh MY GOD…wtf? Someone else in Dallas besides Wade is looking for a new job tonight. You let the domain expire??? Cripes they email ya about 20 times a day leading up to it for months before it expires! You almost have to try to let it expire, they even call you if the site gets enough traffic.
    WOW, that organization is in worse shape than many of us could have imagined.

  5. I’m not sure why people are saying the domain is expired. A little research will tell you that it actually doesn’t expire until 2020, and a little more research would tell you that a certain percentage of the people who click on the link you’ve provided to DallasCowboys.com will actually get through with no problems.
    I was able to get it from work all day long, but can’t get it from home. There is some sort of DNS error going on, but the error is not because the domain expired.
    Honestly Florio… everybody has these things on auto-renew. There would be no reason in the world to manually renew that domain name.

  6. Dallas is such a joke. This franchise is in serious trouble right now. Jerry Jones is getting older and will be just like Al Davis. Cowboys fans should be worried.

  7. Oddly enough I’ve been able to get to the Dallas site all day long and it NEVER pointed to the network solutions site. So I’m not sure what you’re talking about.
    did you take some funny looking mushrooms or something.

  8. I imagine the price of Cowboys replica jerseys will rise to $300 to compensate for this unexpected expense.

  9. Wow. Apparently Jerry hires an IT staff just as poorly as his coaches.
    Here’s a hint, J: don’t hire your friend’s brother’s nephew who “knows computers”.

  10. I think this explains why the Cowboys stink this year. Wade Phillips has been moonlighting as the Cowboys web technician guy for a few extra spending bucks (went by the name Danny Chang, Web Desinger). Updating the site is a very time consuming job as you very well know Mike. Jerry Jones wasn’t aware of this. So by firing Phillips he also fired his web technician guy and had nobody on the payroll to renew the website.
    Case closed.

  11. That’s a good point, they lost a lot of money in potential ad revenue today. People will bitch on here about how “that’s not news/a big deal,” but the bottom line is that it’s simply more ineptitude in a retarded organization.

  12. Biggest joke in the league just got bigger.
    They are America’s team, because America has been in the shitter for quite some time.
    Pathetic.

  13. I’m not sure wether to laugh or cry.
    Is there anyone at the Dallas Cowboys organization (or lack thereof) that is paying attention to the details they are responsible for?

  14. Few people knew this, but Wade Phillips was the head coach, defensive coordinator, and web master.
    Jason Garrett has already received the root password for the web server and has promised to finally get their iPhone app up to date.

  15. I hope whoever grabbed this domain makes a fortune off of it.
    How idiotic to let it expire. Jerry’s not gonna be happy with that dude.

  16. What the hell is going on here? I’m so tired of this embarrassment. Even as a Cowboy fan though, I’m loving all the misery that Jerry must be experiencing right now. As he watches his beloved Death Star host two far more deserving teams in this years Super Bowl. The problem is with our GM, who needs to be fired by the Owner. Until then, same $hit, different story.

  17. It’s comical they didn’t pay 275K for a couple years ago, as there’s no doubt they’ll eventually pay WAY MORE than that at some point in the future.
    And now not having your prized domain name to register automatically? UN-BEE-LEE-VUH-BLE.

  18. @SmilesAustin… Yes, the domain in fact *did* expire today. Check the whois records and you’ll see the domain expired on 11/2 – you usually get a week of being late from your registrar before they pull the plug. The record was just updated 11/9 – today (yesterday now, after they made the mistake and renewed it). You were likely able to get to the site for awhile today after it expired at work because the DNS server used there had the domain named cached. Also, this is being reported now at other media outlets which also confims this.

  19. To all the morons posting at 10pm – 11pm….. of course the site works now.
    Ask your mom to come downstairs and read the article for you, it explains the site was down Sunday night, and many (not all) people accessing the site ON SUNDAY NIGHT saw the image.

  20. 1. Cornboy is right in his breakdown.
    2. Even if some of you were able to get in on a cached server and it was just a DNS error, it was down for a TON of people virtually all day…as of last night at 10 pm it was still down. As a web professional myself that is absolutely inexcusable for a teenage gaming site let alone a site of this significance. The problem is solved in a number of ways and whatever way you look at it, it was an epic dropping of the ball by their IT department. The whole staff should be canned if a site of that size and traffic was down for an entire day. Having it happen because of domain expirations is even worse.

  21. What a joke of a franchise!
    Where are all the dum dum Dallas fans that, last season, kept shouting 0-3agles?
    You see dum dum Dallas fans, when Philly has a bad season they go 10-6 and make the playoffs.
    When Dallas has a bad season they start 1-7(0-5boys btw), fire the HC, have players quit, get blown out in numerous games, have an owner/GM that is dumbfounded, a website that doesn’t work, and we’re only HALFWAY through the season!!
    Don’t worry dum dum Dallas fan, look at the bright side:

  22. AS OF TUESDAY morning, dallascowboys.com is still down, not working here on the eastern half of USA!

  23. How long does it take this site to approve a comment. Think I’m leaving and just stick with ESPN Insider 🙁

  24. A lot of blowhards here, but anyone who’s run web sites knows – it can happen. Everyone’s human.

  25. From the Dallas Morning News:
    “In the publicly available database on WhoIs.com, the domain’s registrant is listed as Dallas Cowboys Football Club Ltd., but the specific e-mail address administrative contact is for Jerry Jones Jr., son of owner Jerry Jones and executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer for the team.”
    How could someone who’s job is Chief Sales & Marketing Officer let a MAJOR marketing tool fall by the wayside?? (#2 behind the NFL’s website) Obviously Jerry Jr. has minions to attend to these tasks, but once again the blame for the Cowboys’ organizational ineptitude falls to….wait for it….the Jones family!

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