As the Dallas Cowboys prepare to host the San Francisco 49ers at AT&T Stadium, the matchup is bringing back memories for former San Francisco linebacker Gary Plummer. He played a key role on the 49ers defense that finally overcame Dallas after two consecutive NFC Championship Game defeats in the early 1990s.
Plummer has never hidden his dislike of the Cowboys from that era. Asked what first comes to mind when he hears the team’s name, he responded bluntly, criticizing the players he faced and their reputation for arrogance.
“I literally think that they have so many, at least back then, they had so many punks,” Plummer said. He recalled feeling that some Cowboys players believed wearing the uniform gave them the power to intimidate opponents. He also rejected the team’s “America’s Team” identity, describing the players as arrogant and whiny.
Plummer spent most of his NFL career with the San Diego Chargers, but his last four seasons were with San Francisco, during a period when the rivalry with Dallas was especially intense. The Cowboys beat the 49ers 30–20 in the 1993 NFC Championship Game, ending San Francisco’s hopes of reaching the Super Bowl.
The teams met again in the 1994 conference championship. Dallas won 38–21, sending the 49ers home for a second straight year. The loss helped convince San Francisco that its roster needed significant changes, particularly on defense.
In response, team president Carmen Policy brought in several defensive standouts, including Plummer, Ken Norton Jr., Rickey Jackson and Deion Sanders. The 49ers and Cowboys faced one another in the NFC Championship Game once more, and San Francisco finally got the result it wanted. The 49ers beat Dallas 38–28 and went on to win the Super Bowl that season.
The rivalry continued into 1995. In November, Plummer and the 49ers traveled to Texas Stadium and defeated the Cowboys 38–20. Dallas entered the game with an 8–2 record, while San Francisco was 6–4. The Cowboys were heavily favored, and the 49ers had been written off by many observers.
After the victory, Plummer pushed back against the talk that San Francisco’s run was over. He said people had been celebrating the team’s supposed demise before it was finished, adding that the win showed “there is no demise.”
Plummer retired as a Super Bowl champion with San Francisco, but the rivalry he experienced decades ago has remained part of the 49ers’ culture. In 2023, tight end George Kittle said that when head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch arrived, they made a point of teaching younger players about the franchise’s history.
One image shown to the team featured Plummer wearing a shirt bearing an anti-Dallas message during a game against the Cowboys. Kittle said the image made him think that he wanted to do something similar during his own career.
He eventually made his own statement in a 2023 matchup, when San Francisco defeated Dallas 42–10. Kittle was fined by the league after his gesture, but Plummer praised him for carrying the rivalry forward.
Plummer said he was flooded with pictures and clips of Kittle after the game, including footage in which Kittle credited him with the idea. Plummer also praised the tight end’s playing style, saying he enjoyed Kittle’s trash talk and the intensity with which he plays.
Ahead of the latest meeting between the teams, Plummer also took aim at Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones. Asked whose face he pictured when expressing his dislike of Dallas, Plummer said there were several possibilities but that Jones would be at the top of the list. He also joked about Jones’s appearance and referred to plastic surgery.
Jones played a prominent role in the Cowboys’ success in the early 1990s. His appearance became a subject of public discussion in 2001, after he had reportedly lost roughly 55 to 60 pounds and looked noticeably different. At the time, speculation about whether he had undergone cosmetic work was raised publicly. Jones has never confirmed that he had cosmetic surgery.
Plummer’s comments show that, for him, the old rivalry remains vivid. The players and seasons that shaped the 49ers–Cowboys feud may be long past, but his latest remarks—and Kittle’s tribute—illustrate how strongly that history still resonates with San Francisco fans and former players.
