Gary Plummer spent only the final four seasons of his playing career with the San Francisco 49ers, but his dislike of the Dallas Cowboys has lasted much longer. In a recent radio interview, the former linebacker delivered a blunt assessment of Dallas and recalled the hostility that defined the teams’ rivalry during his playing days.
Asked about the Cowboys on 95.7 The Game, Plummer used profanity to express his feelings. He said that, in his view, many Dallas players from that era acted as if wearing the team’s uniform gave them the right to intimidate others. He also rejected the team’s “America’s Team” identity, saying the Cowboys were not embraced as America’s, California’s, or San Francisco’s team. He characterized the players as arrogant and whiny.
Plummer’s criticism extended to former Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin, a three-time Super Bowl champion. When Irvin’s name came up, Plummer insulted him as well, continuing his heated remarks about Dallas and its players.
The intensity of Plummer’s comments reflects a rivalry shaped by high-stakes games and repeated meetings between two of the NFL’s strongest teams. Before Plummer arrived in San Francisco, the Cowboys had won three of the four matchups between the teams from 1990 onward. Two of those games were NFC Championship contests, and Dallas won the later championship, increasing its advantage during that stretch.
The results changed during Plummer’s time with the 49ers. San Francisco won four of the five games it played against Dallas during his tenure, including a 17–10 victory in 1997. Plummer appeared in that game and recorded 10 tackles.
One of the most significant wins came in the NFC Championship Game for the 1994 season. The 49ers entered that contest amid talk about the team’s decline, while the Cowboys were favored. After San Francisco won, Plummer pushed back against the idea that the 49ers were finished.
“To stand there and throw dirt on us before we were dead and buried was not right,” Plummer said after the victory. He added that people had spent the week celebrating San Francisco’s supposed demise, then declared, “The statement we made today was, there is no demise.”
The rivalry’s emotional edge was not limited to Plummer. Former 49ers defensive back Eric Davis described the competition as a meeting between the league’s two best teams and said the players genuinely disliked one another. That mix of respect for the quality of the opponent and personal animosity helped make the matchups memorable for players and fans alike.
The 49ers and Cowboys did not meet for an extended period before their series resumed in 2022. Kyle Shanahan, San Francisco’s current head coach, was a middle-schooler during the earlier era; his father served as the 49ers’ offensive coordinator at the time. The generations involved have changed, but the history between the franchises continues to give their games added significance.
As the teams prepared for their Week 10 meeting, the balance of expectations differed from the days when Dallas and San Francisco regularly battled for the top of the league. The 49ers were described as 7–1 and among the favorites for Super Bowl LXI, while the Cowboys stood at 4–5. Dallas had faced difficulties on both sides of the ball, particularly on defense, leaving questions about how it would cope with San Francisco’s offense.
Irvin discussed the challenge on *The White House* podcast, pointing to the matchup between Shanahan and Dallas defensive coordinator Christian Parker. He said Shanahan was especially effective in that kind of contest and suggested that a shootout might be Dallas’s best path to victory.
The upcoming game was set to take place at AT&T Stadium, with San Francisco holding a 21–19–1 advantage in the all-time series. The standings and current rosters may differ from those of the rivalry’s most heated years, but memories of the earlier clashes—and comments such as Plummer’s—show why a 49ers-Cowboys meeting can still carry a personal edge.
