Earlier this summer, Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer appeared on "The Twins Take Podcast" with his wife, Gemmi, and openly discussed his Super Bowl aspirations.

"We talk very openly about, 'We want to win a Super Bowl,'" Schottenheimer said. "That's kind of the way my dad, [the late Marty Schottenheimer], was wired. If that's your goal, then talk about it. Put it out there. So, I've never backed off of that. I never will."

Later in that podcast episode, when asked about finishing what his father started, Schottenheimer declared, "I want to win a Super Bowl. I don't want to win it for me. I want to win it for the people under my leadership. I want to win it for Dak Prescott. I want to win it for CeeDee Lamb, for Quinnen Williams, for our players that put in so much hard work and the sacrifice that goes into what we do. [...] I make no qualms that that's the goal. The Super Bowl next year is Feb. 14, 2027, in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, and we plan on being there."

Schottenheimer said he would never back down from that, and he meant it.

Schottenheimer, entering his second year with the Cowboys, sat down with "Inside Football" and the Wingo Network at Cowboys training camp, and he doubled down.

"When I took this job, the very first thing I said is we were trying to do two things: build the greatest culture in professional sports and win a world championship," Schottenheimer said. "When the head coach stands out there and says that, he puts a bullseye on his football team a little bit, but I want these guys to be comfortable talking that way. Everybody wants to do it. Not everybody says it."

Schottenheimer acknowledged that saying it won't mean anything if the Cowboys don't commit to the process to actualize it, then added, "We're a confident football team. We feel like we will be in SoFi [on] Feb. 14, 2027. But we gotta back that up."

The Cowboys have not reached the NFC Championship Game since winning the Super Bowl — their third in four years — to finish the 1995 NFL season. Since 1996, Dallas has won five playoff games total.

Under Schottenheimer, the Cowboys went 7-9-1 last season — they had one of the league's best offenses, but also one of the league's worst defenses — and missed the playoffs for a second straight season. The Cowboys will open their ambitious 2026 campaign against the New York Giants on Sunday, Sept. 13.