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Bounty Bowl II

Bounty Bowl I
Texas Stadium.jpeg
Texas Stadium, the site of the game
1 2 3 4 Total
PHI 0 10 14 3 27
DAL 0 0 0 0 0
Date November 23, 1989
Stadium Texas Stadium, Irving, Texas
Favorite Philadelphia −17
Referee Gene Barth
TV in the United States
Network CBS
Announcers Pat Summerall and John Madden
Bounty Bowl II
Veterans stade.png
Veterans Stadium, the site of the game
1 2 3 4 Total
DAL 0 3 7 0 10
PHI 0 17 3 0 20
Date December 10, 1989
Stadium Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Favorite Philadelphia −17
Referee Jerry Seeman
TV in the United States
Network CBS
Announcers Verne Lundquist and Terry Bradshaw

The Bounty Bowl was the name given to two NFL games held in 1989 between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. The first, a 1989 Thanksgiving Day game in Dallas, was noted for allegations that the Eagles put a $200 bounty on Cowboys kicker Luis Zendejas, who had been cut by Philadelphia earlier that season. The second was a rematch held two weeks later in Philadelphia. The Eagles, favored to win both games, swept the series.

The Cowboys/Eagles rivalry had been increasingly heated since the 1987 season, with Buddy Ryan arriving as the Eagles' head coach; that year, during the NFL players' strike, the Cowboys (who were playing with a number of players that crossed picket lines) routed an Eagles squad filled with replacement players; Ryan, believing that the Cowboys had run up the score in poor form, responded in kind in the second game when the strike was over. After the 1988 season, the Cowboys were sold to Jerry Jones, who proceeded to gut the team and fire longtime head coach Tom Landry in preparation for rebuilding.

On November 23, 1989, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Dallas Cowboys 27–0. Following the game, which was broadcast on CBS, Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson alleged that Ryan had taken out a bounty on two of the former's players, kicker Luis Zendejas and quarterback Troy Aikman:

Ryan denied the bounty accusation, saying that film of the game "show that Small had no intention of hurting Zendejas." The Philadelphia coach asserted it would have been in the Eagles' best interests to keep Zendejas in the game because he was in a slump. Ryan also joked about Johnson's accusations:


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