WASHINGTON — The Redskins-Cowboys rivalry isn’t quite what it once was, primarily because the Redskins haven’t been very good for most of the past 20 years, but also because the relationship between NFL players has changed.

It’s not uncommon for players to work out in the offseason with players from opposing teams, something which would have been too taboo to every happen, much less acknowledged publicly, during the height of Dallas and Washington’s rivalry.

Ed ‘Too Tall’ Jones remembers the rivalry games as the most anticipated every year, and being instrumental to the NFL’s popularity surge, during his 15-year career with the Cowboys (1974-1989).

Jones: I Couldn’t Play in Today’s NFL

“The Redskins, we went through a period where the majority of my career, they were our biggest rivalry,” Jones told 106.7 The Fan’s Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier. “Then for a minute it was the Giants, and then the Eagles, but those Redskins games are the ones that I looked forward to most. The first thing I would do when the schedule came out was look to see when we were playing the Redskins.”

“I think those Redskins Cowboys games took football to another level when we were trying to compete with baseball, which used to be the sport,” he said. “Those Thanksgiving Day games is something that I hate they stopped. That shouldn’t have ever stopped. Those games, whether you were a Cowboy or Redskins fan or not, you still watched that game and they were always great games.”

Jones took the thought a step further, saying they should play on Thanksgiving every year: “That rivalry just meant so much to football. It really did.”

And why shouldn’t he wish for that?

His Cowboys were the winning team both times they played the Redskins on Thanksgiving Day during his career (1974, 1978).

The Redskins are 2-6 in games played on Thanksgiving. Only one of those games — Washington’s 20-0 win over the Detroit Lions in 1973 — was played against a team other than the Dallas Cowboys.

While 1-6 against Dallas all-time, Washington did win the most recent Thanksgiving contest between the teams. Robert Griffin III put on a show for a national audience in 2012, passing for 304 yards and four touchdowns (1 interception), while rushing for another 29 yards in the Redskins’ 38-31 win.

Aside from those two victories, the Redskins have had a pretty miserable Thanksgiving Day history.

1968: Redskins 20, Cowboys 29 1973: Redskins 20, Lions 0 1974: Redskins 23, Cowboys 24 1978: Redskins 10, Cowboys 37 1990: Redskins 17, Cowboys 27 1996: Redskins 10, Cowboys 21 2002: Redskins 20, Cowboys 27 2012: Redskins 38, Cowboys 31

The Cowboys lead the Redskins by a +58 point differential on Thanksgiving Day.

Follow @ChrisLingebach and @1067TheFan on Twitter.