| The South Park Cows struggled from
the beginning of their existence to the end. The team was plagued
by felons, underachieving draft picks and often absentee ownership.
All of these factors added up to a team that struggled year in and
year out. The Cows, who started first as the Knights and then became
the Moocows, started seeing some success towards the later years,
but never reached .500. The Cows were never able to obtain a marquis
player, settling for years on players like Lawrence Phillips, Dave
Brown and others who’s performance constantly fell short. Brian
Blades was the teams best receiver until 1996 when he was lost to
the team due to legal troubles. He was far from a player that could
carry the team on his back. The team traded for Lawrence Phillips
in 1996, but he too could not stay out of legal problems. The team
for years counted on Jeff Hostetler at quarterback, but he was a journeyman
and never put up impressive numbers. The team often found themselves
in a good drafting position, but never capitalized on the opportunities.
The team started in 1990 with a solid 5-6 record, but never improved
from that. The next season, the first with Hostetler at quarterback,
the team finished 2-9. A one year trial for Dave Krieg at quarterback
led the team to a 5-6 record in 1992, but again the team lacked any
depth to make noise in the playoffs. With Phil Simms at quarterback
in 1993, the team fell back to 3-8. Still the team tried to win with
no big name players. Terry Kirby was the teams’ primary back.
In 1994, the team got back to 5-6, their best finish until 1998. They
finished with the worst record in the league both in 1995 and 1996.
The team found their first scoring threat in 1997, when Jimmy Smith
emerged as the teams new leader at wide receiver. In 1998, with Randall
Cunningham at the helm and a second threat at receiver in Eric Moulds,
the team finished with a team record 6 wins. But lack of running backs
kept them out of the playoffs. When Cunningham was benched in 1999,
so were the teams’ improvement chances. Smith did well, but
no other player on the team had over 100 points. The team finished
at 3-11. In their last season, the Cows picked up a promising Priest
Holmes, and kept their receiver threats. But the team still finished
poorly, and was contracted after the season. |