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Dallas Cowboys include playoff tickets in season-ticket package to fans

Dallas Cowboys include playoff tickets in season-ticket package to fans

The Dallas Cowboys make it easy sometimes.

Nothing is going to send people rolling in the aisles quite like this: The Cowboys sent out playoff tickets to their season-ticket holders. Before the season starts. Before the preseason starts. Dallas fans already have their playoff tickets including for the NFC championship game, according to ESPN's Darren Rovell.

The Cowboys have won one playoff game since Dec. 28, 1996, haven't made the playoffs since 2009, and go into this season with perhaps the worst defense in football. But hey, those tickets might make for nice placemats.

It really is kinda fun to chuckle at Dallas owner Jerry Jones, but there's a story here that won't get as much attention because of all the #LOLCowboys – that's the NFL's playoff ticket issue.

Last year the NFL had trouble selling out three of its four playoff games on wild-card weekend, including one in football-mad Green Bay. There's just not a lot of time between a team clinching a postseason berth and its first playoff game, which usually comes around the holidays when fans might think twice about spending a ton of money on going to a game. The Cowboys might just be ahead of the curve here, and nobody has ever accused Jones of being a bad businessman.

NFL senior vice president of club business development Brian Lafemina said he expects more NFL teams to do it in the future. ESPN.com reports that the league has a new policy that teams can only charge fans for tickets after a certain game is clinched, so Cowboys fans won't have to pony up now. But having the tickets in hand, if needed, makes it all a little more convenient.

This isn't really about Jones showing some remarkable hubris that the Cowboys will make the playoffs. It's more about seeing a trend in ticket sales and being ahead of it, which is probably smart. But I know it's much more fun to laugh at the thought the Cowboys are already guaranteeing a playoff berth by sending the tickets. Go ahead.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!