A few years ago, I was approached by the good people at USAopoly to help design the new Dallas Cowboys Collector’s Edition of the standard Monopoly game.

As a creative consultant, I had something to do with game cards that referenced highs and lows in Cowboys history such as Roger Staubach’s Hail Mary to beat the Vikings and the always cursed wearing of the blue uniforms.

However, the one thing I consistently stressed to those actually designing the game was how Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin absolutely needed to be together as a set of three properties on the game board.
 
One need not be a Cowboys fan to know these three simply as “The Triplets.”
 
On Monday night, they went into the Cowboys Ring of Honor just as they had led Dallas to three Super Bowl titles in four years — together.

With the previous 14 members all enshrined behind the Cowboys’ bench, Aikman, Smith and Irvin were unveiled simultaneously as the first names on the opposite side.

While the time given for each to speak seemed shorter than those winning Emmys the night before for Best Reality Show Catfight, it was at least a more appropriate ending than what actually occurred on the playing field.
 
In 1999, Irvin’s career ended to a reception of cheering Eagles fans as he lay motionless with a neck injury on the Veterans Stadium turf, following his 750th and last career catch.
 
The next season, Aikman failed to elude Redskins LB LaVar Arrington near the sideline on a scramble and with it came Aikman’s final concussion.
 
Two years later, Smith broke the NFL’s all-time rushing record and then broke down as he left Dallas for, of all places, Arizona?

In his much-anticipated return to Dallas the very next season, he carried the ball six times for minus-one yard and made it worse with his comments in postgame interviews.

While nobody can rightfully say The Triplets did it alone, it’s tougher to argue the Cowboys could’ve accomplished as much without any of the three.

The quarterback, who if not for a broken leg early in his Oklahoma career may never have been a star, was known for his strong leadership while always exhibiting GPS accuracy in throwing the football.

The running back, who learned in his high school days in the Florida panhandle the value of protecting the football, was best respected for his disproportionately large heart and an innate ability to avoid the big hit.

The wide receiver, who actually had his name mispronounced by the commissioner when drafted in 1988, exuded a unique level of emotional intensity backed by his trademark ability of keeping himself between ball and defender.

8, 22, 88.

Those numbers may not win Hurley the lottery and a destined spot on that mysterious island with the hatch, but the guys who wore them certainly saved the Cowboys at a time when the franchise seemed lost.

The three Super Bowl titles over four years made the Cowboys the defining franchise of the 1990s and set the bar for success in the NFL’s salary-cap era.

While the Patriots have cleared that bar, there’s no one running back or one wide receiver to go with QB Tom Brady in their run.

Unlike the whole team concept in New England, the Cowboys of Aikman, Smith and Irvin had power in the appropriate form of the logo on the side of the famed silver helmet.

Even that star at midfield of Texas Stadium didn’t appear to be as big as that of Aikman, Smith and Irvin at the height of Dallas’ dominance.

So, 10 years after the second championship era ends, the new generation of the Ring of Honor begins. Right down the street on that Monopoly board from Tom Landry and Roger Staubach.