Ha ha ha... ALWAYS a matter of perspective. Of course, if I was a Cowboys fan that's a colossal failure. The 1 seed at home and you lose?
The other perspective is... they weren't thought to go 13-3 and be a 1 seed so they exceeded expectations and have two young stars on rookie contracts to go forward with.
Jerry's son didn't sound like he didn't think it was failure. He said he can't watch the game back on video and won't for a long long time.
Us, on the other hand, we were favored to roll through the regular season (which was dismal) and win the SB. Had we lost it would've been a total failure of a season to me.
Reaching the NFC Chip and losing is the point at which I consider the accomplishment which is good, but like was said by Jason Garrett...EVERY TEAMS GOAL IS TO WIN THE SB. Falling short of your goal is...FAILURE. There is no other definition if that's your goal. Now, a fan's goal might be completely different than the teams so your perspective plays a role. However, for the TEAMS, not winning it all is a failure of a season as it is a failure to achieve your goal.
EDIT: Just watched a clip that followed the SAS clip linked above that featured Merrill Hoge he said:
http://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/18483749
"Very few players get to win a Super Bowl that's the only reason that you play." ---So, again, YES...Failure and a HUGE one.
Ted Thompson sits on his hands per former GM: "because they’ve had 25 fricking years of great quarterbacks. Of course it works. Try it without a special quarterback."