“Sometimes he was still combing his hair,” Lilly said. Lilly said Howley often disappeared as soon as practice was over while teammates went to the locker room and made plans for dinner or racquetball. Howley ran an industrial laundry business while still playing for the Cowboys, a career that continued after he retired in 1973. The condition can't be diagnosed until after a person dies, and Scott Howley said his dad doesn't want to have his brain screened for the presence of CTE. The former linebacker's neurologist doesn't believe the cognitive issues are a result of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, according to Scott. Scott Howley said that while his dad is in great shape physically for his age, dementia has affected his ability to communicate. Howley was one of the few he let get away with freelancing. Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry, who led the team along with Brandt and general manager Tex Schramm for the franchise's first 29 years, was a stickler for the scheme. He was probably looking at it from a notch above most of us.” “He had the ability and he obviously had a good mind for it. “If he saw a slot receiver doing something, he could catch most of them,” Lilly said. Howley spent 13 years with the Cowboys, and his 24 interceptions with Dallas are second among linebackers in club history behind Lee Roy Jordan. He retired after sustaining a serious knee injury his second year, returning to his home state to run a gas station.Īfter playing well in a Mountaineers alumni game, he decided to try again, and Brandt acquired his rights in exchange for draft picks in 1961. The Chicago Bears drafted Howley - still the only athlete to letter in five sports at West Virginia, where he played offensive line - in the first round in 1958. “As a pass rusher, as a linebacker, as a defensive lineman, as a person.” “I don’t think there was ever a better pound-for-pound player in the National Football League than Chuck Howley,” Brandt said. The choice was long overdue in the eyes of Gil Brandt, Dallas' personnel chief for the franchise's first 29 seasons and a Hall of Fame inductee four years ago. He made the Hall of Fame in the senior category, for players who have been retired at least 25 years. The first of Howley's two standout Super Bowls capped the last of his five consecutive All-Pro seasons, and he was a six-time Pro Bowler. Quarterback Roger Staubach was the MVP in a 24-3 victory over Miami, but Lilly and Howley anchored the “Doomsday Defense” when the Cowboys were on their way to becoming “America's Team” in the 1970s. He was very quiet and never really talked much about anything.”Ī year after the loss to the Colts that prompted star defensive tackle Bob Lilly to fling his helmet in frustration, Howley had an interception and a fumble recovery when the Cowboys finally broke through for their first championship to cap the 1971 season. “That's just the way it was,” Scott Howley said. Cars needed a practical use, even for a football star who had just intercepted two passes and forced a fumble in a 16-13 Super Bowl loss to Baltimore. NFL contracts then weren't what they are today, and Howley was the father of two. The answer for a devastated son about the disappearing Charger was simple, of course. The younger Howley enjoys telling that story with his 87-year-old father headed to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, something more significant to go with his quirky Super Bowl claim to fame. “I guess my mom got a hold of him, and the next day in its place was parked a wood panel-sided station wagon, and I was just crushed,” Scott Howley said. The son of the former Dallas Cowboys linebacker was sure his dad would give him that car when he was old enough to drive, which would have put him on a short list of coolest teenagers in Dallas. Howley had two interceptions and a forced fumble when Dallas lost to Baltimore 16-13 in Super Bowl 5.That category is for players who have been retired at least 25 years.Former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley is a senior choice in the class of 2023.
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