Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} and the Fall of America's Team by Duane Thomas Duane Thomas. Born and raised in , Texas, Thomas was an exceptional at its Lincoln High School in the mid-1960s. He continued his success at West Texas State University in Canyon, playing fullback alongside , while running through defenses for Joe Kerbel's teams. [1] After a freshman year with just 10 carries for 42 yards, he led the country with 7.2 yards per carry on still-limited duty his sophomore season (83 carries for 596 yards). After 113 carries for 708 yards his junior year, he broke through his senior year with 199 carries for 1,072 yards and 10 touchdowns. He ended his college career with 396 carries for 2,376 yards (then 2nd all-time to Bill Cross, currently 8th). Professional career. (first stint) Thomas was selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the first round (23rd overall) of the 1970 NFL draft. As a rookie, even though he didn't start until the fifth game of the season, he led the team in rushing, while finishing eighth in the newly merged 26-team league with 803 rushing yards (second in the National Football Conference behind NFL rushing champion Larry Brown of the rival Washington Redskins) on 151 carries (a league-leading 5.3 yards per carry) and 5 touchdowns. At the end of the season, already being compared to , he was named the NFL rookie of the year. [2] In playoff wins over Detroit and San Francisco, Thomas rushed for 135 and 143 yards, becoming the first rookie with two 100-yard rushing playoff games. [3] During the offseason Thomas requested his three-year contract be rewritten. When Cowboys management refused to renegotiate, he called team president “deceitful,” player personnel director “a liar” and head coach “a plastic man. no man at all." [4] Following his refusal to report to training camp, Thomas was traded on July 31, 1971 to the with and , in exchange for and the Patriots' first choice in the 1972 NFL Draft. [5] Within a week, because of problems with the Patriots and head coach , [6] in an unprecedented move NFL commissioner voided part of the trade, sending Thomas and Garrett back to their original teams. [7] The Patriots kept Hagen and Jackson in exchange for a second (#35-) and third round (possibly 1972 #64-) draft choices in the 1972 NFL draft. Thomas returned to the Cowboys, but decided to keep silent all season long, refusing to speak to teammates, management, or the media. In October 1971, Thomas scored the first touchdown in the new playing against the Patriots. [8] That same season, Thomas led the league in rushing touchdowns (11) and total touchdowns (13). He also was named All-Pro and led the Cowboys with 95 rushing yards and a touchdown in Dallas' 24–3 win over the Miami Dolphins in VI, the franchise’s first. When asked about playing in the “ultimate game” before the contest, he responded, "If it's the ultimate (game), how come they're playing it again next year?" [9] In a postgame interview following that Super Bowl, CBS television announcer noted Thomas' speed and asked him, rhetorically, "Are you that fast?" Thomas responded, "Evidently." According to Hunter S. Thompson, "All he did was take the ball and run every time they called his number—which came to be more and more often, and in the Super Bowl Thomas was the whole show." [10] Thomas was reportedly voted as the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player by an overwhelming margin. Thomas, however, had boycotted the media throughout the season as well, and Larry Klein, editor of Sport , which presented the award, didn't know how Thomas would act at a banquet in New York. With this in mind Klein announced quarterback as the winner. [11] During the 1972 off-season he became even more isolated and insubordinate, so he was traded to the San Diego Chargers for Mike Montgomery and on July 31, 1972. [12] San Diego Chargers. Thomas began his stint with the Chargers by earning a 20-day suspension for failing to report to the team, and matters deteriorated from there. He never played a game for the Chargers, as the team placed him on the reserve list, making him ineligible for the rest of the 1972 season. On July 20, 1973, the Chargers traded Thomas to defending NFC champion Washington in exchange for the Redskins' first draft choice (#22- Mike Williams) in the 1975 NFL draft and their second draft choice (#46-) in 1976. [13] Washington Redskins. Thomas played with the Washington Redskins in 1973 and 1974, rushing for a total of 442 yards under head coach George Allen. Reportedly seeking a substantial salary increase, he did not report to training camp in 1975, and was waived on August 13. [14] [15] The Hawaiians (WFL) In August 1975, Thomas was signed by the Hawaiians of the to replace an injured , although the Philadelphia Bell claimed they owned Thomas' negotiating rights after being released by the Washington Redskins. [1] [16] He was with the team for only 1½ months and was released in early October, [17] just weeks before the league folded. Dallas Cowboys (second stint) On May 1, 1976, the Dallas Cowboys signed Thomas again for a comeback, but he was waived before the season started. [18] British Columbia Lions (CFL) Thomas signed with the British Columbia Lions in 1977 and was placed on waivers after just a couple of weeks. (NFL) In March 1979, Thomas was signed by the Green Bay Packers, but was waived before the season started. [19] [20] He finished his NFL career with 2,038 rushing yards, 453 carries and 21 touchdowns. He also caught 38 passes for 297 yards and 3 touchdowns. Legacy. With the help of freelance sportswriter Paul Zimmerman in 1989, Thomas wrote Duane Thomas and the Fall of America's Team , a memoir of Thomas' time playing for the Dallas Cowboys. A reviewer of the book commented, "The title implies, although the text nowhere suggests, that there is a relation between the fate of running back Thomas and the decline in the fortunes of the Dallas Cowboys. Thomas, when he appeared on the professional football scene in 1970, was acclaimed as an outstanding player but within two years was stigmatized as an "emotionally disturbed misfit," largely because of his periods of total silence. Before he was out of football, Thomas got a job at Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in the Legal Department and decided to go back into football. He was called by the Green Bay Packers and went there to try out, but they used him mainly as a blocking back during that preseason and he did not make the team. In 2004, he was inducted into the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame. [21] In 2006, Thomas was one of three Cowboys, along with and Roger Staubach, interviewed for 1971 Cowboys edition of America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions , the NFL Network anthology series chronicling each Super Bowl champion. Related Research Articles. Super Bowl VI was an game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins to decide the (NFL) champion for the 1971 season. The Cowboys defeated the Dolphins by the score of 24–3, to win their first Super Bowl. The game was played on January 16, 1972, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana, the second time the Super Bowl was played in that city. Despite the southerly location, it was unseasonably cold at the time, with the kickoff air temperature of 39 °F (4 °C) making this the coldest Super Bowl played. Terry Tyree Glenn was an American football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys. He was drafted by the New England Patriots seventh overall in the 1996 NFL Draft. He played for Ohio State Buckeyes. Walter Eugene " Chuck " Foreman is a retired American football running back who played for the Minnesota Vikings and the New England Patriots in the National Football League. Considered one of the best passing-catching backs in NFL history, Foreman started in three Super Bowls with the Vikings and was the premiere back for the team for most of the 1970s. Upon entering the league in 1973, he was named the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, and he was selected to the Pro Bowl for the first five seasons of his career. During this time, he was also named to 2 first-team All-Pro teams and 2 second-team All-Pro teams. Nicknamed "The Spin Doctor" for his elusive running abilities, Foreman held the Vikings franchise record for rushing yards from scrimmage upon his retirement. As part of the team's 50th anniversary celebration, Foreman was named as one of the 50 Greatest Vikings in 2010. Calvin G. Hill is a retired American football player. He played running back in the National Football League for twelve seasons. Hill played for the NFL Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, and Cleveland Browns. He also played a season with The Hawaiians of the World Football League in 1975. Timothy LaRay Smith is an American former professional football player who was a runningback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Smith rose to stardom after setting a rushing record in Super Bowl XXII. Walter Benton "Walt" Garrison is a former American football fullback in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at Oklahoma State University. Michael Thomas Bass is a former American football player. Thomas Lance Rentzel is a former American football flanker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams. He played college football at the University of Oklahoma. Kenneth Earl Davis is a former professional American football running back who played for the NFL's Green Bay Packers from 1986–1988 and the from 1989–1994. Joe Dan Washington Jr is a former American football running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Diego Chargers, Baltimore Colts, Washington Redskins, and Atlanta Falcons. The 1966 Green Bay Packers season was their 48th season overall and their 46th in the National Football League. The defending NFL champions had a league-best regular season record of 12–2, led by eighth-year head coach Vince Lombardi and quarterback Bart Starr, in his eleventh NFL season. This article contains an in-depth explanation of the history of the Dallas Cowboys, a professional American football team that competes in the National Football League (NFL). The 1971 Dallas Cowboys season was the franchise's 12th season in the National Football League, the first at the new Texas Stadium in suburban Irving, Texas and the 12th season under head coach Tom Landry. The Cowboys led the NFL with 406 points scored. Their defense allowed 222 points. William Jeffrey Thomas is a former professional American football running back in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Oilers and Kansas City Chiefs. He was drafted by the Cowboys in the first round of the 1972 NFL Draft. He played college football at Boston College. James Michael Montgomery is a former American football running back in the National Football League for the San Diego Chargers, Dallas Cowboys and Houston Oilers. He played college football at Kansas State University. Christine Lynn Michael Sr. is an American football running back who is a free agent. He played college football at Texas A&M, and was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft. This is a list of playoff records set by various teams in various categories in the National Football League during the Super Bowl Era. Herbert Anthony Adderley was an American professional football player who was a cornerback for the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). In 1980, he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Duane Thomas Reflects On Silent 1971 Season. 'I'm remembered for my silence,' Thomas says, nearly two decades after spending two strange seasons as the Dallas Cowboys' best running back. 'Everywhere I go, people say, 'Why didn't you say anything, Duane?'' There is no simple reason why Thomas refused to talk to the press and barely spoke to his coaches and teammates during the Cowboys' NFL championship season of 1971. It would take a book for Thomas to explain, and that's part of the reason he talks now. He wants to publicize 'Duane Thomas and the Fall of America's Team,' a book he co-authored with Sports Illustrated football writer Paul Zimmerman. 'The book was my idea,' said Thomas, who sells medical equipment and runs a travel agency in New Mexico. 'You allow time to elapse and everything to digest properly. Writing the book brought back different emotional levels -- highs, lows, angers, joys, pain. 'It was a matter of relief that it's over with.' After leading the Cowboys in rushing with 803 yards as a rookie in 1970 and helping them to their first NFC title, Thomas asked to renegotiate his contract. The Cowboys told him they would give him more money only if he agreed to an extension, which he refused. Thomas then called Cowboys Coach Tom Landry 'a plastic man,' general manager Tex Schramm 'totally demented' and personnel chief Gil Brandt 'a liar.' He stopped talking to the Dallas media, which he believed was on the side of the Cowboys. He spoke to his teammates only when necessary. In 1971, Thomas gained 793 yards to help the Cowboys to their first NFL title but his silence gave him a reputation as an eccentric. He was traded after the season, spent time with San Diego and Washington of the NFL and Hawaii of the World Football League but never fulfilled the promise he showed in Dallas. A 220-pound slasher, Thomas might have become one of the best runners in NFL history if he had stayed with the Cowboys. At 41, Thomas sticks by the behavior that cost him his pro football career. 'I have disappointment, but no regrets,' said Thomas, a first-round draft choice from West Texas State. 'When you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. In terms of my health and sanity, I went down the right road. 'I was acting strictly on the right side of my mind, the creative side, that year. Football was a non-verbal game, it didn't require you to use the left side. I was really concentrating on being a student of the game.' Thomas' most memorable day in the NFL was Jan. 16, 1972. He rushed for 95 yards and a touchdown to help Dallas defeat Miami 24-3 in Super Bowl VI, then consented to a post-game interview on CBS with Tom Brookshier. Both men were extremely nervous, and the interview became part of Super Bowl folklore. Brookshier opened by asking Thomas if he was as fast as he looked on the field. 'Evidently,' Thomas said. 'Do you like football Duane?' Brookshier asked. 'Yes, that's why I'm a pro football player.' The third, and final question, concerned Thomas' fluctuating weight. 'I weigh what I need to,' was the answer. 'I was completely nervous and didn't know how I would be received,' Thomas said. 'I never caught so much hell in my life. 'I see Brookshier off and on in public, I call his name out to let him know I'm talking. He didn't know what to do or say and he was shaking the mike because he was so nervous. We just get a real big laugh out of it now.' While Thomas can't laugh at his struggles with Cowboy management, the anger from both sides has subsided. Thomas occasionally attends Cowboys' practices and games, and says Landry, Schramm and Brandt are 'extremely cordial' toward him. 'I'm no longer a threat to them,' he said. 'I was their best dream and worst nightmare.' Dallas continued to win when Thomas left, but he struggled. He never played for the Chargers and was a backup during two seasons with the Redskins. There were rumors of drug use, which he and many who knew him denied. There was a failed marriage and financial problems that caused him to pawn his Super Bowl ring. The Cowboys are having some of their worst nightmares on the field these days. They are on their way to a third straight losing season, and Landry, Schramm and Brandt have all received their share of the blame. Thomas says he gets no joy from the Cowboys' slide. 'I don't root for the Cowboys or against the Cowboys,' he said. 'I just watch the games.' Thomas had one other memorable Super Bowl moment. It came during the week before in his rookie year, when Thomas was asked, 'Is this the ultimate game?' 'Well, they're playing it next year, aren't they?' Thomas replied. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle calls that his favorite Super Bowl quote and it gets repeated often every year in the week before the Super Bowl. 'They should have askedif that was the ultimate game for that season,' Thomas says, 18 Super Bowls later. Duane Thomas. Duane Julius Thomas (born June 21, 1947 in Dallas, Texas) is a former American football running back in the National Football League who played four seasons for the Dallas Cowboys, San Diego Chargers and Washington Redskins from 1970 to 1974. Contents. Early years. Thomas was an exceptional running back at Dallas Lincoln High School in the mid-1960s. He continued his success at West Texas State University, playing fullback alongside Mercury Morris, while tearing up defenses for Joe Kerbel's teams. Professional career. Dallas Cowboys (first stint) He was drafted in the first round of the 1970 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys. As a rookie in 1970, even though he didn't start until the fifth game of the season, he led Dallas and finished eighth in the NFL in rushing with 803 yards on 151 carries (5.3 yards per carry) and five touchdowns. At the end of the season, already being compared to Jim Brown, he was named the NFL rookie of the year for the National Football Conference. During the 1971 offseason, because of a contract dispute (he requested for his 3 year contract to be rewritten) and refusing to report to training camp, he was traded to the New England Patriots alongside Halvor Hagen and Honor Jackson, in exchange for Carl Garrett and the Patriots No. 1 draft choice in the 1972 NFL Draft. Within a week, because of problems with the Patriots and head coach John Mazur, in an unprecedented move, the NFL commissioner voided part of the trade, sending Thomas and Garrett back to their original teams. The Patriots kept Hagen and Jackson in exchange for 2 draft choices. Thomas returned to the Cowboys but decided to keep silent all season long, refusing to speak to teammates, management and the media. On October of 1971, he scored the first touchdown in the new Texas Stadium playing against the Patriots. That same 1971 season, Thomas led the league in rushing and total touchdowns with eleven rushing and thirteen overall. He also was named All-Pro and led the Cowboys with 95 rushing yards and a touchdown in Dallas' first franchise Super Bowl victory, a 24-3 win over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI. Before taking part in Super Bowl VI, Thomas was asked about playing in the ultimate game. His response was: "If it's the ultimate game, how come they're playing it again next year?" During a postgame interview following that Super Bowl, CBS television announcer Tom Brookshier noted Thomas' speed and asked him, rhetorically, "Are you that fast?" Thomas responded, "Evidently." Thomas was reportedly voted as the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player by an overwhelming margin. However, Thomas had boycotted the media throughout the season as well, and Larry Klein, editor of Sport , which presented the award, didn't know how Thomas would act at a banquet in New York. With this in mind, Klein announced Roger Staubach as the winner. [1] According to Hunter S. Thompson: "All he did was take the ball and run every time they called his number - which came to be more and more often, and in the Super Bowl Thomas was the whole show." (Thompson: Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail '72) During the 1972 offseason he became even more isolated and insubordinate, so he was traded to the San Diego Chargers in exchange for Mike Montgomery and Billy Parks. San Diego Chargers. He started with the Chargers earning a 20 day suspension for failing to report to the team, and things escalated from there. He would never play a game for the Chargers, after the team put him on the reserve list, making him ineligible to play for the rest of the season. On July 20 1973, the Chargers traded him to the Washington Redskins in exchange for their No. 1 draft choice in the 1975 NFL Draft and their No. 2 draft choice in 1976 NFL Draft. Washington Redskins. Thomas played with the Redskins in 1973 and 1974, rushing for a total of 442 yards. He eventually was waived because of conflicts with the team. His career rushing totals in the NFL were 2,038 yards on 453 carries, with 21 touchdowns. He also caught 38 passes for 297 yards, with three touchdowns. The Hawaiians WFL. In 1975, he played for the The Hawaiians of the WFL, until the league folded at the end of the year. Dallas Cowboys (second stint) In 1976, the Cowboys signed Thomas again for a comeback, but he was waived before the season started. British Columbia Lions. In 1977, he signed with the British Columbia Lions, but was placed on waivers after just a couple of weeks. Green Bay Packers. In 1979, he was signed by the Green Bay Packers, but was waived before the season started. It was a tough time for him. In 1989, Thomas, with the help of freelance sports writer Paul Zimmerman, wrote Duane Thomas and the Fall of America's Team , a memoir of Thomas' time playing for the Dallas Cowboys. A reviewer of the book commented, "The title implies, although the text nowhere suggests, that there is a relation between the fate of running back Thomas and the decline in the fortunes of the Dallas Cowboys. Thomas, when he appeared on the professional football scene in 1970, was acclaimed as an outstanding player but within two years was stigmatized as an "emotionally disturbed misfit," largely because of his periods of total silence. With coauthor Zimmerman, a freelance writer, Thomas attempts to show why that classification was unfair, and excerpts from his journal depict a disillusioned idealist; but at a remove of almost two decades, few will care." [ citation needed ] Before he was out of football, Thomas got a job at Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in the Legal Department and decided to go back into football. He was called by the Green Bay Packers and went there to try out, but they used him mainly as a blocking back during that preseason and he did not make the team. In August 2008 Thomas visited the Cowboys during their training camp in Oxnard, California. Treatment of Thomas in Coyne and Millman history. The 2010 book The Ones Who Hit the Hardest by Chad Millman and Shawn Coyne [2] on the Pittsburgh Steelers and their great 1970s rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys offers a critical assessment of Thomas. They note that Thomas was highly regarded by the Cowboys when he first arrived, and that he was an avid team player who worked very hard and produced spectacular results on the field. Unfortunately an agent who Thomas contracted to look after his financial matters so he could concentrate on football, pocketed large amounts of his cash and failed to cover his bills. A looming divorce also added to the runner's woes. Thomas' sterling play however helped Dallas to the Super Bowl where they faced the Baltimore Colts. In a game marked by poor Dallas performance and turnovers, (including 10 penalties for more than 100 yards) the authors hold that Thomas fumbled in the third quarter, 2 yards shy of a touchdown, in a disputed referee call. Coach Tom Landry, the authors contend, abandoned the running game in favor of action by quarterback . With plenty of time remaining, the Cowboy offense stalled, and Morton threw three interceptions in the fourth quarter, dooming Dallas' chances of a win. After the lost game, Landry in public comments blamed the 3rd quarter fumble by Thomas as the reason for the loss. This embittered the running back intensely, who felt his 1,116 yards that year, and his scoring of the only Cowboy touchdown in the game deserved better. [3] Relations deteriorated after that, state Millman and Coyne, and Thomas resented Landry's perceived lack of appreciation the following year. The pending divorce, and looming IRS audits and claims for back taxes added further pressure on the 23-year old running back. Thomas became dissatisfied with his salary and demanded a renegotiation. The authors however note that Thomas was not the only player to run into financial difficulties or attempt to modify his contract. "No one produced like Duane Thomas had in 1970. The evidence was incontrovertible.. Thomas understood that playing out his option was a ludicrous choice. The average career of an NFL player is less than five years. The Dallas Cowboys would get the best years of his football career and then he'd still be at the mercy of the owners and their commissioner. Thomas reconsidered their offer to extend their contract and realized that the new deal would cover his debts and alimony, but would leave him only subsistence wages. He'd be a star on the field but a lackey off of it. Sharing his personal problems with the Cowboys gave them the opportunity to punch his situation into one of their computers. It spit out the best possible deal for the organization- keeping its star running back under their thumb at the lowest price. [they] had him just where they wanted him- insecure about his position and saddled with debt. Some of the greatest players in the history of professional football- , Bob Lilly, - had faced the same circumstances before Thomas had. They had cowered and taken the Cowboy contract extensions." [4] Thomas attempted to get football great Jim Brown to intervene on his behalf to no avail. In 1971, his bitterness exploded in a training camp press conference, in which he dared to rail against Landry and management. Rumors spread through training camp that Thomas and the Black Muslims were in sync to kidnap Tex Schramm, after observers noted a small dark man "with only one name" shadowing Thomas. The controversy churned with his trade to the Patriots and the subsequent return to the Cowboys. Thomas had alienated many of his teammates, nevertheless Landry generously took him back on the special teams where he performed well, and eased him back into the running back slot. His performance was better than ever, although he refused to speak to reporters (who dubbed him 'The Sphinx") or to shake hands with some teammates after making outstanding plays. His quality play however culminated in an excellent Super Bowl performance and likely MVP award, but this was denied due to his previous conduct. Millman and Coyne quote some Dallas players who still admired Thomas for standing up to management. Despite the victory, Thomas was traded to the San Diego Chargers in 1972, who later traded him to the Washington Redskins in 1973. The Cowboys would not win another Super Bowl until the coming of another running sensation, one . [5] Dorsett claims that late one night early in his career he was at a house party when the doorbell rang. There, outside in the darkness stood the spectral figure of Duane Thomas. The ex- Cowboy favorite and the new sensation stared at one another for a long moment. Dorsett gestured, but no words were exchanged, only a brief nod, one running back to another. Then Thomas began to slowly melt back into the night, as mysteriously as he had come. Symbolically, it seemed, the torch had passed. [6] As to his undoubted talent, Millman and Coyne maintain that Cowboy coach Landry learned to manage gifted players better, without heavy micro-management, as a result of Duane Thomas: "Landry had learned the hard Lesson with Duane Thomas. Sometimes you have to leave the gifted alone." [7] Ex-Cowboy Duane Thomas 'found peace in the game' Thomas' economy of language was so memorable, in fact, that to some it overshadowed his performance. Thomas rushed for 95 yards and scored on a three-yard run in the Dallas Cowboys' 24-3 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI. After the game, CBS Sports analyst Tom Brookshier said to him, "Duane, you do things with speed, but you never really hurry a lot, like the great Jim Brown. You never hurry into a hole. You take your time, make a spin, yet you still outrun people. Are you that fast? Are you quick, would you say?" After pausing for a few seconds -- an eternity on live TV -- Thomas replied: "Evidently." It was one of the few moments of levity in Thomas' brief, troubled career with the Cowboys. He helped Dallas to the Super Bowl in 1970 and 1971 but was traded in 1972 in the midst of a contract dispute. Along the way, he described Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm as "sick, demented and totally dishonest" -- "Well, he got two out of three," Schramm replied -- and coach Tom Landry as "a plastic man." Angered by what he thought was an unfair contract, Thomas refused to speak to coaches and the media in 1971. And he remains bitter over elements of his second Super Bowl season. "When people bring up the game, what they normally say is that I should have been the MVP of the Super Bowl," Thomas said in a recent telephone interview. "There was a lot of controversy about how the Cowboys manipulated the voting to give the award to Roger Staubach. "A lot of it had to do with me being a black player. They wanted to be a lily-white America's Team. That was their image." Thomas' image has been that of the angry young man battling the establishment. But Thomas said he always found peace in the game. "What the game meant to me at that particular point was setting a goal and accomplishing it," he said. "The differences you may have had, the controversies, tend to be insignificant. "I recall those things, but the main thrust of what I remember is the meaning of friendship, the meaning of teamwork and dealing with adversity and accomplishing the goal. That was what it was all about with me. I was at peace with myself, even with everything that was going on." Thomas was born in Dallas but lived for several years in Los Angeles before returning to attend high school. He has lived outside Texas since 1979 and has been "sort of distant from football" over the years, he said. He also had distanced himself from his roots until recently, when he returned to Dallas from his home near San Diego to be inducted in the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame. "The most interesting thing about that trip was to meet players who had played before and had laid the groundwork," Thomas said. "It gave me some new horizons going back to the Dallas area in terms of football. It was a groundbreaking visit." Have we seen the last of the 'Be Someone' graffiti in Houston? Fans of high-end restaurant chain Steak 48 react to new spending minimum, dress code 16 years ago a judge gave a young trafficker a second chance. Today he returned to court to become a lawyer Another tick-borne illness may be a growing problem Here's everywhere Chad Johnson ate in Houston and the crazy tips he left Travis Scott, Kylie Jenner were spotted around Houston over the weekend 5 Best Male Enhancement Pills: Top Sex Enhancer Supplements For Men 2021. Quietly, he's had several such experiences over the years. One of the most gratifying, he said, involved Lee Roy Jordan, who played for Bear Bryant at Alabama and was the Cowboys' middle linebacker for more than a decade. "Lee Roy called me a few years after I left the Cowboys and said he wanted to have lunch with me," Thomas said. "He said, `Duane, you know, when you were on the team, I disagreed with everything you said and did. But things have happened to me in my life, and I have a new perspective now.' " "It was a very emotional moment for me. I had always respected Lee Roy as a player, and as a man he solidified everything I felt about him." That conversation, Thomas said, summed up everything he thought about the concept of team. "We all come with idiosyncrasies and dysfunctions and prejudices, but we unite on the basis of what we had in common," he said. "That commonality was the Dallas Cowboys. "So what Lee Roy said moved me so. I gained so much respect for him. He had been influenced by the atmosphere in Dallas at the time we played, but because of episodes he had outside of the game, he was able to see me in a clear light. He understood that I was there like he was, to perform and make money. And Thomas said has been contacted by others who have made amends with their old teammate's viewpoints. "Later on, another player approached me and said, `Duane, I had no idea about this or that.' They thought the way they did at the time because they were tied up with their own issues." Thomas has even reconciled with Landry. "He dealt with things at the time in the best way he could," Thomas said. "I accepted that so I could move on. There was no need in me staying angry at him. "I couldn't have gone to two Super Bowls if it hadn't been for the personality of Tom Landry. And so this has all been worth it for me in terms of the experience. What you take with you is what you learn from experiences that help you grow mentally, psychologically and spiritually." Duane Thomas: His own man. 1 of 3 NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 10, 1972-THOMAS NOT TALKING-Dallas Cowboys running back Duane Thomas sits quietly by himself during press day for the team in New Orleans, 1/10/72. Thomas refused interviews and declined to pose for pictures. he was fined last week by the team for missing practice. AP Wirephoto. HOUCHRON CAPTION (02/01/04): Duane Thomas hs opened up and mellowed after being thought of as an angry person during his playing days with the Cowboys. SPECIAL SECTION: SUPER BOWL XXXVIII KICKOFF: 5:25 P.M. Show More Show Less. 2 of 3 MIAMI - JANUARY 17: Duane Thomas running back for the Dallas Cowboys spikes the ball after a touchdown during Super Bowl V against the Baltimore Colts at the Oarnge Bowl on January 17, 1971 in Miami, Florida. The Colts defeated the Cowboys 16-13. (Photo by Focus On Sport/Getty Images) Focus On Sport/Contributor Show More Show Less. 3 of 3 Dallas running back Duane Thomas is stopped by Miami tacklers after picking up a short gain during the Super Bowl game in New Orleans, Jan. 16, 1972. Miami tacklers are, from left, Doug Swift, Nick Buoniconti and Manny Fernandez. (AP Photo) Uncredited/STF Show More Show Less. Duane Thomas always flowed to the beat of a different drummer. Some running backs looked for the hole. To Thomas, the entire field was the hole. To some, running plays were diagrams on paper. To Thomas, they were performance art, to the background of Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock or Grover Washington Jr. "It was a spiritual rising that I would connect with," Thomas said. "The guard takes the lead, and I'm playing the melody behind him. I'm accentuating what we are doing, and we are playing a concerto. "It was a production. It was joy to me. Isaac Hayes has a song called 'Joy' where he says, 'Thank you, baby.' He's talking about his romantic setup, but the 'baby' was the game to me." It's a colorful description very much out of tune with the popular notion of Thomas as a man of few words, as established during a fractious 1971 season that culminated in his 95-yard rushing performance in the Dallas Cowboys' 24-3 win over Miami in Super Bowl VI. Granted, Thomas can still cut quickly to the rhetorical chase. When a friend recently told him, "Duane, you're unusual," Thomas replied, "We've established that." But witty brevities aside, Thomas at age 69, living happily in retirement in Sedona, Ariz., is more than happy to discourse at length on any number of topics, including football, Faust, the Temptations, fans, Tom Landry, traditions, Isaac Hayes, writing and rewriting, Pete Rozelle and Tex Schramm, what people expect of him and what he expects of himself. After all these years, from his youth in Dallas and Los Angeles through college at West Texas State, pro ball in Dallas, San Diego and Washington and life after football, he is "a part of all that I have met." Football and its surroundings, including the concept of team, were very much a part of that for Thomas. Along with his 1971 silence, which accompanied a contract dispute with the Cowboys, he probably remains best known today for his comment on the Super Bowl that, "If it's the ultimate game, why are they playing it again next year?" Today, he remains somewhat bemused by his words. "It's interesting how words would come out of my mouth to capture the moment that I was in, the state of mind that I was in, and how I was looking at things," he said. In the case of his Super Bowl comment, while his listeners were focused on the game ahead, Thomas was already months down the road. "At that point (before Super Bowl VI), I was just upset that the season was over," he said. "The Super Bowl wasn't the ultimate to me. I was just getting started. I was having fun, and I thought management was trying to take the fun out of it." Raised in Dallas, Thomas spent several years in Los Angeles when his parents wanted to get him away from what they considered bad influences. He said he thrived in Southern California but returned to Dallas, playing at Lincoln High School and West Texas State before being drafted in the first round, much to his dismay, by the Cowboys. "Dallas was the last place I wanted to go," he said. "I didn't want to be part of the social and political crap in Dallas, so I started crafting my world on the field. My goal was to deliver a great production for the fans. The creativity of each play presented a new opportunity." He said he liked and respected Landry but chafed at some of the more regimented aspects of the game, such as having to answer roll call at team meetings. "They said it was a tradition," he said. "Well, I didn't agree to it. Why impose it on me?" He was a lifelong individualist in an era that valued conformity. Oddly enough, he is now often cited as a precursor of such individuals as , who also gave media representatives the silent treatment in Seattle, or Colin Kaepernick, the 49ers quarterback who drew attention in 2016 for his decision not to stand during the national anthem. (Thomas in 1973 was accused by some Buffalo fans of being inattentive during the national anthem, but one of his favorite NFL memories, he said, is hearing the Temptations perform the song during a game in Detroit.) Thomas, however, scoffs at such comparisons. "Marshawn Lynch is Marshawn Lynch, and Colin Kaepernick is Colin Kaepernick," he said. "They're different individuals." Diversity, he said, should be celebrated. "I may have been different, but it won the Super Bowl," he said.