Super Bowl Champ Dead At 79

D.D. Lewis, the two-time Super Bowl-winning Dallas Cowboys linebacker whose legacy was defined by the team’s unstoppable defensive line, passed away at 79 this week, the team announced.

The all-American Mississippi State graduate became one of the most prolific players in collegiate history, joining the program in 1965 and winning the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1967. He was selected to the division’s All-American team that same year.

Lewis entered the NFL draft in 1968, receiving a sixth-round pick by the Cowboys and seamlessly melding into an outstanding defensive line over the course of 13 seasons. He played double-digit games every season, missing just a total of four regular-season games in his career.

Incredibly, Lewis put his professional football career on hold to enter the draft in 1969 and serve in the Vietnam War.

The Cowboys’ stretch of success through the 1970s culminated with Super Bowl championships in 1972 and 1978, much of which was attributable to Lewis’s reputation for sacks and interceptions.  His iconic sack in Super Bowl XII helped push the Cowboys to a 27-10 win over the Denver Broncos.

One year later, he recorded his fourth and final postseason interception in Dallas’ loss to Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XIII.

He appeared in three other Super Bowls and seven conference championships and finished with a lifetime career recording 186 games and 15.5 sacks.

During the 1975 season, Lewis recorded two interceptions in the NFC championship against the Rams, sending Dallas to the Super Bowl. He became part of Tom Landry’s “Doomsday Defense” next to Lee Roy Jordan.

He was awarded a place in the Cowboys’ Silver Anniversary Team in 1984, three years after his retirement.

“Texas Stadium has a hole in its roof so God can watch his favorite team play,” Lewis famously quipped to a reporter about his love for Dallas.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001 and 10 years later into the Mississippi State Ring of Honor, the NY Post reported.

“We mourn the passing of Bulldog legend D.D. Lewis,” Mississippi State said in a post on social media. “An All-SEC standout and 1967 SEC Defensive Player of the Year, he played 13 years with the Dallas Cowboys, appeared in five Super Bowls, won two, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001.”

Bob Breunig, another member of the “Doomsday Defense,” praised Lewis for helping build a bulwark that often proved insurmountable when the stakes couldn’t have been higher.