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By Saad Yousuf
6h ago
The passage of time can be a sensational author. Accomplishments, from the remarkably memorable to the easily forgettable, don’t change over the years. They become a solidified part of history. They carry out their purpose and quickly become yesterday’s story. The moment becomes clay.
The perception of history is often molded by the ones who look back upon it. For football fans past a certain generation, Chuck Howley’s legacy has been molded into the answer to one of the most popular NFL trivia questions.
When the question is asked, who is the only player in history to win the Most Valuable Player of a Super Bowl despite being on the losing team, everybody seems to remember Jan. 17, 1971. Whether you watched that game live or were decades from being born, you know Howley’s two interceptions secured the MVP award, despite the Dallas Cowboys falling to the Baltimore Colts.
It’s undoubtedly a unique, and prestigious, part of Howley’s story. It’s also far from what Howley’s legacy should be remembered for as he finally, 45 years after first gaining eligibility, enters the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“Howley was a phenomenal technician and (Tom) Landry had a very exacting profile of who could play for him,” said longtime voice of the Cowboys Brad Sham, who joined the team in 1976. “Landry was an engineer. He developed the flex defense and it was not easy to play. To play it at the level that Chuck Howley did, it’s great to see him recognized like this. Maybe people will delve into him a little more now.”
Chuck Howley was selected to the Pro Bowl six times and named first-team AP All-Pro five times. (Associated Press)
Although Howley’s career is a lot more than being the only Super Bowl MVP on a losing team in NFL history, that honor from Super Bowl V is symbolic of his football journey. Doing his job at the highest level, even if the headlines and cameras went in another direction, may be the defining quality of Howley’s story. It’s certainly atop the explanation of why the knock on his door for Canton came so much later than it should have.
Howley’s career nearly ended before ever getting started. A training camp knee injury in 1959 limited Howley to just three games in his sophomore NFL season and completely wiped out his 1960 campaign. When he tried to come back, the Chicago Bears, who had drafted him seventh in 1958, sent him packing to Dallas.
The two players that ended up being the return for Chicago went on to play a combined 27 games in the NFL. Howley would go on to play 165 games for the Cowboys over the course of 13 seasons and become just the fourth player in Cowboys history to be inducted into the franchise’s Ring of Honor.
“He was just a great athlete,” Cowboys Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach said on the day he delivered the Hall of Fame induction news to Howley earlier this year. “He was a fantastic businessman, too. I learned some things from him. He had the skills of a great linebacker. He had the speed, he was smart. He was just a really, really great football player.”
When Howley arrived in Dallas in 1961, he was one of a few who could be considered a “great” football player. The Cowboys were coming off their inaugural season in which they went 0-11-1. There wasn’t a lot for the new franchise to hang its hat on, but Howley’s arrival offered hope. The Cowboys were still years away from drafting Staubach, who would become arguably the face of the Cowboys’ success in the 70s.
Even before Staubach’s arrival, Howley helped the Cowboys to a couple of NFL championship games, in 1966 and 1967, respectively. The Cowboys lost both games to the Packers, the latter being the memorable Ice Bowl. After Staubach arrived, the Cowboys were back in the biggest game and, despite Howley’s best efforts against the Colts on that day in 1971, the Cowboys fell short again.
The following season, the Cowboys returned to the Super Bowl. This time, they were against a Miami Dolphins team that was one year away from completing the lone perfect season in NFL history. The Cowboys’ defense stifled Bob Griese and the Dolphins on the way to a 24-3 win. Staubach won the Super Bowl MVP after completing 12 of 19 passes for 119 yards and a couple of touchdowns. But as was the case the year before, Howley’s fingerprints were all over the game as he recovered a fumble and tallied an interception.
As the 70s got rolling, Staubach’s shine justifiably got brighter. He was joined by a bevy of other players on the Cowboys roster, many of whom would go on to secure their bust in Canton. Just as the Cowboys began to rise, Howley’s career came to a halt. Injuries derailed his 1972 postseason and essentially erased his 1973 season before Howley officially hung up the cleats.
Following a hiccup in 1974, the Cowboys kept rolling. In 1975 they reached the Super Bowl but lost. After a quick showing in the playoffs the following year, Dallas won it all in the 1977 season, just months after inducting Howley into the Ring of Honor.
“Landry called him the best linebacker he ever had,” Sham said. “I don’t know how much more one needs than that. He was physical but he was a very smart player and he could go anywhere on the field.”
When Howley arrived in Dallas, the Cowboys were in the basement. When an injury quietly ushered Howley out of the league, the Cowboys were a well-oiled machine with the skill and talent to match the charisma. His teammates and coaches recognized what he meant to the team, and by extension, the story of the league.
By many on the outside, Howley got lost in the shuffle. He became just a part of Staubach’s Cowboys, even though he rose the Cowboys to unprecedented heights before Staubach’s arrival. As the years continued to pass by, No. 54 in Dallas in the 70s became synonymous with Randy White, a Hall of Famer in his own right who arrived in 1975 and was the first to don that jersey following Howley’s departure.
Finally, in 2023, Howley got the call he long deserved. The call to immortalize his name and legacy in Canton. It’s a somewhat bittersweet moment, as Howley suffers from late-stage dementia. His loved ones, former teammates and family alike, hope that he can understand the gravity of this moment, that his memory can do enough to remember his extraordinary achievements that earned him this occasion.
“He was a dominant player. It’s great to see that recognized now,” Sham said. “Twenty-five years later, when people go through the Hall of Fame, just as when they come (to AT&T Stadium) and see his name in the Ring of Honor, it doesn’t matter (the time passed). The important thing is, there he is.”
For too long, Howley’s legacy was forgotten. Howley is still the answer to one of the NFL’s most popular trivia questions. But now, he’s recognized as more than that. Now, he’s a Hall of Famer. In the minds of many, he always has been.
