One of the brightest stars in the Cowboys firmament has dimmed. Pro Football Hall of Famer and Ring of Honor member Rayfield Wright passed away Thursday at the age of 76.
The offensive lineman was diagnosed with dementia in 2012. Several members of the Cowboys family, including the legendary Gil Brandt, had been asking fans on social media to keep Wright in their prayers in recent days.
“Over the past few weeks, it has become abundantly clear the love that so many Hall of Famers and others around the NFL felt toward Rayfield, his wife, Di, and the extended Wright family,” Hall of Fame President Jim Porter said in a statement. “His gentle nature away from the game belied his commanding presence on the field. All fans, especially those of the Cowboys, will remember fondly his dominance on the offensive line in the 1970s and how he took protecting Dallas quarterbacks as his personal mission.”
Wright grew up in the tiny town of Griffin, Georgia and attended nearby Fort Valley State University on an athletics scholarship. To keep his education funded, the school expected the 6-foot-6-inch basketball star to also play football, despite not making his high school squad. He went All-Conference in both sports; chosen as an early NBA draft pick, he elected to stay in school to earn his degree.
Brandt and the Cowboys made him a seventh-round selection in 1967, one of the first players ever plucked from a historically-Black college. He took the first airplane ride of his life to sign his $55,000 three-year contract, which also came with a $10,000 signing bonus and a Pontiac Bonneville.
Pro Football Hall of Famer Rayfield Wright passed away Thursday at the age of 76.
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After forays at tight end and even defensive end, Cowboys coach Tom Landry moved Wright to tackle. He was knocked out cold in his first game at the position by the Rams’ Deacon Jones, but Wright played on, eventually winning the game ball that afternoon.
The ‘Big Cat’ went on to earn six straight Pro Bowl nods starting in 1971 en route to the franchise’s first Super Bowl title, and he grew to become one of the most immovable lineman of his era. Men like Jack Youngblood, Carl Eller, and L.C. Greenwood, the greatest pass rushers of the day, all placed Wright among the best they ever faced.
“If he got beat,” quarterback Roger Staubach famously said, “I don’t remember it.”
Wright was on the field for some of the Cowboys’ most iconic moments: The Ice Bowl, the Hail Mary, and five Super Bowl appearances over his thirteen-year career.
But all the blows absorbed over those years took a brutal toll.
“Sometimes, I walk into the kitchen and forget why I went there,” he once told the New York Times. “I’ve gotten into several car accidents because of seizures. Totaled two cars. My memory is not good. There’s a big fight within myself.”
Wright was one of a host of retired NFL players- and several high-profile Cowboys- to file a 2012 lawsuit accusing the league of ignoring a link between concussions and permanent brain injuries.
At the time of the 2014 Times piece, one of the greatest and most decorated linemen in NFL history was making less than $2,500 per month, including $82.20 in pension from the league.
“Looking back, my instinct was to always take the easy road,” Wright said at the time of his long-overdue Pro Football Hall of Fame induction in 2006, the same year as Troy Aikman. “But the easy road never came my way.”
The flag at the Hall of Fame in Canton will fly at half-staff through services for Wright to be held next Friday.
Cowboys Wire told Wright’s incredible life story in February 2021.