Whether or not Roger Staubach is the greatest quarterback to ever play the game is a discussion for another time; by all accounts he's on the short list, one of eight named to the NFL All-Century Team. So given his place in the game, consider that on multiple occasions Staubach has said without hesitation that if he had to complete a single pass with it all on the line, he would throw that ball to Drew Pearson.

The fact Pearson wasn't inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame until 2021 is beyond tragic and cruel. Not only was he the last first-team All-Decade 1970s player on offense or defense to be enshrined, the entire second-team offense was also elected before him. The second team. The punter, too.

It was a different game back then in so many ways, which makes throwing up a bunch of numbers absolutely useless. Heck, Pearson led the league with 870 receiving yards in 1977. Isaac Bruce had 1,781 yards in 1995 and didn't lead the league. Antonio Brown had 1,834 in 2015 and didn't lead the league.

All we can do, though, is judge players for how they rated among their competition, in their time. An undrafted free agent coming out of the University of Tulsa, Pearson made the Cowboys as a third-string wideout expected to contribute on special teams. By his second season, in 1974, he had finished second in the league with 1,087 yards and earned first-team All-Pro honors.

He wasn't the tallest, fastest or biggest receiver in the league, or even on his team, but Pearson possessed a knack, a sixth sense really, of knowing where to run, or cut, to find that magical place in the secondary where the defensive backs and safeties weren't. Even more importantly, his quarterbacks, mainly Staubach and Danny White, unequivocally believed in him, the former often throwing balls to a spot where he knew Pearson would be before the receiver even made the decision to be there.

"There's no one I trusted more to be where he was supposed to be than Drew. Sometimes we'd come out of the huddle and just steal a quick glance at each other, and we knew. We knew what each other was thinking no matter what play I just called," Staubach said. "There wasn't a better receiver in the league during my career, there just wasn't."

Pearson was a three-time All-Pro and Pro Bowl selection, averaged 16 yards per catch for his 11-year career, and was always the go-to target when the game was on the line, never more so than in the playoffs. Of course, he also caught the original "Hail Mary" in a divisional playoff game at Minnesota on Dec. 28, 1975. Maybe, maybe not, with a little bit of a push off.

While he was definitely entering the twilight of his career, Pearson likely had a few more seasons to pad his numbers before a horrific, heartbreaking car accident on March 22, 1984 killed his younger brother, Carey, and nearly took Drew as well. When he woke up in the hospital after emergency surgery to stop the bleeding from his liver, the first person he saw was head coach Tom Landry.

Few players have been more beloved by teammates and fans alike than Pearson. To talk with him is to genuinely like him. When he was inducted into the Ring of Honor in 2011, which was long overdue, many felt the next celebration would be the Hall of Fame. Finally, it came.