They say Tom Landry was stubborn, and perhaps he was. Yet when Randy White went to his office two years into his career with a proposition, not only was he receptive, he agreed.
That conversation changed the course of football history. When the NFL named its All-Century team, it was an absolute lock that White would be listed among the defensive tackles. Yes, it didn't work at middle linebacker, but there was a once-in-a-lifetime football player begging to be let loose.
Although selected second overall in the 1975 NFL Draft, the headliner in the famed Dirty Dozen class, White spent his first two seasons being mostly confused and confined as a middle linebacker. Once moved to defensive tackle, success came immediately, the All-American at Maryland earning his first Pro Bowl and All-Pro nods in 1977. Later that season, White was named co-MVP of Super Bowl XII along with defensive end Harvey Martin. To this day, they are the lone co-MVP winners of a Super Bowl.
Before games, White would meditate in the dark for 30 minutes or so because he was so intense, so jacked up, so ready to run through brick walls that he needed to chill, take his pulse down. Even then, when he was standing in the tunnel waiting to take the field, every hair on his arm would be upright, the goosebumps so intense, explosive almost, that teammates would be in awe.
As former Super Bowl-winning coach Dick Vermeil once said, "Randy might be the finest defensive player I ever coached against. He created a war on every snap."
Statistically speaking, no tackle in the history of the game can match what White did those first two seasons as a starter, a combined 241 tackles and 29 sacks, as credited by the team. Most tackles are lucky to finish a season with 40 tackles.
Thing was, one never knew where White was going to make a tackle. This guy wasn't gap-hitting the run by any means. His legendary tackle of Philadelphia wide receiver Scott Fitzkee on Dec. 21, 1980 came 49 yards downfield, and no, White didn't drop back in coverage. He saw the play unfolding, reversed his pass rush and tracked down a wideout. Keep in mind, White was 6-4 and 257 pounds.
White was almost superhuman, sitting out just two games over 14 seasons and never missing a practice, all while bringing his unique intensity to every snap. He's the only player in franchise history with 700 solo tackles and 100 sacks, and that doesn't account for all the double- and triple-teams he saw, which made his teammates' jobs that much easier.
"His performances range anywhere from spectacular to spectacular," Landry said.
A nine-time Pro Bowl selection and seven-time first-team All-Pro, White was a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Fame selection in 1994, the same year he entered the Ring of Honor. The case can be made that no player in franchise history was more dominant at his position, perhaps the only debate being guard Larry Allen.
Longtime Cowboys defensive coordinator Ernie Stautner, himself a Hall of Fame defensive tackle, said of White, "He's the most intense player I have seen in 42 years as a player and coach in the NFL. Nothing interfered with his desire to win."