John Niland, OL star of Cowboys' original rise to power, passes away at 82

Before Nate Newton, Tyron Smith, Zack Martin, or even Larry Allen, there was John Niland. Niland, who played guard for the Cowboys for nine seasons during the franchise's initial rise to power, died over the weekend at 82 years old. One of the foundational building blocks that helped Dallas to its first-ever Super Bowl appearance as well as its first Lombardi win, Niland was named to six Pro Bowls. (The four legends listed above are the only other Cowboys O-linemen with more.) And he earned first-team All-Pro honors three times over a sparkling career that saw him miss just two games in total. Coming out of Iowa in 1966, Niland was drafted by the Cowboys with the fifth overall pick, the first offensive lineman ever selected in the first round by a club that has made a habit of it since. By his second season, he was the full-time starter on the left side, with head coach Tom Landry often using the 6-foot-3-inch, 245-pounder as a pulling guard in the era when the technique was just coming into vogue. The Cowboys enjoyed their first winning season while Niland was a rookie, and they never finished at or below .500 in his nine seasons in Dallas. Along the way, they went to the playoffs in every year but his last with the team, in 1974. Niland played in some of the biggest games in franchise history, including the 1967 "Ice Bowl" versus Green Bay, the Super Bowl V loss to Baltimore, and the dominant victory in Super Bowl VI, which gave Dallas its first title. And his career overlapped with some of the Cowboys' most iconic names: Niland helped protect Don Meredith, Craig Morton, and Roger Staubach, and he blocked for Dan Reeves, Don Perkins, Calvin Hill, and Duane Thomas. Niland once credited his daily practices against Hall of Famer Bob Lilly with making him the outstanding lineman he was. He was traded to Philadelphia just prior to the 1975 season and played one more year before a knee injury forced him into retirement. Off the field, Niland lived a wild and colorful life, even for the late 1960s and early '70s. Nicknamed "Johnny Nightlife" by some of his teammates, Niland was part of that first group of Cowboys players who became celebrities around town, finding various ways to match their football salaries... and then spend every bit of it. “I did get real interested in being a status person,” Niland once explained per The Athletic. “The Cowboys were status, the whole image of being from Dallas with the winning attitude that we had. It was the Dallas mystique.” Drugs and alcohol were a near-constant presence for a large portion of Niland's life, both while with the Cowboys and after leaving the game. He once called cocaine his "drug of choice," but he also experimented with amphetamines and LSD. One reported incident involved Niland running rampant through a Dallas neighborhood and banging on doors of homes while having hallucinations and searching for his wife. It took multiple police officers to subdue Niland. The whole episode was, by Niland's own admission, a bad acid trip, but it was largely downplayed by the media of the day. Niland was besieged by financial troubles and legal disputes after his playing days, and even once spent 11 months in a federal prison camp for submitting false financial information to obtain a loan. Over the last 15 years of his life, Niland joined a large group of retired players in suing the NFL over its alleged negligence and misinformation campaign regarding concussions and head injuries. Niland himself experienced dementia that he attributed to football. “I can't remember a time when it didn't impact our life,” Niland's daughter said. “We were always talking about it. We experienced a lot of hardships as a family. He was often confused later in life or angry for reasons he didn't understand. We knew it was the CTE. We know it. We don't need a test to tell us, but we know that he was. He knew himself he was so heavily impacted by that.” Niland's family has announced they intend to donate his brain to Boston University’s CTE Center. Todd is on X at @ToddBrock24f7. Also, follow Cowboys Wire on Facebook to join in on the conversation with fellow fans! This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: John Niland, OL star of Cowboys' original rise to power, passes away at 82