Best Dallas Cowboys player to wear No. 30 holds a sad NFL record as a head coach

Welcome back once again to The Landry Hat's series on the best Dallas Cowboys players to wear every jersey number from No. 0 to No. 99.

With the singles, teens, and 20s now in the rearview, we're ready to press forward, and we've got an intriguing entry here to kick off the next batch at No. 30. But before we get to our selection, who most actually recognize more as a head coach than a player, let's first have a look at everyone who's worn the number for America's Team over the years.

Israel Abanikanda, RB
DaRon Bland, CB
Anthony Brown, CB
Alonzo Coleman, RB
Mike Dowdle, LB
Lance Frazier, DB
Issiac Holt, DB
Christine Michael, RB
Sterling Moore, CB
Timmy Newsome, RB
Qadree Ollison, RB
Dan Reeves, RB
Robert Rochell, DB
Allen Rossum, DB
Darren Studstill, DB
George Teague, DB
Juanyeh Thomas, S
Dick Van Raaphorst, K
Chauncey Washington, RB
Bryant Westbrook, DB
Kenny Wheaton, DB
Charley Young, RB

If forced to choose a runner-up, we'd probably have to roll with cornerback Anthony Brown, who donned the digit for six of his seven seasons in Dallas from 2016 to 2021 before switching to No. 3 in 2022 after the league relaxed some of its rules on defensive players wearing single digits. Brown was never a superstar by any stretch of the imagination, but he posted a respectable 324 total tackles and nine interceptions during his run with the Cowboys before closing out his career with the San Francisco 49ers.

But the clear-cut call here is Dan Reeves, who, again, most may know as a head coach but was a solid running back during his playing days.

Dan Reeves won a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys as a player and as an assistant coach

After going undrafted in 1965 out of South Carolina, where he played quarterback, Reeves signed with the Cowboys as a free agent, turning down an AFL offer to join the then-San Diego Chargers as well as an offer from MLB's Pittsburgh Pirates, as he'd also been a solid baseball player for the Gamecocks.

As Dallas didn't need another quarterback, Tom Landry originally planned to convert Reeves to play safety, but after the team suffered several injuries at running back, he moved him to the offensive backfield instead.

Reeves didn't take many snaps as a rookie, rushing for just 102 yards and two touchdowns on 33 carries, but after an experiment that saw Landry shift superstar safety Mel Renfro to running back backfired when the future Hall of Famer (and our selection in an earlier entry) went down with an injury in Week 1 of the 1966 season, Reeves stepped up with a sensational season.

Not only did the Georgia native lead the Cowboys with 757 rushing yards, he also finished second on the team with 557 receiving yards on 41 catches. With eight rushing touchdowns and another eight scores through the air, he tied the Cleveland Browns' Leroy Kelly for the most total TDs in the entire league that season, ultimately earning a trip to the Pro Bowl and Second-Team All-Pro honors.

To this day, only Emmitt Smith has scored more total TDs in a single season than Reeves did in helping the Cowboys to the NFL Championship Game in 1966, doing so on three occasions, with 19 in 1992, 22 in 1994, and a team-record 25 in 1995. Marion Barber (2006), Dez Bryant (2014), and Ezekiel Elliott (2016) have matched Reeves' total, but the fact that he still sits in that spot in a tie for fourth is pretty special.

Reeves never reached those kinds of numbers again, but he remained a solid player for the next several seasons before a knee injury slowed him down, and he ultimately retired following the 1972 season having rushed for 1,990 yards and 25 touchdowns, adding 1,693 yards and 17 scores as a receiver.

During his final three seasons as a player, the first of which resulted in a Super Bowl loss, with the second resulting in a Super Bowl victory, Reeves also served as an assistant coach, a role he kept through the 1980 campaign. After starting as the running backs coach, he became the offensive coordinator in 1977, a season that resulted in the franchise's second Super Bowl victory.

The team Dallas beat in that second championship victory, the Denver Broncos, hired Reeves as their head coach in 1981, and he took them to three Super Bowls during his 12-year run with the team, losing all of them. After a few years with the New York Giants, whom he took to the postseason but never the title game, he closed his coaching career with the Atlanta Falcons, appearing in another Super Bowl but losing that one as well.

To this day, no other head coach in history has appeared in more Super Bowls without winning one than Reeves, with Bud Grant and Marv Levy sitting alongside him with four each as well. The Cowboys, of course, are responsible for two of Levy's losses in the early 1990s with the Buffalo Bills.

Reeves' 11 postseason wins are also tied for the most by any head coach without a Super Bowl win, with Levy sitting there beside him in that category as well.

Reeves did actually return to the Cowboys as a consultant in 2009, but that literally lasted two days before he left the team, as he and Jerry Jones couldn't come to an agreement on his schedule. Nevertheless, he remains the best player in franchise history to sport No. 30.

Other Dallas Cowboys jersey honorees

This list will be updated daily until all 100 entries are complete, so please be sure to check back in with The Landry Hat for updates.

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Dan Reeves won a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys as a player and as an assistant coach

Other Dallas Cowboys jersey honorees

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