Best Dallas Cowboys player to wear No. 54 owns a special piece of Super Bowl history

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

We've been dreading this particular entry for quite some time now, but it's not because we don't have any strong options from which to choose here at No. 54. Instead, it's actually because we have one too many.

Before I started this series, I gave myself one main rule, and that was never to cop out by having a tie. But if I'm being honest, I came really close to breaking that rule here. But before we break things down, let's first run through our normal process of looking at every player to don this digit for America's Team over the years.

Bobby Carpenter, LB
Bruce Carter, LB
Quinton Caver, LB
Mike Connelly, OL
Kenwin Cummings, DE
Anthony Fieldings, LB
Darren Hambrick, LB
Darryl Hardy, LB
Chuck Howley, LB
Azur Kamara, LB
Keith O'Neil, LB
Jaylon Smith, LB
Jesse Solomon, LB
Randy White, DT/LB/DE
Sam Williams, LB

The player we're sadly forced to leave off the list is none other than Hall of Fame linebacker Chuck Howley, who spent 13 seasons with the Cowboys from 1961 to 1973 and earned six trips to the Pro Bowl and five First-Team All-Pro selections.

Howley was a pivotal piece of a Dallas defense that helped turn the franchise into a top contender and remains the only player in NFL history to earn Super Bowl MVP honors from a losing team, doing so after a magnificent performance in the Cowboys' heartbreaking 16-13 loss to the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl 5.

But the reason we can't roll with Howley, of course, is because the man who wore No. 54 directly after him did just a little bit more and owns some unique Super Bowl history of his own, that player being none other than the legendary Randy White.

Randy White earned seven First-Team All-Pro selections for the Dallas Cowboys

Following a stellar collegiate career at Maryland, where he was a two-time First-Team All-ACC selection, a two-time All-American, and the recipient of both the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Award, White was taken by the Cowboys in the first round of the 1975 NFL Draft with the second overall selection.

The 12 players that comprised that Dallas draft class, a list that also included "Hollywood" Henderson, Bob Breunig, Pat Donovan, and Herbert Scott, came to be known as "The Dirty Dozen," with White ultimately becoming the best player to come from the group.

Now, as several members of the Cowboys' original "Doomsday Defense" were still on the roster at that time, White spent his first two seasons in a reserve role, starting just one game over his first two years, initially playing defensive end as a rookie before moving to linebacker in his second season.

In 1977, however, he became the team's full-time starter at right defensive tackle and absolutely thrived, earning the first of nine consecutive trips to the Pro Bowl after tallying 12.5 sacks.

That '77 campaign, of course, ended with Dallas hoisting the Lombardi Trophy for the second time, with White and Harvey Martin, who'd won Defensive Player of the Year, being named co-MVPs in the Cowboys' dominant 27-10 win over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 12.

In the 11 editions of the Big Game that came before and every single one that's happened since, there has never been another pair of players to share the Most Valuable Player honor. So, that's fun.

While White never won another title, he certainly racked up the individual accolades, earning eight consecutive All-Pro selections from 1978 to 1985, with seven of those being First-Team nods, the lone exception being a Second-Team selection in 1980. To this day, those seven First-Team selections are tied for the most in team history, with Bob Lilly and Zack Martin also earning seven apiece.

He also finished in the top four in the Defensive Player of the Year voting six times in that stretch, sadly never winning but finishing as the runner-up in back-to-back years in 1982 and 1983.

Injuries hindered the later years of his career, and he ultimately retired following the 1988 season, which also marked the end of the Tom Landry era.

While sacks didn't become an official stat until 1982, the fine folks at Pro Football Reference have an unofficial list dating back to 1960, and going by those numbers, White tallied 111.0 during the course of his career, thus currently putting him third on the Cowboys' all-time list behind only DeMarcus Ware (117.0) and the aforementioned Harvey Martin (114.0).

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Cowboys Ring of Honor in 1994.

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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Randy White earned seven First-Team All-Pro selections for the Dallas Cowboys

Other Dallas Cowboys jersey honorees

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