Best Dallas Cowboys player to wear No. 59 was a Bill Parcells (and fan) favorite

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

Well, we've come to the end of the 50s, and as every entry in this group has featured a defensive player, many of them linebackers, it's only fitting that we finish things off with another here at No. 59. But this particular player is a bit different than the vast majority of the others, as he's just the second of these 10 to take snaps in this century.

But before we break things down, let's first run through our normal routine of looking at every player who's donned this digit for America's Team over the years.

Guy Brown, LB
Darrick Brownlow, LB
Warren Capone, LB
Garry Cobb, LB
Chris Covington, LB
Chauncey Golston, LB/DE
Anthony Hitchens, LB
Ken Hutcherson, LB
Brock Mogensen, LB
Kenneth Murray, LB
Dat Nguyen, LB
Jesse Penn, LB
Ernie Sims, LB
Darrin Smith, LB
Robert Thomas, FB/LB
Kirk Timmer, LB
Mike Walter, LB
Brandon Williams, DE

The call at runner-up in this slot is another linebacker, Darrin Smith, who spent four seasons with Dallas from 1993 to 1996 and helped the team win two titles.

And we'll give out a couple of honorable mentions here as well, the first being Guy Brown, who was a valuable reserve as a rookie when the Cowboys hoisted their second Lombardi Trophy to close out the 1977 season and ultimately played six solid seasons for the franchise.

And we'll also give a shoutout to Anthony Hitchens, who started 48 games for the club from 2014 to 2017 and tallied 304 total tackles and 3.5 sacks.

But our official selection at No. 59 is Dat Nguyen, whose relentlessly aggressive style of play won over fans and made him a favorite of one of the most legendary coaches of all time.

Bill Parcells said Dallas Cowboys linebacker Dat Nguyen could have played for any of his teams

Following a stellar collegiate career at Texas A&M, where he was a four-time all-conference selection and earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and unanimous All-American honors in 1998, Nguyen was taken by Dallas in the third round of the 1999 NFL Draft with the 85th overall selection.

He spent his rookie season playing mostly on special teams, leading the team in tackles in that regard, but cracked the starting lineup at middle linebacker in 2000, only to lose the job after suffering a sprained knee that forced him out of six games.

The 5-foot-11, 240-pounder regained the role in 2001 and led the team in tackles, but the injury bug bit again in 2002, as a broken wrist cost him half the season.

The 2003 campaign, of course, saw the arrival of two-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Parcells, and a healthy Nguyen proved his worth by having his best season yet, notching a career-high 121 tackles and a career-best 2.0 sacks en route to earning Second-Team All-Pro honors.

He again led Dallas in tackles in 2004, a year during which Parcells called him a "football-playing dude," also stating that Nguyen would have had a spot on any of his past teams, which is high praise considering some of the units he had with the New York Giants, New England Patriots, and even the New York Jets.

Sadly, injuries set in again in 2005, as he dealt with both neck and knee injuries, and while he appeared in eight games, he only started four of them before being placed on season-ending injured reserve. And that ultimately turned out to be the end of his playing career, as he officially retired in March 2006.

But Nguyen wasn't completely done in Dallas, as he returned in 2007 to serve as Wade Phillips' assistant linebackers coach and defensive quality control coach, spending three seasons in those roles before returning to Texas A&M to serve as his alma mater's inside linebackers coach.

One has to wonder what Nguyen's career would have looked like without all the injuries, but he certainly made his mark with America's Team and undoubtedly deserves this title as the best in franchise history to wear No. 59.

Other Dallas Cowboys jersey honorees

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Bill Parcells said Dallas Cowboys linebacker Dat Nguyen could have played for any of his teams

Other Dallas Cowboys jersey honorees

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