Welcome back to our series on the best Dallas Cowboys players to wear every jersey number, ranging from No. 0 all the way up to No. 99.
Given the long list of legends who've suited up for America's Team over the years, there are naturally going to be several entries that are complete no-brainers, and this one here at No. 8 is obviously one of them, as everyone knows the clear-cut call here is Troy Aikman.
What some may not know, however, is that before Aikman became the first-ever draft pick made by Jerry Jones, only one player had worn No. 8 for the Cowboys, that being punter Robert "Buzz" Sawyer, who appeared in three regular-season games for Dallas as a replacement player during the strike-affected 1987 season, making 16 punts for 639 yards. Once the strike was settled, Sawyer, who played collegiately at nearby Baylor, was released, and that marked the end of his NFL career.
So, even had Aikman not accomplished all the things he did during his 12-year career, he'd still be the easy pick here. But let's go ahead and run through all of those accomplishments anyway.
Troy Aikman is one of only five NFL quarterbacks to win three Super Bowl titles
When Jones purchased the Cowboys in early 1989, he famously fired the namesake of our site, Tom Landry, who had served as the head coach of the franchise since its inception in 1960, and replaced him with Jimmy Johnson, with whom he'd been teammates in college at the University of Arkansas.
And in their first draft together, the duo used the No. 1 overall pick on Aikman, who'd started his collegiate career at Oklahoma but really came into his own after transferring to UCLA, where he twice earned All-American honors and won the coveted Davey O'Brien Award as a senior in 1988.
To put things as nicely as possible, that first year did not go well, at least as a whole. While Aikman set what at the time was an NFL single-game rookie record with 379 yards in a Week 10 matchup with the then-Phoenix Cardinals, he went 0-11 as a starter, completing just 52.9 percent of his passes for 1,749 yards with nine touchdowns against 18 interceptions, and the Cowboys went just 1-15. But things only picked up from there.
In 1990, Dallas drafted Emmitt Smith and started piecing together what would become one of the most dominant dynasties in NFL history. Aikman gradually improved, and in 1991, he earned the first of six straight trips to the Pro Bowl. And in 1992, of course, the Cowboys captured the first of three titles in four seasons, with Aikman taking MVP honors in the 52-17 blowout of the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl 27 after connecting on 22 of 30 throws for 273 yards with four touchdowns.
In those three Super Bowl victories, Aikman completed a combined 70 percent of his passes for 689 yards with six touchdowns against two interceptions, giving him a title-game passer rating of 110.9. To this day, he's one of only five quarterbacks in history to win at least three Super Bowls, the others being Tom Brady (7), Terry Bradshaw (4), Joe Montana (4), and Patrick Mahomes (3). That's some pretty elite company.
Sadly, Aikman suffered an absurd amount of concussions toward the end of his career, and he retired following the 2000 season having thrown for 32,942 regular-season yards and 165 touchdowns, both franchise records at the time. He's since been surpassed in both categories by Tony Romo and Dak Prescott.
While his playing career may have been cut short, Aikman certainly made the most of it, as he's become one of the most successful and longest-tenured broadcasters in NFL history alongside Joe Buck. Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006, Aikman may not have the most jaw-dropping stats, but he was exactly the quarterback the Cowboys needed to put themselves in position to do what they did in the 1990s.
Other Dallas Cowboys jersey honorees
- No. 0: Well, there's literally only one option here
- No. 1: Quietly one of Dallas' better special teams weapons
- No. 2: He once stood alone in the record books
- No. 3: This player needed just one season to make his mark
- No. 4: This is a no-brainer
- No. 5: This player has the third-most points in Cowboys history
- No. 6: The winner here just edged out a Pro Bowl history maker
- No. 7: Fizzled fast after his big payday
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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