Duane Thomas Duane Julius Thomas ( born June 21 , 1947 in Dallas , Texas ) is a former American football running back in the National Football League who played four seasons for the Dallas Cowboys , San Diego Chargers and Washington Redskins from 1970 to 1974 . Early years . Thomas was an exceptional running back at Dallas Lincoln High School in the mid - 1960s . He continued his success at West Texas State University , playing fullback alongside Mercury Morris , while tearing up defenses for Joe Kerbel ' s teams . In 1970 he played in the Coaches All - America Game . Professional career . Dallas Cowboys ( first stint ) . He was drafted in the first round of the 1970 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys . As a rookie in 1970 , even though he didn ' t start until the fifth game of the season , he led Dallas and finished eighth in the NFL in rushing with 803 yards on 151 carries ( 5 . 3 yards per carry ) and five touchdown s . At the end of the season , already being compared to Jim Brown , he was named the NFL rookie of the year for the National Football Conference . During the 1971 offseason , because of a contract dispute ( he requested for his 3 year contract to be rewritten ) and refusing to report to training camp , he was traded to the New England Patriots alongside Halvor Hagen and Honor Jackson , in exchange for Carl Garrett and the Patriots No . 1 draft choice in the 1972 NFL Draft . Within a week , because of problems with the Patriots and head coach John Mazur , in an unprecedented move , the NFL commissioner voided part of the trade , sending Thomas and Garrett back to their original teams . The Patriots kept Hagen and Jackson in exchange for 2 draft choices . Thomas returned to the Cowboys but decided to keep silent all season long , refusing to speak to teammates , management and the media . On October of 1971 , he scored the first touchdown in the new Texas Stadium playing against the Patriots . That same 1971 season , Thomas led the league in rushing and total touchdown s with eleven rushing and thirteen overall . He also was named All - Pro and led the Cowboys with 95 rushing yards and a touchdown in Dallas ' first franchise Super Bowl victory , a 24 - 3 win over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI . Before taking part in Super Bowl VI , Thomas was asked about playing in the ultimate game . His response was : " If it ' s the ultimate game , how come they ' re playing it again next year ? " During a postgame interview following that Super Bowl , CBS television announcer Tom Brookshier noted Thomas ' speed and asked him , rhetorically , " Are you that fast ? " Thomas responded , " Evidently . " Thomas was reportedly voted as the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player by an overwhelming margin . However , Thomas had boycotted the media throughout the season as well , and Larry Klein , editor of " Sport " , which presented the award , didn ' t know how Thomas would act at a banquet in New York . With this in mind , Klein announced Roger Staubach as the winner . According to Hunter S . Thompson : " All he did was take the ball and run every time they called his number - which came to be more and more often , and in the Super Bowl Thomas was the whole show . " ( Thompson : Fear and Loathing : On The Campaign Trail ' 72 ) During the 1972 offseason he became even more isolated and insubordinate , so he was traded to the San Diego Chargers in exchange for Mike Montgomery and Billy Parks . San Diego Chargers . He started with the Chargers earning a 20 day suspension for failing to report to the team , and things escalated from there . He would never play a game for the Chargers , after the team put him on the reserve list , making him ineligible to play for the rest of the season . On July 20 1973 , the Chargers traded him to the Washington Redskins in exchange for their No . 1 draft choice in the 1975 NFL Draft and their No . 2 draft choice in 1976 NFL Draft . Washington Redskins . Thomas played with the Redskins in 1973 and 1974 , rushing for a total of 442 yards . He eventually was waived because of conflicts with the team . His career rushing totals in the NFL were 2 , 038 yards on 453 carries , with 21 touchdown s . He also caught 38 passes for 297 yards , with three touchdown s . The Hawaiians WFL . In 1975 , he played for the The Hawaiians of the WFL , until the league folded at the end of the year . Dallas Cowboys ( second stint ) . In 1976 , the Cowboys signed Thomas again for a comeback , but he was waived before the season started . British Columbia Lions . In 1977 , he signed with the British Columbia Lions , but was placed on waivers after just a couple of weeks . Green Bay Packers . In 1979 , he was signed by the Green Bay Packers , but was waived before the season started . It was a tough time for him . Book . In 1989 , Thomas , with the help of freelance sports writer Paul Zimmerman , wrote " Duane Thomas and the Fall of America ' s Team " , a memoir of Thomas ' time playing for the Dallas Cowboys . A reviewer of the book commented , " The title implies , although the text nowhere suggests , that there is a relation between the fate of running back Thomas and the decline in the fortunes of the Dallas Cowboys . Thomas , when he appeared on the professional football scene in 1970 , was acclaimed as an outstanding player but within two years was stigmatized as an " emotionally disturbed misfit , " largely because of his periods of total silence . With coauthor Zimmerman , a freelance writer , Thomas attempts to show why that classification was unfair , and excerpts from his journal depict a disillusioned idealist ; but at a remove of almost two decades , few will care . " Before he was out of football , Thomas got a job at Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in the Legal Department and decided to go back into football . He was called by the Green Bay Packers and went there to try out , but they used him mainly as a blocking back during that preseason and he did not make the team . In August 2008 Thomas visited the Cowboys during their training camp in Oxnard , California . Treatment of Thomas in Coyne and Millman history . The 2010 book " The Ones Who Hit the Hardest " by Chad Millman and Shawn Coyne on the Pittsburgh Steelers and their great 1970s rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys offers a critical assessment of Thomas . They note that Thomas was highly regarded by the Cowboys when he first arrived , and that he was an avid team player who worked very hard and produced spectacular results on the field . Unfortunately an agent who Thomas contracted to look after his financial matters so he could concentrate on football , pocketed large amounts of his cash and failed to cover his bills . A looming divorce also added to the runner ' s woes . Thomas ' sterling play however helped Dallas to the Super Bowl where they faced the Baltimore Colts . In a game marked by poor Dallas performance and turnovers , ( including 10 penalties for more than 100 yards ) the authors hold that Thomas fumbled in the third quarter , 2 yards shy of a touchdown , in a disputed referee call . Coach Tom Landry , the authors contend , abandoned the running game in favor of action by quarterback Craig Morton . With plenty of time remaining , the Cowboy offense stalled , and Morton threw three interceptions in the fourth quarter , dooming Dallas ' chances of a win . After the lost game , Landry in public comments blamed the 3rd quarter fumble by Thomas as the reason for the loss . This embittered the running back intensely , who felt his 1 , 116 yards that year , and his scoring of the only Cowboy touchdown in the game deserved better . Relations deteriorated after that , state Millman and Coyne , and Thomas resented Landry ' s perceived lack of appreciation the following year . The pending divorce , and looming IRS audits and claims for back taxes added further pressure on the 23 - year old running back . Thomas became dissatisfied with his salary and demanded a renegotiation . The authors however note that Thomas was not the only player to run into financial difficulties or attempt to modify his contract . Thomas attempted to get football great Jim Brown to intervene on his behalf to no avail . In 1971 , his bitterness exploded in a training camp press conference , in which he dared to rail against Landry and management . Rumors spread through training camp that Thomas and the Black Muslims were in sync to kidnap Tex Schramm , after observers noted a small dark man " with only one name " shadowing Thomas . The controversy churned with his trade to the Patriots and the subsequent return to the Cowboys . Thomas had alienated many of his teammates , nevertheless Landry generously took him back on the special teams where he performed well , and eased him back into the running back slot . His performance was better than ever , although he refused to speak to reporters ( who dubbed him ' The Sphinx " ) or to shake hands with some teammates after making outstanding plays . His quality play however culminated in an excellent Super Bowl performance and likely MVP award , but this was denied due to his previous conduct . Millman and Coyne quote some Dallas players who still admired Thomas for standing up to management . Despite the victory , Thomas was traded to the San Diego Chargers in 1972 , who later traded him to the Washington Redskins in 1973 . The Cowboys would not win another Super Bowl until the coming of another running sensation , one Tony Dorsett . Dorsett claims that late one night early in his career he was at a house party when the doorbell rang . There , outside in the darkness stood the spectral figure of Duane Thomas . The ex - Cowboy favorite and the new sensation stared at one another for a long moment . Dorsett gestured , but no words were exchanged , only a brief nod , one running back to another . Then Thomas began to slowly melt back into the night , as mysteriously as he had come . Symbolically , it seemed , the torch had passed . As to his undoubted talent , Millman and Coyne maintain that Cowboy coach Landry learned to manage gifted players better , without heavy micro - management , as a result of Duane Thomas : " Landry had learned the hard Lesson with Duane Thomas . Sometimes you have to leave the gifted alone . "