Tony Casillas Tony Steven Casillas ( born October 26 , 1963 ) is a retired American football defensive lineman in the National Football League from 1986 through 1997 . While at the University of Oklahoma he helped win the 1985 NCAA National Championship . He also won the Lombardi Award in 1985 and was the 1985 UPI Lineman of the Year . Casillas was also part of the Dallas Cowboys back to back victories in Super Bowl XXVII and XXVIII . In 2004 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame . Early years . Casillas was born in Tulsa , Oklahoma , on October 16 , 1963 . He attended Tulsa East Central High School where he was an All - State player . He had a difficult start to his college football career . As a redshirt freshman he suffered an ankle injury , contracted mononucleosis and was lost for the entire season . The next year he played sparingly at defensive tackle , registering only 10 tackles . In 1984 , Casillas was moved to nose guard and became a starter , receiving consensus All - American and first - team All - Conference honors . In 1985 he became only the second Sooner ever to win the Lombardi award , which is given to the nation ’ s top lineman . He was named the UPI Lineman of the Year , the Big Eight Conference defensive player of the year , a consensus first team All - American and first team All - Conference . He ended his college career with 18 sacks and 213 career tackles in addition to graduating with Academic All - American honors in 1985 , and a degree in public relations . In 2004 Casillas became the second Hispanic ( his father is Mexican and his mother comes from Irish and Native American descent ) to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame . The National Football Foundation named Casillas the College Defensive Player of the Decade for the 1980s . In 2008 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame . Professional career . Atlanta Falcons . Casillas was selected second overall in the 1986 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons . The team was switching to a 3 - 4 defense , so they needed him to be their nose tackle , he responded by becoming a starter as a rookie and making 111 tackles and a sack . He also made the league ' s all - rookie team . The next year he suffered a stress fracture of his left fibula and was placed on the injured reserve list . In the strike - shortened 1987 season , he played just nine games and had 72 tackles . During the 1988 preseason , he left camp for three weeks to get guidance from a psychologist , suffering he said , from the stress of playing in professional football . He returned to the team with a new attitude and in time to start the regular season , where he made 111 tackles and was named a Pro Bowl alternate . He exploded in 1989 , becoming one of the best players at his position in the league with 152 tackles ( still a team record for a defensive lineman ) and was named second - team All - Pro and a Pro Bowl alternate . In 1990 he held out in a contract dispute from head coach Jerry Glanville ' s first Falcons training camp , causing him to lose his starting job to rookie Tory Epps . The problems escalated from there on , he eventually missed a 44 - 24 loss to the Los Angeles Rams after failing to catch the team flight . The Falcons suspended him for two weeks without pay . Between injuries and discipline incidents , he only played in nine games as a backup . At the start of the 1991 season he announced he was retiring , so the Falcons traded him to the Dallas Cowboys for second , and eighth round draft choices in the 1992 NFL Draft . During his five - year span in Atlanta , Casillas had 478 tackles , the most ever by any Falcons defensive lineman and fourth best overall in franchise history . Dallas Cowboys ( first stint ) . The Dallas Cowboys welcomed Casillas to training camp with the news that he would play left tackle in a 4 - 3 defense where the No . 1 overall draft pick Russell Maryland was also going to play . He eventually won the starting spot and became part of the best defense and the best defensive - line rotation in the NFL . His career was revived in Dallas as a specialist at stopping the run . He also was a part of back to back victories in Super Bowl XXVII and XXVIII . Casillas left the team via free agency to join the Kansas City Chiefs for the 1994 season . Kansas City Chiefs . He immediately started having problems with the Kansas City Chiefs in mini - camp , practicing only sporadically , saying that he had a problem with high blood pressure . On the eve of training camp , he told coach Marty Schottenheimer he was concerned about his health . Eventually , the Chiefs released him , forcing him to return his signing bonus . Their general manager , Carl Peterson , asked the league to investigate whether the Cowboys had tampered , after the Cowboys hired Barry Switzer ( Casillas ' s former coach at the Oklahoma ) . As part of Casillas ' s release from the Chiefs , he agreed that he would not sign in 1994 with any of the other AFC West division rivals or with the Dallas Cowboys . New York Jets . In 1994 , he signed with the New York Jets after a bizarre spring and summer in which he practiced only sporadically in minicamp with the Chiefs and was eventually released . In the two years he spent with the team , he dealt with injuries that caused him to only start 16 games . He was waived on March 2 , 1996 . Dallas Cowboys ( second stint ) . Casillas rejoined the Dallas Cowboys in a reserve role for the 1996 season , which was the only season in his career where he failed to record a sack . In 1997 , he started 14 games in place of a suspended Leon Lett , matching his career high total of 3 sacks . He retired on February 25 , 1998 , after playing in the NFL for 12 seasons . Personal life . Casillas is currently the host of Casillas and Company a sports talk show on Oklahoma City radio station 107 . 7 The Franchise KRXO .