Pair of Former Cowboys LBs on Ballot For College Football HoF

A pair of former Dallas Cowboys linebackers are among the candidates for the College Football Hall of Fame class of 2016, and they’re not the only players on the ballot with strong ties to Dallas.

Dat Nguyen and Ken Norton Jr. were both drafted by the Cowboys after highly decorated college careers.

Dallas took Norton in the second round in 1988 out of UCLA, where he was a finalist for the Butkus Award the year before. He led the Bruins in tackles twice, and is already a member of the UCLA Hall of Fame. With the Cowboys he won two Super Bowls, in 1992 and 1993, and led the team in tackles in both of those seasons.

Nguyen came to the Cowboys in the third round of the 1999 draft after an incredible career at Texas A&M. He’s the only Aggie to lead the team in tackles four years in a row, and in his senior year of 1998, he was an All-American, the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and won the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Lombardi Award and the Jack Lambert Award. He went on to lead the Cowboys in tackles in three of his seven seasons with the team, 2001, 2003 and 2004.

Also on the ballot are Notre Dame great Rocket Ismail, who played for Dallas from 1999-2001 and Dennis Thurman, who played eight seasons for the Cowboys after a decorated career at USC.