The starting cornerbacks for the 1979 Dallas Cowboys were Bennie Barnes and Aaron Kyle.
The starting cornerbacks for the 1981 Dallas Cowboys were Everson Walls and Dennis Thurman.
The starting cornerbacks for the 1980 Dallas Cowboys? Think hard (and don’t look at the title of this post).
One was Steve Wilson, who became a part-time starter for the Denver Broncos and even started at right cornerback in Super Bowl XXII. He was one of the guys who Doug Williams burned in the Redskins’ 35-point second quarter.
Most Obscure Player for 1980: Aaron Mitchell.
The other was our Most Obscure Player for 1980: Aaron Mitchell.
The Cowboys took him in the second round of the 1979 draft, thanks largely to a good time in the 40-yard dash. He played his college football at UNLV and a football factory known as…
College of the Canyons in California. This was the same community college that produced Jason Pierre-Paul of the New York Giants. Here is a piece about Mitchell posted on the college’s website.
Mitchell started 15 games with the Cowboys in 1980 and recorded three interceptions. The Cowboys traded Mitchell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before the 1981 season, though. Mitchell played one year in Tampa Bay. He later played for the Arizona Wranglers and Los Angeles Express of the USFL.
The Cowboys’ personnel problems had already begun by the early 1980s. Dallas used Tampa’s 11th-round pick to take a wide receiver named George Thompson, who never played a down of football in the NFL.
Even worse, the Cowboys got nothing for Wilson, waiving him after the 1981 season.
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