Tom Rafferty, who played 14 seasons for the Dallas Cowboys as an offensive lineman and won a Super Bowl championship with the team, died on Thursday at the age of 70.
Rafferty had been hospitalized in Windsor, Colorado since suffering a stroke in early May, his daughter told the Dallas Morning News.
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The Cowboys’ fourth-round pick (No. 119 overall) out of Penn State in 1976, Rafferty played his first five NFL seasons at guard before moving to center for the remainder of his career. He started 182 out of a possible 203 games, including 167 consecutive starts.
“If you look at his dimensions [6-foot-3, 256 pounds], he wouldn’t be playing in the offensive line today.” longtime Cowboys radio broadcaster Brad Sham told the Dallas Morning News. “But that’s what [coach Tom Landry] wanted. He wanted pulling linemen and guys who could get downfield in front of [Tony] Dorsett on a screen pass.”
Rafferty threw a key block for Dorsett’s NFL-record 99-yard touchdown run on Jan. 3, 1983 versus the Minnesota Vikings. Amazingly, Dallas only had 10 men on the field for that play.
For the past 17 years, Rafferty had battled transverse myelitis, a disorder that affects the central nervous system. He was hospitalized for 48 days and refused to use a wheelchair.
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“He just kept at it until he could walk again,” recalled Rafferty’s daughter, Rachel Powers. “No sensation below his waist, but he made it happen.”
Rafferty was one of 12 players in franchise history to play at least 14 years for the Cowboys. In his second season, Dallas defeated the Denver Broncos to win Super Bowl XII. The Cowboys lost Super Bowl XIII to the Pittsburgh Steelers the following year.
Rafferty’s final season was 1989 for a 1-15 Cowboys team during Hall of Famer Troy Aikman’s rookie year. With Aikman and Roger Staubach, Rafferty played with two Hall of Fame quarterbacks.
