(Dallas) Gil Brandt, who was relegated to the shadow of head coach Tom Landry and general manager Tex Schramm in the trio that made the Dallas Cowboys “America’s Team” during the 1970s, is dead. He was 91 years old.
Pro Football Hall of Fame executives said Brandt passed away on Thursday morning. The cause of death was not specified, but Brandt’s health had declined in recent years.
Brandt served as director of player personnel alongside Landry, the stoic-looking man in the hat, and Schramm, known for his ability to interact with the media. However, he had to wait almost 30 more years before being inducted in Canton, Ohio.
When Brandt finally earned his place in the Hall of Fame as a contributor, it was as much for his ability to stay involved in the National Football League, adapting to the age of social media, as for the new things the Cowboys introduced to the draft approach with the use of computers in the early 1960s.
It was in 2019 that Brandt finally joined Landry (1990) and Schramm (1991) as a pro football immortal, and he has always said he never felt outdone.
“I think we all got credit,” Brandt told The Associated Press before his induction.
“And I think Tex, with good reason, got more credit than Tom and me. Because he was really a very good person with the media. When someone from (the magazine) Sports Illustrated called, that person did not speak to Tom or to me. She was talking to Tex. »
Schramm, Landry and Brandt worked together for the Cowboys’ first 29 seasons. Brandt was the last of the trio to leave after Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989 and immediately fired Landry.
Schramm resigned shortly after (Jones has served as general manager since taking ownership of the team).
Brandt said Al Davis, the former owner of the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, tried to hire him before the 1989 draft noting that he heard Jones was going to fire him after the draft .
Brandt didn’t believe him, and although Davis was ultimately right, Brandt explained that he probably wouldn’t have made such a move anyway, because Dallas had become his new home. was from the state of Wisconsin.
Brandt didn’t resent Jones for long, and he remained in the team’s entourage even though his condition confined him to a wheelchair on game days, on the press gallery.
Brandt even had Jones deliver the introductory speech on the day of his Canton induction, and Jones immortalized him by adding him to the Cowboys Ring of Honor weeks before Brandt was elected to the Hall.
In an official statement, Jones called Brandt “a true icon and a pioneer in our sport.”
“Gil was central to the Dallas Cowboys’ early success and continued to be a great ambassador for the organization for decades,” Jones said.
“He was my friend and mentor, not only to me, but to countless National Football League leaders, coaches, players and broadcasters. »
