{"id":94559,"date":"2025-09-17T22:37:01","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T22:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=94559"},"modified":"2025-09-17T22:37:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T22:37:01","slug":"dallas-cowboys-legend-d-d-lewis-two-time-super-bowl-champion-and-doomsday-defense-linebacker-dies-at-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=94559","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys legend D.D. Lewis, two-time Super Bowl champion and Doomsday Defense linebacker, dies at 79"},"content":{"rendered":"<article id=\"article-0\" data-index=\"0\" data-path=\"\/texas\/news\/dallas-cowboys-legend-d-d-lewis-dies-at-79\/\">\n<figure data-ads=\"{&quot;extraWordCount&quot;:50}\">\n<div>\n<div data-component=\"viewability\" data-viewability-options=\"true\">\n<div data-theme=\"default\">\n<div>\n<p>Dallas Cowboys legend D.D. Lewis dies at 79<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/2025\/09\/17\/f38bfdd2-db93-4f95-ae82-8ed5570f003f\/9ebba4ea0e25704492091331e19e7424.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 375px) 360px, (max-width: 600px) 480px, (max-width: 1024px) 768px, (max-width: 1200px) 900px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/2025\/09\/17\/f38bfdd2-db93-4f95-ae82-8ed5570f003f\/9ebba4ea0e25704492091331e19e7424.jpg?width=360 360w, https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/2025\/09\/17\/f38bfdd2-db93-4f95-ae82-8ed5570f003f\/9ebba4ea0e25704492091331e19e7424.jpg?width=480 480w, https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/2025\/09\/17\/f38bfdd2-db93-4f95-ae82-8ed5570f003f\/9ebba4ea0e25704492091331e19e7424.jpg?width=768 768w, https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/2025\/09\/17\/f38bfdd2-db93-4f95-ae82-8ed5570f003f\/9ebba4ea0e25704492091331e19e7424.jpg?width=900 900w\" alt=\"Dallas Cowboys legend D.D. Lewis, two-time Super Bowl champion and Doomsday Defense linebacker, dies at 79\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption>Dallas Cowboys legend D.D. Lewis dies at 79 00:29<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<section>Dallas Cowboys legend D.D. Lewis died Tuesday at the age of 79, his family and the team announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis played linebacker for Dallas his entire career from 1968 to 1981, winning two Super Bowls.<\/p>\n<p>He is famous for his quote about Texas Stadium in Irving, the old home of the Cowboys. He said that Texas Stadium had &#8220;a hole in the roof so God can watch his favorite team play.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Drafted by the Cowboys in 1968 from Mississippi State, Lewis is listed in the team&#8217;s top 10 sixth-round picks in Cowboys&#8217; history. After a one-year military stint, he returned to the team in 1970 and in 1973, he took over for Ring of Honor member Chuck Howley as the starting right side linebacker.<\/p>\n<h2>D.D. Lewis, a cornerstone of the Doomsday Defense<\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;It took two or three years for it to click for me and understand what it&#8217;s all about,&#8221; Lewis once said during an interview for the Cowboys&#8217; &#8220;Deep Blue&#8221; documentary series. &#8220;But especially when Chuck got hurt in the 1972 season, that&#8217;s when I got my chance to play.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The mainstay in the middle of the Cowboys&#8217; Doomsday Defense,&#8221; the Cowboys said, played in 27 career playoff games and started in the last three Super Bowls of the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p>During his final season of 1981, Lewis received the Cowboys&#8217; Man of the Year Award, and in 1984, he was voted to the franchise&#8217;s Silver Anniversary Team.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Landry once said Lewis was the team&#8217;s most underappreciated player in his 29 years with the Cowboys.<\/p>\n<h2>The &#8220;hole&#8221; in the stadium roof<\/h2>\n<p>HKS Architects, which designed the Cowboys&#8217; current home, AT&amp;T Stadium, said its research identified the historic hole in the roof from Texas Stadium as the &#8220;single most recognizable brand element that needed to be celebrated&#8221; in the new design.<\/p>\n<p>When the retractable roof is open, HKS said, it pays tribute to the iconic hole in the roof at Texas Stadium &#8220;that football fans around the world identified with America&#8217;s Team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Football<\/li>\n<li>Dallas Cowboys<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<p>CBS Texas Staff<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The CBS Texas team is a group of experienced journalists who bring you the content on CBSTexas.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lewis is famous for his quote that Texas Stadium had &#8220;a hole in the roof so God can watch His favorite team play.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":94560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[54,156],"class_list":["post-94559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-football"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dallas Cowboys legend D.D. 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