Building maintenance crews at The Star in Frisco have a ton of new nameplates to make and attach to the doors of the coaches’ offices at team headquarters. But it looks like they’ll be able to recycle at least one more.
According to reports, Leon Lett will remain with the team under new head coach Mike McCarthy. Having previously specialized in working with defensive tackles, he is expected to be listed with the Cowboys as an assistant defensive line coach in 2020. It will mark Lett’s tenth season on the Dallas coaching staff.
Leon Lett is remaining as the Cowboys assistant defensive line coach, working with Jim Tomsula. He is the third holdover from Jason Garrett’s staff with Kellen Moore (offensive coordinator) and Doug Nussmeier (quarterbacks).
— Todd Archer (@toddarcher) January 23, 2020
Lett was drafted by the Cowboys in 1991 out of Emporia State in Kansas. The lineman was a two-time Pro Bowler and three-time Super Bowl champion over his decade in Dallas, but is probably best known to casual football fans for two embarrassing bloopers.
In the team’s Super Bowl XXVII rout over Buffalo, Lett had the ball knocked out from behind as he prematurely celebrated a long fumble return that would otherwise have resulted in the Cowboys’ eighth touchdown of the game.
On Thanksgiving Day 1993, the player nicknamed “Big Cat” inexplicably tried to pounce on a blocked Miami field goal in a bizarre snowstorm that had blanketed the Texas Stadium turf. Lett slipped and muffed the ball; the Dolphins recovered and won the game with a successful kick on the next play.
Lett spent the 2001 season as a reserve in Denver before retiring as a player. He later moved to the coaching ranks, spending time at UNLV and Louisiana-Monroe before joining the Dallas staff in 2011, Jason Garrett’s first full season as Cowboys coach.
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