Legacy is a word that gets tossed around casually in the world of football. But what really makes for a lasting and meaningful legacy? Wins? Touchdowns? Championship trophies? Memorable moments? Mere statistics?
Yes, Everson Walls has all of those things attached to his name after a 13-year career in the pros. He’s probably most immediately remembered in the minds of Cowboys fans for his transcendent 1981 season when he snagged a whopping 11 interceptions as an undrafted rookie. Others may recall the freeze-frame images of his unique place in history in not one, but two of the biggest games of a generation.
The list of coaches who had a personal hand in Walls’s journey is a veritable who’s who of the sport’s most hallowed legends. But the legacy of the player himself is often lost in the fog of a decade’s worth of mostly lackluster Cowboys squads; he had to leave Dallas, for example, to earn the championship ring he unquestionably deserved.
He remains one of the Cowboys’ true greats, but none of his on-the-field accomplishments nor professional accolades tell the full story of Walls and what he meant to so many of his teammates… and one in particular.