Preston Pearson

By Allyson Turner

Preston Pearson played in the National Football League 14 years. He is the only player to have played in five Super Bowls with three different teams: Baltimore Colts (1968), Pittsburgh Steelers (1974) and Dallas Cowboys (1975, 1977 and 1978).

After playing college basketball at the University of Illinois, Pearson was drafted by Don Shula and the Baltimore Colts in 1967. In his first season with the Colts, Pearson began his career as a defensive back but was switched to offense. In 1970 he was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers and would play mostly running back through the 1974 season.

A week before the 1975 season, Pearson was released and picked up by the Dallas Cowboys. It would be with the Cowboys that Pearson pioneered the third-down specialist out of the backfield; he is still considered the best player in that role.

Pearson currently resides in Dallas and is the president of Pro-Style Associates, a sports, promotion, marketing and management firm. Preston wrote a book titled, Hearing the Noise about his life in the NFL which was published in 1985.

 

In 1979, Preston Pearson caught 26 passes on third down and 23 of them were for first downs or touchdowns. He pioneered the role of running backs as third-down receivers. He averaged 12.2 yards per catch, far above what most running backs achieve. (Dallas Cowboys Weekly)

You played in five Super Bowls, which one meant the most?
Of the five I've been in, the first one is the one that blows you away. Certainly if you're a young guy -- and I was in my second season -- with the old Baltimore Colts that featured Johnny Unitas, Jimmy Orr, Bubba Smith ... Lenny Moore, big Jim Parker, guys like that.

That one stands out, and unfortunately we lost. That's a game that goes down in history as far as my career is concerned, and certainly the history of the National Football League because that was the game, the panty hose guy, the popcorn guy, Joe Namath, beat the old Baltimore Colts. Certainly I remember it well because we lost and the disappointment for myself was tremendous and I was only a backup. For the entire team, that included Don Shula, we were devastated, because we were the overwhelming favorites.

The other game was probably the game that we beat the Denver Broncos. I was the leading receiver during that game (5 rec., 37 yards). I think the fact that we had eight turnovers, five or six in the first half, probably should have had 10 and probably should've blown them away in the first half, but we did not. We made the game much more exciting than it was. That was a tremendous game.

Former Dallas Cowboy Randy White: Preston helped us get to the Super Bowl. In the 1975 NFC title game against the Rams, he was fabulous (Pearson scored three touchdowns). He used to always amaze me by his physical condition. He looked like he was out of a book and he had one of the most fabulous physiques of anyone I had ever seen. The guy was ripped, and a super guy, a quiet guy, a hard worker, a good team guy and physically he was a specimen. He definitely had an eight-pack on his stomach and I only had two -- that always pissed me off.

What are your memories of Super Bowl XIII?
The second Pittsburgh Super Bowl was probably the more evenly-matched of the two. The first one, we were dark horses and probably shouldn't even have been there. In fact, we were a wild card team at the time. Pittsburgh was the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steel Curtain and all that stuff. They were a pretty darn good football team. The second time around, we were a good experienced football team with Staubach, Dorsett, Newhouse, Ed Jones, Harvey Martin and Randy White. We felt like it was our game to win. The time just ran out on us. Again, you have to give Pittsburgh credit ... four Super Bowls, four victories. There are a good number of guys in the Hall of Fame from that particular Super Bowl. The greatest memory for me was the fact it was a very hotly-contested, high-scoring game and we just ran out of time.

You were the players' representative for the Pittsburgh Steelers during the 1974 season when the players went on strike. With the NBA lockout, did you feel for Patrick Ewing?
Definitely. Fortunately for him, he's in a solid position. Ewing is still a star, a big time center in the NBA and those guys don't come along that often. Plus the fact that he has all the money, I would think, that he needs to have. Being a player representative or in his case, the player rep, he's in a tough, tough situation made easier by those things I just mentioned.

If you were like I was back then, just a player rep and not really sure what your status was with the team and certainly in the league, you're very vulnerable to all those that want to back bite at you and try to undermine you as a person and as a player. I do feel for Pat in the sense that he has to take all the wrath from both the players, the owners, the bargaining committee, and suffer nationally in the media. Quite a bit of what he's doing represents all or the majority of players in the NBA or in the union. Unfortunately, he has to be the face, the guy that everybody goes to and says he's just a big tall guy who knows how to play basketball and he's greedy. That's unfair.

Former Pittsburgh Steeler L.C. Greenwood: He was a great athlete. We played a lot of basketball together. He was a hard worker and truly a great person.

Did you ever wish you played professional basketball?
I've wished that many a day. I was a pretty good athlete in baseball, basketball and football. Probably best at baseball and truly enjoyed that game. I played basketball in college. I didn't have the skills at that time to be able to compete with some of the guys who were coming out. Only so many can make it and you better be a scorer or defender. I was a pretty good defender, a tough guy, aggressive, could rebound and could defend guys five, six inches taller. That doesn't work on the professional ranks.

Former NBA star Cazzie Russell: Preston was one heck of an athlete. I didn't know they made them that tough coming out of Freeport, Illinois.

Cazzie was a great great great athlete. He was a big time name back there at Michigan. I'm proud to say that I had a chance to go up against him. He was great and I really appreciate Cazzie's words.

Former Los Angeles Laker and UCLA Bruin, Lucius Allen: I Remember Preston very well and he was an outstanding basketball player. We had a lot of battles and had a lot of fun playing against each other. He was awfully quick. I'm sure he's doing well now; he's an outstanding person as well as an outstanding athlete.

You talk a lot in your book Hearing the Noise about the difficulty of the student-athlete, especially because you lived through it. The problems still exist in the college game today. What do you think can be done to make it better?
We are just not sure what to do as a community and as a world. I believe that it is tough when young guys come right out of high school at 18. At age 18, you're just at legal age. That's almost child labor. We, I believe as a community, should make sure that these young people get the right opportunities and are protected. Just because you're 7-foot-2 and 280 pounds doesn't necessarily mean that your brain works at that big level. There are far too many of those guys and every time you have a big person, whether they be tall, heavy or combination of both, we believe that they're men. Not necessarily true.

When you were in high school, your goal was to get an education. You were determined to do that. Perhaps we don't give kids the option to turn professional and consider paying college athletes.
It's a puzzlement. College coaches today are making $2 to 3 million a year, bowl games bring in $13 million to each team and guess who's making that? Not those who are not allowed to work or have anything extra. I'm not sure that's fair. I'm not sure what to do about it to make it right for young people to be able to have a good time, to enjoy the success they've brought to their college or whatever it might be, without going overboard and turning them into rich, greedy, spoiled young guys. Which we do have.

Again, I believe with all the scholarly people that we have around on the collegiate level, the professional level, we've got to be able to come up with something that makes sense. We can if we want to.

Who do you most admire in the game, past or present?
There are several people that I really appreciate. When people ask that, and you're a Dallas Cowboy from the yester-years era, I think you have to put Tom Landry in that category. Tom was a great coach and certainly knew what he was talking about. For preparation, there wasn't anybody better. I don't think ever. You talk about people being burned out, well here's a guy that lasted 29 years. You can't tell me that Jimmy Johnson, or any of these guys talking about being burnt out in three or four years, are prepared any better. Tom Landry was the ultimate when it came to that, and I respect him a heck of a lot.

Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry: We were really blessed to have Preston join our club. He became a real third down perfomer for us. Everybody had so much confidence in him and he seemed to get it done all the time. He was a very disciplined football player and he had great knowledge of the game. It really helped him third down situations which he was so good at.

Former Cowboy Jethro Pugh: We saw Preston as a player when he was a rookie with the Colts and he was a kick returner. We saw his talents and his ability. We followed his progress as we do all good athletes when he was with Pittsburgh. And then he was on our team. We knew and admired him when he first came into the league. He was a big contributor to the success of our team when he came here. Preston came in for third down passing situations. He was truly a playmaker. He would keep the drive going.