Rayfield Wright, a troublesome, agile Corridor of Fame offensive sort out for the Dallas Cowboys who was on 5 Tremendous Bowl groups within the Nineteen Seventies, then suffered from dementia for no less than a decade, which he believed was almost certainly brought on by repeated blows to the pinnacle, died on Thursday. He was 76.
The Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame announced his death and stated he had been hospitalized for a number of days due to a seizure. It didn’t say the place he died.
Wright incurred quite a few concussions between 1967 and 1979 — “so many who I couldn’t even rely them,” he advised The New York Instances in 2014. Like many former gamers, he struggled along with his reminiscence, cognitive issues and complications.
“Generally I stroll into the kitchen and overlook why I went there,” he stated. “I’ve gotten into a number of automotive accidents due to seizures. Totaled two vehicles. My reminiscence is just not good. There’s an enormous combat inside myself.”
At 6-foot-7 and about 255 kilos, Wright was a towering presence at proper sort out, defending the scrambling quarterback Roger Staubach and creating holes within the line of defense for working backs like Calvin Hill, Duane Thomas and Tony Dorsett.
“I like blocking, I like the contact,” Wright, who was nicknamed the Massive Cat for his athleticism, advised The Fort Price Star-Telegram in 1973. “There’s a variety of satisfaction in figuring out that you just’re shifting your man out of there. However the greatest satisfaction of all was to place my man on the bottom. I’m on high of him, and the ball service is 10 to fifteen yards downfield.”
Wright was a first-team All-Professional thrice, chosen for the Professional Bowl in six consecutive years and named to the N.F.L.’s all-decade group of the Nineteen Seventies. He was inducted into the Corridor of Fame, in Canton, Ohio, in 2006.
Carl Eller, the Minnesota Vikings defensive finish who was considered one of Wright’s fiercest opponents and who’s himself a Corridor of Famer, advised The Related Press earlier than Wright’s induction, “An all-day combat with Rayfield Wright is unquestionably not my thought of a nice Sunday afternoon.”
At Tremendous Bowl VI in 1972, the Cowboys amassed 252 yards in dashing — a Tremendous Bowl report on the time — on the best way to a 24-3 victory over the Miami Dolphins. It was considered one of two Tremendous Bowl victories for the Cowboys within the Nineteen Seventies; additionally they misplaced thrice.
“What we did at present is the best way you’re presupposed to play this sport,” Wright advised The Dayton Day by day Information. “Who’s going to regulate issues up entrance — that’s what counts, the whole lot else being equal.”
He added, “We managed them on the road, and that’s what did it.”
Larry Rayfield Wright was born on Aug. 23, 1945, in Griffin, Ga., about 35 miles south of Atlanta, and raised by his mom, Opel Wright, and considered one of his grandmothers. A Boy Scout, he recalled memorizing Robert Frost’s poem “The Highway Not Taken” when he was within the eighth grade, and he stated it guided him to imagine that life provided him decisions.
In highschool, he excelled in basketball however didn’t make the soccer group till his senior yr. Enjoying basketball for Fort Valley State Faculty (now College) in Georgia, he averaged 20 factors and 21 rebounds a sport and attracted the curiosity of the Cincinnati Royals (now the Sacramento Kings) of the Nationwide Basketball Affiliation. He was additionally a free security, punter, defensive finish and tight finish for the soccer group and was chosen by Dallas as a decent finish within the 1967 N.F.L. draft.
“He was an awesome competitor, proficient and sensible, and he may run; you might have gotten away with enjoying him at broad receiver,” Gil Brandt, the Cowboys’ former director of participant personnel, stated in a cellphone interview.
Wright had been a backup tight finish for the Cowboys for 2 seasons when Coach Tom Landry moved him to proper sort out to switch the injured Ralph Neely. In his first begin on the place, in 1969, he confronted Deacon Jones, the scary Los Angeles Rams defensive finish.
“Hey, boy,” he later recalled Jones’s greeting. “Do your mama know you’re out right here?”
“What does my mama have something to do with this?” Wright recalled considering to himself, which distracted him sufficient to momentarily lose his focus when the ball was snapped. Jones promptly slapped his large proper hand in opposition to Wright’s helmet, sending him reeling backward to the turf.
“It was as if I’d simply been hit within the head by a baseball bat,” he advised The Instances.
It was in all probability his first concussion, he stated, incurred at a time when the N.F.L. didn’t take head trauma significantly and gamers had been inspired to return to motion as quickly as attainable.
Wright continued to play at a excessive degree for many of the subsequent 10 years, till leg issues decreased his effectiveness. He was launched by the Cowboys in 1980 and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, however he retired earlier than he performed a sport with them.
His survivors embody his spouse, Di; his daughters, Courtney Minor, Anitra Hernandez and Ariel Wright; his sons, Laray and Larry Jr.; and his brother, Lamar.
In retirement, Wright was a motivational speaker and shaped a basis to assist youngsters get grants to go to school.
He was recognized with dementia in 2012. That yr, he and a bunch of former Cowboys joined hundreds of different retired gamers in submitting concussion-related lawsuits in opposition to the N.F.L. that accused the league of hiding the hyperlinks between repeated head hits and degenerative mind illness from the gamers.
They had been consolidated right into a class-action swimsuit in federal courtroom that was settled in 2015, offering funds of as much as $5 million to particular person gamers who’ve considered one of a handful of extreme neurological and cognitive problems.
“I’m scared,” Wright stated of his dementia within the 2014 Instances interview. “I don’t need this to occur.” Wiping away a tear, he added, “I simply wish to know why that is taking place to me.”
