{"id":587080,"date":"2026-04-16T04:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/587080\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T04:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:31:10","slug":"john-fitzgerald-cowboys-icon-dead-at-77","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/587080\/","title":{"rendered":"John Fitzgerald, Cowboys icon, dead at 77"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Cowboys offensive lineman John Fitzgerald has died at the age of 77, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallascowboys.com\/news\/former-cowboys-center-john-fitzgerald-passes-away-at-77\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the team announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The two-time Lombardi Trophy winner passed away Tuesday morning; no cause of death was given.<\/p>\n<p>He spent his entire 12-year career with Dallas as a pillar of coach Tom Landry\u2019s offense, playing 137 regular season games, mostly at center, and appearing in five Super Bowls.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39097483\" width=\"590\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/crop-39096853.jpg\" alt=\"Cowboys offensive lineman John Fitzgerald is seen after a game against the Steelers.\" class=\"wp-image-39097483\"  \/>Cowboys offensive lineman John Fitzgerald is seen after a game against the Steelers. Sports Illustrated via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>After serving as a backup during the team\u2019s Super Bowl triumph in 1972, he won the starting center job in 1973 and held that role for eight years.<\/p>\n<p>All told, Fitzgerald \u2014 a fourth-round pick \u2014 would finish his career with nine NFC Championship appearances and 19 games in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>He started Super Bowl XII for Dallas in 1978 in a 27-10 win over the Broncos.<\/p>\n<p>Fitzgerald arrived in Dallas via Boston College where he played on both the offensive and defensive line.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Described by the Cowboys\u2019 website as the \u201cfoundation\u201d for Landry\u2019s shotgun offense, he was incredibly never part of a losing team and reached the postseason 11 times.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39098033\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-498080178.jpg\" alt=\"Offensive linemen Rayfield Wright #70 and John Fitzgerald #62 of the Dallas Cowboys prepare to block defensive linemen Steve Furness #64 and L.C. Greenwood #68 of the Pittsburgh Steelers during Super Bowl X on January 18, 1976\" class=\"wp-image-39098033\"  \/>Offensive linemen Rayfield Wright #70 and John Fitzgerald #62 of the Dallas Cowboys prepare to block defensive linemen Steve Furness #64 and L.C. Greenwood #68 of the Pittsburgh Steelers during Super Bowl X on January 18, 1976. Diamond Images<\/p>\n<p>During his final season in 1981, he didn\u2019t actually see the field due to a knee injury that landed him on injured reserve.<\/p>\n<p>He then retired the following January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Cowboys offensive lineman John Fitzgerald has died at the age of 77, the team announced. The two-time&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[1816,26522,349,10756,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-587080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-dallas-cowboys","9":"tag-deaths","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-obituaries","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}