Dat Tan Nguyen (; vi, Nguyễn Tấn Đạt, ; born September 25, 1975) is a former
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
linebacker
Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...
who played professionally in the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...
(NFL) for seven seasons with the
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...
. He played
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...
for
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M Unive ...
, and earned
All-America
The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...
n honors. He is the first
Vietnamese-American
Vietnamese Americans ( vi, Người Mỹ gốc Việt, lit=Viet-origin American people) are Americans of Vietnamese ancestry. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American ethnic group after Chinese ...
to be drafted, play, and be recognized as an
All-Pro
All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list t ...
in the NFL.
In 2017, Nguyen was elected to the
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vo ...
.
Early years
Nguyen's family left
South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
during the
fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, t ...
at the end of the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, and he was born in a refugee center at
Fort Chaffee
Fort Chaffee Joint Maneuver Training Center is an Army National Guard installation in western Arkansas, adjacent to the city of Fort Smith. Established as Camp Chaffee in 1941, renamed to Fort Chaffee in 1956, Fort Chaffee has served as a United ...
in
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 89,142. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Are ...
. He lived most of his childhood in the
Gulf Coast
The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coast, coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The list of U.S. states and territories by coastline, coastal states that have a shor ...
town of
Rockport, Texas. At
Rockport-Fulton High School
Rockport-Fulton High School is a public high school in Rockport, Texas, United States, located on the Texas Gulf Coast. It is the only high school in the Aransas County Independent School District and classified as a 4A school by the UIL. In 2 ...
, Nguyen played
middle linebacker
Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...
and handled
punting duties. Nguyen earned All-State honors as a
punter. Nguyen was recruited and received scholarship offers from Michigan, UCLA, Notre Dame, Texas, and Florida. Nguyen eventually decided to play closer to home and chose Texas A&M University.
College career
Nguyen attended Texas A&M University, where he played for the
Texas A&M Aggies football
The Texas A&M Aggies football program represents Texas A&M University in the sport of American football. The Aggies compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Western Divisi ...
team from 1995 to 1998. He battled the perception that he was too small to play
linebacker
Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...
for as long as he was involved in the game, despite his muscular 5'11", 238-pound frame. Proving critics wrong at an early stage, he finished his college career as the Aggies' career record holder with 51 consecutive starts, 517 career tackles, and a 10.7 tackles-per-game average. His 517 career tackles are a Texas A&M record. He is the only Aggie to ever lead the school in tackles for four consecutive years. It is widely acknowledged that Nguyen was the undisputed on-field leader of the famous "Wrecking Crew" defense, as well as being its most famous and decorated player.
In 1995, he was named Southwest Conference Defensive Newcomer of the Year. From 1996 to 1998, he earned first-team All-Big 12 honors three consecutive times. In 1997, he was named Aggies MVP. In 1998, he was named a consensus
All-American by every awarding publication, won the
Bednarik Award for College Defensive Player of the Year, and the
Lombardi Award
The Rotary Lombardi Award is an award for college football in the United States. Awarded by the Rotary Club of Houston, Texas annually to the college football player "who best embodies the values and spirit of NFL's legendary coach Vince Lomba ...
for Outstanding College Lineman. Nguyen was also selected as a finalist for the
Butkus Award
The Butkus Award, instituted in 1985 by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, is given annually to the top linebackers at the high school, collegiate and professional levels of football. The award, named in honor of College Football Hall of Fame ...
, eventually becoming first runner-up. Nguyen missed winning the Butkus Award by a single vote out of more than 45 votes cast. It remains to date the closest vote in Butkus Award history. He was named Defensive Player of the Game for the 1998 Cotton Bowl after recording a bowl-record 12 tackles, including three tackles for a loss, and an interception, which he lateraled to a teammate for a touchdown. The ''
Dallas Morning News
''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''Galvesto ...
'' named him Big 12 Male Athlete of the Year in 1998, and he earned Defensive Player of the Year honors in the Big 12 Conference. He also won the Jack Lambert Award in 1998. That same year, Texas A&M won the Big 12 championship game against Kansas State which is to date their last conference title. In 2005, he was named to the Big 12 Conference's 10th Anniversary Team. In 2010, he was voted on to the AP All-Time Big 12 Team tying with former University of Texas player Derrick Johnson for most votes at linebacker (19 out of 20.) Nguyen is generally acknowledged as the best defensive player in Texas A&M football history and one of the greatest defensive players of all time in the history of the Big 12 Conference. In 2004, Nguyen was inducted in the Texas A&M Athletics Hall Of Fame. In April 2007, Nguyen was also inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and the AT&T Cotton Bowl Hall Of Fame.
On January 9, 2017, the
National Football Foundation
The National Football Foundation (NFF) is a non-profit organization to promote and develop amateur American football on all levels throughout the United States and "developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the dr ...
announced Nguyen was elected to the
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vo ...
, an impressive class that included
Peyton Manning
Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24, 1976) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons. Nicknamed "the Sheriff", he spent 14 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and four with ...
,
Adrian N. Peterson,
Marshall Faulk
Marshall William Faulk (born February 26, 1973) is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and St. Louis Rams. He is widely regarded as one of the gre ...
,
Steve Spurrier
Stephen Orr Spurrier (born April 20, 1945) is an American former football quarterback and coach who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons before coaching for 38 years, primarily in college. He is often referred to by his ...
, and
Brian Urlacher.
Professional career
Dallas Cowboys
The
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...
drafted Nguyen in the
third round (85th overall) of the
1999 NFL draft
The 1999 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 17–18, 1999, at the Theater at ...
.
Nguyen made an impact with the Cowboys from the beginning, leading the team in
special teams
In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...
tackles (18) as a rookie and becoming the Cowboys' starting
middle linebacker
Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...
in his second season, after
Randall Godfrey
Randall Euralentris Godfrey (born April 6, 1973) is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League. Godfrey played college football at the University of Georgia, where he majored in housing and consumer economics. He also ...
left via
free agency
In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is ...
.
In
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
, he played 10 games (five starts) and registered 64 tackles, after missing six contests with a sprained knee and losing his starting job to
Barron Wortham. The next year, he completed his first full season as a starter and finished with a team-leading 172 tackles.
In
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
, while playing against the
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their home games at NR ...
in the season opener, he suffered a broken wrist that forced him to miss the next eight games. Despite the serious injury, he finished the Texans game with a team-high 11 tackles (one for a loss) and one sack.
When head coach
Bill Parcells arrived in
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...
, he was critical of the linebackers in the Cowboys roster, joking publicly: "If this were the circus, we could fit them all into one of those Volkswagens that 10 clowns climb out of." The next season, he would pay Nguyen a compliment when he said: "He's a football playing dude, that guy. ... You bet he could have played for any of my teams".
In
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...
, with Nguyen leading the team in tackles, the Cowboys were the second-most effective defense in the NFL and he was selected second-team All-Pro by the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
. In
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...
, Parcells implemented his preferred
3–4 defense
In American football, the 3–4 defense is a common defensive alignment consisting of three down linemen and four linebackers. It is a called a "base defense" because it is the default defensive alignment used on "base downs" (1st and 2nd downs ...
and Nguyen repeated as the team's leading tackler, but the additional hits he received in this scheme started to affect his health.
In
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...
, he started the first four games before suffering a neck injury that sidelined him for three games. He returned as a nickel linebacker and played in four more games, before being placed on the
injured reserve list
The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...
on November 28, after the Thanksgiving Day overtime loss against the
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...
. He finished the season with 31 tackles and one sack in eight appearances.
Nguyen officially retired from the NFL on March 3, 2006, after a neck injury and knee problems, which hindered his performance, failed to improve. He led the team in tackles three times, in 2001, 2003, and 2004, and amassed 516 tackles in seven seasons, despite missing half of two separate seasons to injury. As of November 2010, Dat Nguyen currently ranks 10th all-time in Cowboys recorded history for career total tackles. For his NFL career, he was named to the 2013 class of Texas Gridiron Legends.
Coaching career
Dallas Cowboys
In February 2007, Cowboys head coach
Wade Phillips announced the hiring of Nguyen as assistant linebackers coach and defensive quality control coach. Along with Phillips' son Wes, Nguyen was the first assistant hired under Phillips. Nguyen left the Cowboys on January 27, 2010.
Texas A&M
Nguyen was named the inside linebackers coach at Texas A&M University on February 12, 2010. In Nguyen's first year as the A&M inside linebackers coach, the Aggies went 9–3 in the regular season with wins over nationally ranked Oklahoma and Nebraska, as well as wins over Texas and Texas Tech. This marked the first time in school history that A&M had beaten all four of those teams in a single season. The resurgence of the Texas A&M defense to its former glory as the "Wrecking Crew" and particularly the outstanding play of the linebacker corps has been cited as a major reason for the team's 2010 season success.
Nguyen helped cement linebacker
Von Miller
Vonnie B'VSean Miller (born March 26, 1989) is an American football outside linebacker for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). Miller played college football at Texas A&M, where he earned consensus All-American honors and ...
's status in Texas A&M history by coaching him in the 2010 season, which led to Miller being awarded the 2010 Butkus Award.
At the conclusion of the 2011 season, Nguyen chose to leave Texas A&M, telling the ''Houston Chronicle''s Brent Zwerneman that there was "no chance" of him being retained on
Kevin Sumlin's staff.
NFL career statistics
Regular season
Personal life
Nguyen married his college sweetheart, Becky, and they have three daughters and twin boys. His family are
Roman Catholics
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and attend mass at St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church in
Boerne, Texas. In May 2004, Nguyen was awarded a Golden Torch Award at the Vietnamese American National Gala in
Washington, D.C. He was also featured in
HBO's ''
Hard Knocks''.
In 2012, he became cohost with Jasson Minnix of an afternoon sports talk program on
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
in
San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_ ...
.
In March 2016, Nguyen became an owner/operator of a
Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A ( , a play on the American English pronunciation of " filet") is an American fast food restaurant chain which is the country's largest which specializes in chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in College Park, Georgia, Chick-fil-A op ...
franchise located at
Montgomery Plaza in
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...
, Texas.
References
External links
Nguyen Has Made His Own Long Journey, and the N.F.L. Is in SightDat Guy Makes PlaysTexas A/M hall of Fame bioDat: Tackling Life and the NFL
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Dat
1975 births
Living people
All-American college football players
American football linebackers
Catholics from Arkansas
Catholics from Texas
Dallas Cowboys coaches
Dallas Cowboys players
People from Rockport, Texas
Sportspeople from Fort Smith, Arkansas
Players of American football from Arkansas
Players of American football from Texas
Texas A&M Aggies football players
Texas A&M Aggies football coaches
American sportspeople of Vietnamese descent
Coaches of American football from Arkansas
Ed Block Courage Award recipients