How Roger Staubach Injured His Shoulder, Preseason, 1972

 By John Turney 

AP photo

"I tried to run over Marlin McKeever," Dallas Cowboys Hall-of-Fame quarterback Roger Staubach said, "and that was a big mistake."

That is how he missed most 1972 regular season, not making an appearance from the third preseason game against the Rams in Los Angeles until the tenth game of the regular season in Philadelphia. 

He got some snaps for the next three regular season games and a divisional playoff game (leading a great Cowboys comeback against the San Francisco 49ers) until he got the starting nod in the NFC Championship game in Washington.

Dallas lost that game 26-3 and the Redskins advanced to the Super Bowl.

Here is the play he was injured in August of 1972. 

As you can see from the above clip right defensive end Jack Youngblood comes free on a rush and as Staubach was adept at doing, ducked low enough to escape and flushed to the left for a good gain.

His mistake was presenting his right shoulder at the three-yard line to try and run over Rams middle linebacker Marlin McKeever.

The play landed Youngblood in hot water with his head coach Tommy Prothro. In a team meeting a day after the game Prothro blurted out, "Youngblood, Tom Landry hates you."

"Excuse me?" replied the second-year defensive end. "That's right," the coach continued, "If you hadn't screwed up that pass rush, if you'd tackled Staubach like you were supposed to, he wouldn't be injured today."

Youngblood recalls being punished for the missed tackle by having to work on his tackling after practice every day for a week. 

For years Youngblood has maintained that Prothro hated him and this episode is among the stories he uses to illustrate why he thinks that. 

Youngblood probably has a point -- Staubach did this to a lot of pass rushers.