FWST: For 1977 Dallas Cowboys, Pearson gave meaning to third-down back

[fgoodwin]

For 1977 Dallas Cowboys, Pearson gave meaning to third-down back

Posted Sunday, Apr. 18, 2010
By JAN HUBBARD

In football vernacular, a variety of words exist to describe a multi-purpose back like former Cowboy Preston Pearson.

Descriptions such as shifty, elusive, slippery, wily -- all captured the essence of Pearson, who played with the Cowboys for six years.

His arrival in Dallas in 1975 marked a change for the Tom Landry-Tex Schramm-Gil Brandt administration. The Cowboys believed in developing their own, drafting and nurturing and then reaping the benefits.

But Pearson was not only a free agent, he had also played the previous five years for the hated Steelers, who had defeated the Cowboys in the Super Bowl only a few months before Pearson signed a contract with Dallas.

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