“Early on when I was playing with Troy he’d come out of a break and the linemen and linebackers would be blocking the visual path between he and I,” Novacek says. “All of a sudden I’d see this hand rise up and throw the ball my way. It’d get to me every time. I’d say, ‘Did you even see me?’ He’d say, ‘No, but I knew you’d be there.’ I’ll take that sort of trust over a Super Bowl title any day.”
Aikman was even more euphoric. Here was a new breed of tight end. No, Novacek was far from a bruising blocker. But he utilized angles and body leverage to keep pass rushers at bay. Most important, he was uncoverable. Too fast for linebackers and too big for defensive backs, Novacek ran the 8-to–10-yard buttonhook with unrivaled effectiveness. “I called Jay ‘Superman,’” says Vinson Smith, the Cowboys linebacker. “He might have been the best athlete on the team. You looked at him and thought, ‘No way.’ Then you’d cover him and he’d catch everything.”
In 1990 and 91 Novacek caught 59 passes, and in 1992 his 68 receptions set a team record for the position. Where other offensive coordinators deemed Novacek undersized, Norv Turner salivated at the never-ending matchup problems. No longer did a tight end have to be burly, slow and excessively rugged.
One of my brothers all time favorites. He used to say, how could the slowest man in the NFL always be wide open. Or Novacek was wide open on Tuesdays. Man what a great he was.
