For the dozens of Cowboys hopefuls- and nearly 900 prospects leaguewide- who were given bad news at Sunday's cutdown deadline, a three-time Super Bowl champion offers an encouraging reminder that it doesn't have to be the end of the dream.
It's only a dream deferred.
Chad Hennings knows something about having to wait to make his mark in professional football. A star defensive tackle, All-American, and Outland Trophy winner at the Air Force Academy, Hennings was committed to eight years of service as a pilot after graduation. That saw him plummet him to the 11th round of 1988's draft. With no guarantees he'd ever play at all, the Cowboys nevertheless selected Hennings with the 290th overall pick. (That's 30-some picks after the player who these
days is dubbed "Mr. Irrelevant.")
But after flying 45 missions in the first Gulf War as an A-10 "Warthog" pilot, Hennings found his active-duty commitment cut in half due to a reduction in force. He arrived in Dallas in 1992, earlier than expected... but as a 26-year-old rookie.
That late start, he says, was the best thing that could have happened to him.
"The benefits for me of delaying my career, I was allowed to mature," Hennings told Cowboys Wire this week. "Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, all of the above."
Hennings made the comments from The Star in Frisco, where he helped coach nearly 100 active-duty military members through an NFL combine-style experience as part of the USAA Salute to Service NFL Boot Camp. Airmen and Marines representing Fort Sill in Oklahoma and Fort Hood and Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas took part in a battery of football skill drills, with winners in line to receive tickets to the Cowboys' Salute to Service game later this season.
The boot camps have been a fixture around the league since 2011; the Cowboys have hosted one each of the last four years.
"It's our way of giving back to the military," explained Mark Cook, a military affairs representative for USAA who himself served 30 years in the U.S. Army.
Hennings says his involvement checks two boxes for him, keeping him active with both his brothers and sisters currently serving the country as well as with the team whose uniform he wore for 133 games (including those three Super Bowl wins) over his nine-year Cowboys tenure.
"I want to be a part of that," Hennings, now 60, said. "It's a way for me to continue to serve in both capacities."
And while the airmen and Marines he worked with this week weren't vying for roster spots on an actual NFL team, Hennings acknowledged that there's a lesson there for those players who are now having to take an indirect path to reach the ultimate goal. Whether the journey has been delayed by injury or a stint in the spring league or the International Pathway Program or time spent grinding on the practice squad, Hennings has a word of advice that's rooted in the wait he personally went through 35 years ago.
"It only made me a better football player," Hennings said. "And for anybody out there that's on a potentially similar path: resilience, persistence, commitment. Keep the dream, because it is possible. I'm living proof."
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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: 'Keep the dream': Cowboys great Chad Hennings' encouraging message to NFL's roster cuts
