Dat Nguyen
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{{NFL player
|Image= |Caption= |DateOfBirth=September 25, 1975 |Birthplace=Fulton, Texas |DateOfDeath= |Position=MLB |College=Texas A&M |DraftedYear=1999 |DraftedRound=3 |DatabaseFootball=NGUYEDAT01 |PFR= |Awards=1998 Bednarik Award
1998 Lombardi Award |years=1999-2005 |teams=Dallas Cowboys |ProBowls= |HOF=}}
Dat Nguyen [win] (born on September 25, 1975 in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas [1]) is the first Vietnamese American to play in the National Football League. He played for the Dallas Cowboys.
Biography
Nguyen has battled the perception that he was too small to play football for as long as he has been involved in the game. Ending his career at a muscular 5'11" and 238 pounds, Nguyen is anything but small compared to "normal" men, but he was well below average in size for a modern NFL linebacker. He began proving critics wrong at an early age, and proceeded to leave Texas A&M University, as the Aggies career record holder with 51 consecutive starts, 517 career tackles and a 10.7 tackles-per-game average.
In 1998, he was named an All-American and won the Bednarik Award as well as the Lombardi Award.
Despite such an illustrious collegiate career, the "undersized" criticism was still heard from NFL personnel. Image:Dat Becky Nguyen.JPG The Cowboys went ahead and drafted the most productive linebacker in Texas A&M history in the third round (85th overall) of the 1999 NFL draft. Nguyen made an impact with the Cowboys from the very beginning, leading the team in special teams stops as a rookie and becoming Dallas' starting middle linebacker in his second professional season.
In 2001, he competed his first full season as a starting NFL middle linebacker and silenced the critics by recording the second highest single-season tackle total in Cowboys history, 172 tackles. Nguyen was a fan favorite throughout his career, even among those who do not like Texas A&M or the Cowboys, because he has always been perceived as an over-achieving underdog and he was a quintesential team-player. Like Doug Flutie, whose long career actually overlapped with Nguyen's, he was an inspiration for undersized boys with dreams of being football stars. The parsimonious Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells said of Dat Nguyen: "He could play on any of my teams". These would include the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants.
Nguyen and wife Becky added a daughter, Aubrey Mai to their family on June 26, 2003.
In May 2004, Nguyen was awarded a Golden Torch Award at the Vietnamese American National Gala in Washington, D.C.
He officially retired from the NFL on March 3, 2006 after an injury ended his season in 2005. Image:Dat Nguyen.JPG
Awards - collegiate
- All-American, consensus (1998)
- All Big-12 Conference Football - 1st team (1996-98)
- Big 12 Conference - 10th Anniversary Team (2005)
- Big 12 Conference - Defensive Player of the Year (1998)
- Chuck Bednarik Award - College Defensive Player of the Year (1998)
- Cotton Bowl - Defensive Player of the Game (1998)
- Dallas Morning News Big 12 Male Athlete of the Year (1998)
- Lombardi Award - Outstanding College Lineman (1998)
- Southwest Conference Defensive Newcomer of the Year (1995)
- Texas A&M Football Team MVP (1997)