John Niland Dies at Age 82, NFL Legend Won Super Bowl 6 with Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys announced on Monday that former guard John Niland, who won a Super Bowl with the team in the 1971 season, has died at the age of 82.

Niland was a six-time Pro Bowler and three-time first-team All-Pro selection during his career (1966-75), playing for nine seasons in Dallas before finishing his playing days with a lone season on the Philadelphia Eagles.

"Thank you to the millions of friends and fans that have supported, cheered on and loved our John just as much as we did," Niland's family wrote on a social media post announcing his death.

"He was the best dad," his daughter, Haven, told Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News. "He was so wonderful. I mean, he was really bigger than life. He taught me so many amazing things. I was talking to my sister [Saturday]. He taught me nothing is that serious. The things that really matter are family and your faith and just being kind to other people. I think that's really exemplified."

A cause of death was not revealed, though Niland did deal with a number of health issues later in life, including dementia, mouth cancer and knee and shoulder replacements.

His family, which is donating his brain to Boston University's CTE Center, believes he suffered from CTE.

"I can't remember a time when it didn't impact our life," Haven told Watkins of Niland's health issues. "It was a continuous discussion of, 'Dad's got doctor's appointments.' He had a double knee replacement, and then later a double shoulder replacement, which led to staph in his spine. So his body was beat up and bruised and he broke his nose six times. We were always talking about it. We experienced a lot of hardships as a family. He was often confused later in life or angry for reasons he didn't understand. We knew it was the CTE. We know it. We don't need a test to tell us, but we know that he was. He knew himself he was so heavily impacted by that."

Niland played for Iowa during his college years and was inducted into the Hawkeyes' Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006. He was the No. 5 overall pick by the Cowboys in the 1966 NFL draft.

Across his nine seasons in Dallas he started 111 games and appeared in 124 overall, with the majority of the non-starts coming during his rookie season. Between the 1968-73 seasons, he was one of the best offensive linemen in the sport, with six straight Pro Bowl bids and three All-Pro selections.