Hall of Famer Gil Brandt, who helped build Cowboys into ‘America’s Team,’ dies at 91

By SCHUYLER DIXON
AP Pro Football Writer

DALLAS (AP) — Gil Brandt, overshadowed by coach Tom Landry and general manager Tex Schramm as part of the trio that built the Dallas Cowboys into “America’s Team” in the 1970s, has died. He was 91. The Pro Football Hall of Fame says Brandt died Thursday morning. Brandt was the player personnel director alongside the stoic, fedora-wearing Landry and media-savvy Schramm, but had to wait almost 30 years longer to get into the Hall of Fame. By the time Brandt was enshrined as a contributor, it was as much for his ability to remain involved in the NFL by adapting to the social media age as for the innovation the Cowboys brought to the draft process with computers in the early 1960s.