Former Dallas Cowboys special teams coach Joe Avezzano was a colorful fixture along the team's sideline for 12 seasons, winning three Super Bowls and working under four head coaches.
With Avezzano's death this week at age 68, the popular assistant was remembered by former Cowboys players and personnel as an original. Troy Aikman counted Avezzano as a close friend, and five-time Pro Bowl safety Darren Woodson, now retired, praised Avezzano's knack for developing leadership inside the locker room.
The Cowboys under Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer were littered with strong personalities. Woodson talked about Avezzano's ability to generate buy-in from the team's luminaries on down to the most tenuous role players. He recalled fullback Daryl Johnston's passion for special teams, which he credits to Avezzano.
"Man, (Johnston's) getting all these snaps, he's a great role player, he's a leading blocker for Emmitt Smith," Woodson told KESN-FM this week, via The Dallas Morning News. "He's laying it out on the line. And then, you go to special teams meeting and who is that guy that's in the meeting sitting right up front, looking at everybody, making sure everybody was going to be on time and cussing guys out right along with (Joe) Avezzano -- (it was) Daryl Johnston. He just bought into it.
"That's what made Avezzano special," Woodson said. "He had guys in that locker room -- Troy Aikman, another one -- he had guys that were, Mark Tuinei -- that were really believed in who he was and what he was about. And if guys got out of line on special teams meetings, you knew Daryl was going to come down on you. You knew Bill Bates was going to come down on you or myself. That's how much respect he had in that locker room."