Dallas, TX
Former Cowboys receiver, Super Bowl champion Golden Richards dead at 73
Golden Richards, a former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver whose touchdown sealed Super Bowl XII, died at his Utah home on Friday morning. He was 73.
Richards suffered congestive heart failure after battling health and drug abuse issues for years, according to Deseret News.
“My uncle Golden passed away peacefully this morning,” Richards’ nephew Lance Richards posted on Facebook. “I will forever remember going hunting and talking Dallas Cowboy football. He was a kind and sweet soul and I’m so happy he’s not suffering anymore.
The Cowboys selected Richards in the second round of the 1973 NFL draft, where he’d become a valuable deep threat for star quarterback Roger Staubach
The former BYU and University of Hawaii standout caught a career-high five touchdowns in 1974 and, averaged more than 21 yards per catch in the 1975 and 1976 seasons.
Richards emerged as a valuable asset during Dallas’ road to their second Super Bowl win in 1977.
He caught a 32-yard touchdown in the NFC Championship game against the Vikings, to open the scoring in a 23-6 win.
Cowboys head coach Tom Landry liked calling trick plays in big games.
In the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl against the Broncos, running back Robert Newhouse threw a pass to Richards for a 29-yard touchdown to cap off the scoring in a 27-10 win.
“People always think of that game as the highlight of my career but it wasn’t,” Richards told the LA Times in 1993.
“Every game I played was the highlight. Having my mates hold me up in the huddle when I had just gotten nailed and the wind knocked out of me, that was the highlight. The camaraderie of the game, every game, that was the highlight.”
Richards was traded to the Bears during the 1978 season before an injury cut his 1979 season short.
He later joined the Broncos in 1980 but retired after suffering another injury.
He finished his NFL career with 2,136 yards on 122 receptions and 17 touchdowns.
Doug Richards told Deseret News that his brother had undergone four surgeries after he fell and broke his hip on Christmas Day in 2022.
Richards battled prescription drug and alcohol issues during and after his playing days, but was sober for the past 10 years, the outlet reported.
“I never took drugs to get high,” he said in 1993. “I took drugs because I couldn’t stand the pain.”
He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2011.
“Seven or eight years of wear and tear on the football field for a 175-pound wide receiver who was concussed several times, too,” his brother Doug, a former BYU basketball star, told the outlet. “That obviously took its toll.”
Richards, who was divorced three times, is survived by two sons and a two-year-old grandson.
Morton started 15 games in 1972 for an injured Staubach, who eventually returned in the playoffs. The Cowboys decided to trade Morton in 1974 to the Giants, who sent back a first-round pick, which turned out to be the No. 2 overall pick in 1975. The Cowboys used that selection to take Randy White, a 10-time Pro Bowler and future Hall of Famer.
Ironically enough, White’s best game was likely Super Bowl XII, when he was named Co-MVP with Harvey Martin. The Cowboys’ Doomsday defense dominated the Broncos, who were quarterbacked by Morton.
Overall, Morton played for the Cowboys, Giants and Broncos before officially retiring at the end of the 1982 season.
His career ended with 27,908 passing yards, ranking him 71st in NFL history, just ahead of Hall of Famer Joe Namath (27,663).
With the official NFL schedule coming this week, the Dallas Cowboys have revealed when, where and against who their Week 1 contest will be.
The Cowboys announced that they will square off against the New York Giants on the road in Week 1, with the game set for Sunday, Sept. 13, at 7:20 p.m. CT. So, it’s prime time for the Cowboys to start the season.
This is the second game we know about for the Cowboys this year. Of course, we know they will be playing on Thanksgiving, also.
The official schedule will drop on May 14, the NFL announced last week. Schedules for all 32 teams will be revealed on ESPN and the NFL Network, but each team will unveil its own schedule on social media, also.
The Cowboys were always likely to play a road game in Week 1 because of an Usher and Chris Brown concert taking place at AT&T Stadium that week.
Dallas will also be impacted by an Ed Sheeran concert in Week 7, so that’s another potential road game. They could also play on Monday or Thursday that week, or have a bye.
Cowboys’ strength of schedule
According to Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis, the Cowboys are not going to have an easy road to make the postseason.
The Cowboys have the fourth-toughest schedule in the NFL going into the 2026 season, with only the Arizona Cardinals, Miami Dolphins and Carolina Panthers having tougher slates.
Dallas’ schedule is also the third-toughest in the NFC, and the most difficult in the NFC East.
Sharp does his strength of schedule rankings based on win totals from Vegas oddsmakers rather than utilizing the previous season’s records because that metric doesn’t factor in offseason changes.
The Cowboys will play home games against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders.
On the road, Dallas will square off against the Giants, Eagles, Commanders, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers.
Of those opponents, seven of them made the postseason in 2025, a list that includes the Jaguars, 49ers, Eagles, Texans, Rams, Seahawks and Packers.
All of those teams should be as good in 2026, and teams like the Colts, Titans, Ravens, Bucs, Giants and Commanders have a very real chance to be improved as well.
It won’t be an easy road for Dallas to get back to the playoffs in 2026, but there’s at least hope following a defensive overhaul.
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