John Niland, a three-time All-Pro guard who contributed to the Dallas Cowboys’ first Super Bowl victory, has died at the age of 82. His daughter, Haven, confirmed that Niland passed away Saturday morning in McKinney, a suburb of Dallas.

Born in Quincy and raised in Amityville, New York, after being adopted, Niland played nine seasons with the Cowboys, making 111 starts in 124 games. He spent one additional season with the Philadelphia Eagles before retiring after the 1975 NFL season. Throughout his career, Niland earned six consecutive Pro Bowl selections from 1968 to 1973 and was named a first-team All-Pro in 1969, 1971, and 1972.

Niland was integral to the Cowboys’ offensive line, providing key protection to quarterback Roger Staubach during the team’s 24-3 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI on January 16, 1972. Before entering the NFL, Niland starred at the University of Iowa, which later inducted him into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006. He was selected by Dallas with the fifth overall pick in the 1966 NFL Draft.

In a 1990 interview, Niland openly discussed his struggles with cocaine use during and after his professional football career, describing it as “the drug of choice” during his playing years. He also reflected on the pressures of being part of “America’s team” and criticized the NFL’s treatment of players, comparing athletes to commodities cultivated and discarded once their peak performance waned.

In 2012, Niland joined a lawsuit with approximately 5,000 other former NFL players against the league, alleging that it concealed the long-term health impacts of repeated head injuries sustained on the field. The legal action detailed a range of symptoms experienced by Niland, including cognitive difficulties, headaches, dizziness, memory loss, dementia, depression, fatigue, irritability, and issues related to neck and cervical spine arthritis.

Niland is survived by his wife, Shaughn, and their daughters, Haven and Jordan. His family has announced plans to donate his brain to Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) research center. CTE is a degenerative brain disease associated with repeated head trauma and currently can only be diagnosed posthumously.