Product Code Database
Tony Steven Casillas (born October 26, 1963) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) from 1986 through 1997. He played college football for the Oklahoma Sooners, winning an NCAA national championship in 1985, when he also won the Lombardi Award and was the UPI Lineman of the Year. Casillas was also part of the Dallas Cowboys back to back victories in Super Bowl XXVII and XXVIII, both against the Buffalo Bills. In 2004, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
He had a difficult start to his college football career. As a redshirt freshman he suffered an ankle injury, contracted mononucleosis and was lost for the entire season. The next year, he played sparingly at defensive tackle, registering only 10 tackles.
In 1984, Casillas was moved to nose guard and became a starter, receiving consensus All-American and first-team All-Conference honors.
In 1985, he became only the second Sooner ever to win the Lombardi Award, which is given to the nation's top lineman. He was named the UPI Lineman of the Year, the Big Eight Conference defensive player of the year, a consensus first team All-American and first team All-Conference. He ended his college career with 18 sacks and 213 career tackles in addition to graduating with Academic All-American honors in 1985, and a degree in public relations.
In 2004, Casillas became the second Hispanic (his father is Mexican and his mother comes from Irish and Native American descent) to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
The National Football Foundation named Casillas the College Defensive Player of the Decade for the 1980s. In 2008, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.
Casillas was inducted in to the Oklahoma Hispanic Hall of Fame on March 13, 2025 at a ceremony at Oklahoma City Community College in South Oklahoma City. He was introduced by his former coach Barry Switzer and gave the keynote address at the event.
In the strike-shortened 1987 season, he played just nine games and had 72 tackles.
During the 1988 preseason, he left camp for three weeks to get guidance from a psychologist, suffering he said, from the stress of playing in professional football. He returned to the team with a new attitude and in time to start the regular season, where he made 111 tackles and was named a Pro Bowl alternate.
He exploded in 1989, becoming one of the best players at his position in the league with 152 tackles (still a team record for a defensive lineman) and was named second-team All-Pro and a Pro Bowl alternate.
In 1990, he held out in a contract dispute from head coach Jerry Glanville's first Falcons training camp, causing him to lose his starting job to rookie Tory Epps. The problems escalated from there on, he eventually missed a 44–24 loss to the Los Angeles Rams after failing to catch the team flight. The Falcons suspended him for two weeks without pay. Between injuries and discipline incidents, he only played in nine games as a backup.
At the start of the 1991 season, he announced he was retiring, so the Falcons traded him to the Dallas Cowboys for second, and eighth round draft choices in the 1992 NFL draft. During his five-year span in Atlanta, Casillas had 478 tackles, the most ever by any Falcons defensive lineman and fourth best overall in franchise history.
His career was revived in Dallas as a specialist at stopping the run. He also was a part of back to back victories in Super Bowl XXVII and XXVIII against the Buffalo Bills two years in a row. Casillas left the team via free agency to join the Kansas City Chiefs for the 1994 season.
On the eve of training camp, he told coach Marty Schottenheimer he was concerned about his health. Eventually, the Chiefs released him, forcing him to return his signing bonus. Their general manager, Carl Peterson, asked the league to investigate whether the Cowboys had tampered, after the Cowboys hired Barry Switzer (Casillas's former coach at Oklahoma).
As part of Casillas's release from the Chiefs, he agreed that he would not sign in 1994 with any of the other AFC West divisional rivals or with the Dallas Cowboys.
|
|
