Dat Nguyen
By Jami Farkas | Nguoi Viet 2 Online
Every time he puts on the white, silver, and blue of the Dallas Cowboys, every time he runs onto the field, he is more than a football player.
He is a symbol, a symbol of Vietnamese work ethic meeting American dream. A symbol of how an immigrant whose family escaped the horrors of war can find fame and fortune in a new land. He is the hope of refugee youngsters who, too, want to succeed in their chosen field but hear they are too small, too slow, too big, too “something” to excel.
He is Dat Nguyen, the first — and only — Vietnamese American to play in the National Football League.
“No matter where our loyalty lies with a football team, Dat is the one we’re cheering for,” said Ryan Nguyen Hubris, co-founder of the Vietnamese American National Gala, which honored the athlete. “When he makes the great plays, we share in his achievements. When he falters, we share his disappointments. He is an icon in so many ways.”
And in the Vietnamese American community, he is a star, a star as shiny as the one that adorns his Cowboys helmet. And there isn’t a day that passes that he doesn’t realize just how fortunate he is.
“I’m living a dream,” said Nguyen, whose team will play archrival Washington on Monday night. “You are an immigrant, you live in America, you play America’s sport. You play for America’s team. Anything else is icing on the cake for me.”
******
Ho and Tammy Nguyen awoke their five weary children that night in April 1975, though it’s a wonder the little ones could sleep. The sound of bullets and bombs penetrated the night air of the small town south of Saigon.
It was time to leave. Now.
Tammy, pregnant at the time, and her husband left everything behind, including Ho’s marine shop in Vietnam. They made it to a refugee camp in Arkansas, where Dat was born Sept. 25, 1975.
“What’s amazing to me is what they went through. They were risking the chance not even to live another day,” Nguyen says of his parents. “It’s always a touching subject to me.”
Eventually, the family settled in Rockport, in Texas, which had a thriving shrimping industry, a place where Ho could earn a living. There, they registered young Dat in a youth soccer league.
He was the last one drafted onto his team, the only boy of Vietnamese descent to play in the group of eight or 10 teams. His best friend’s father was the coach.
“Everyone on our team was cool,” he said.
Two years later, when he was eight or nine years old, things weren’t so cool. His team of 15 players had 11 of Vietnamese descent. It won the league championship.
Other parents “weren’t happy we won,” he remembered. “It was awfully quiet at the awards ceremony.”
The people of Rockport, it seems, weren’t happy that the Vietnamese immigrants had taken jobs in their community.
“At that age, I didn’t know much,” he said. “When you’re there for so many years and someone comes and invades your property, taking food away from you, of course you’re not going to be happy.”
******
Ho and Tammy worked long hours, two or three jobs to support their children.
“They were so caught up into working, putting food on the table,” their son said. “That’s the only thing they knew.”
So when the parents were away, Nguyen took some chances.
Encouraged by junior-high school coaches who thought he could help their football team, Nguyen started playing a sport foreign to his parents. While they toiled hard, he ran hard. Practice before school, games after.
His mother and father had no idea of their boy’s extracurricular activities until he came home with a cast on his arm.
“That’s when my Mom found out,” he recalled. “They weren’t too happy.”
But seeing how much their youngest child took to the game, they struck a deal. If he didn’t get good grades in school, he couldn’t play. His Mom and Dad knew how important education was. “If I stayed in high school, I’d have a better chance.”
Stay in school he did, leading Rockport-Fulton High School. He was a Texas Top 100 selection as a linebacker and defensive player of the year in district 30-3A as a senior after making 188 tackles. He also earned Class 3A second-team all-state honors as a punter.
After high school, he went onto Texas A&M University, graduating in 1998 with a degree in agricultural development. During his senior season in college, he took post-graduate classes.
It was in college that Dat Nguyen became a household name, where football fans nationwide began to take notice of a Vietnamese American on the field. After his final season, he earned All-America honors from several groups and was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. In addition, he won the Lombardi Award as the nation’s top lineman and the Chuck Bednarik Award as the college defensive player of the year.
Nguyen finished his senior season with a career-high 147 tackles and became the first player in school history to lead tradition-rich Texas A&M in tackles four straight seasons.
Perhaps more importantly to him, Nguyen had opened doors for other Vietnamese American youths, becoming a role model. At the same time, he opened a new door with his parents, who really had not understood the game when he started playing.
But after attending an A&M game, it was clear Tammy Nguyen knew football.
“Why did the quarterback do this? Why didn’t the running back do this?” She peppered her son with questions.
“She started to understand the game,” he said. “It’s awesome because they talk about it.”
The Nguyens of Rockport love football now. They watch every Saturday and Sunday.
“They don’t care if I’m playing or not,” their son said. “The TV is on.”
******
April 17, 1999, was one of the longest, yet best days of Nguyen’s life. NFL Draft Day, the day professional teams decide if the college players move to the next rank.
Nguyen had heard what all the NFL scouts said about him. At 5 foot 11, he was too small to play linebacker in a league of giants.
Still, he waited for the phone to ring, for an NFL team to say it wanted one of the most decorated players in college football history.
Finally, that call came. It was the Dallas Cowboys. At 8:30 p.m., the team made Dat Nguyen the 85th selection in the draft, the 24th player taken in the third round. The 1999 draft was one littered with players who have become NFL stars, such as Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb and Indianapolis running back Edgerrin James, and some who became NFL has-beens before their careers even started. Do fans of the New England Patriots even remember Andy Katzen-moyer, also a linebacker?
“It was the most joyful and most stressful day,” Nguyen said. “I just wanted an opportunity. I didn’t care if it was first round, seventh round, that’s all I could ask for. My whole career, everybody told me I couldn’t do it.
“It’s the beast of the business. If teams invest a lot of money in you, they have to see potential in you. When you’re 5-11, 230 and run a 4.6 (for 40 yards), that’s no potential.”
But recruiters for the Cowboys saw something and cannot have been disappointed in the years since. Nguyen made an immediate impact in his rookie season in 1999, earning all-rookie honors. By 2000, he was a starter at linebacker and in 2001, he led Dallas in tackles with 172, second on the all-time list for the Cowboys.
So far this season, in two games, Nguyen has eight tackles and one interception.
After those two competitions, the Cowboys have one win and one loss. Nguyen would like nothing more than to help restore glory to the storied football franchise, winner of five Super Bowls.
“The key to the game of football at the end of the year is how healthy you are,” Nguyen said of his team. “As long as you stay healthy, you’ve got a chance to win.”
But when Super Bowl XXXIX is played Feb. 6 in Jacksonville, Fla., will the Cowboys and their legendary coach, Bill Parcells, be there?
“It would be nice. It would be great,” he said. “Carolina (Panthers in 2004) made it when nobody thought they would. There’s a chance. You never know what’s going to happen.”
******
For Dat Nguyen, there is no uncertainty in his personal life. He and his wife, Becky, are the parents of Aubrey Mai, now 15 months old. They are visible in the Dallas community, working tirelessly for organizations dedicated to serving causes such as underprivileged children, childhood cancer and breast cancer.
In part for those efforts, the Vietnamese American National Gala in May gave him one of its prestigious awards for service to the community. His fellow refugees also honored him for taking risks and for inspiring others.
And while he is immersed in the Dallas community, he hasn’t forgotten his ties to the Vietnamese community in Rockport, six hours away. He speaks Vietnamese, loves Vietnamese food and constantly teaches Aubrey Mai Vietnamese.
“She’s going to be diverse,” he said of his daughter. “I want to expose her to a lot of different foods and cultures. I want to keep the Vietnamese roots. I want her to be able to speak Vietnamese and to understand Vietnamese. I told myself if I ever marry a Caucasian girl, I would speak Vietnamese to my child. I want her to be able to communicate with her grandparents.”
Nguyen said he realizes he represents not just himself but the Asian community each time he appears in public.
“I know a lot of people look up to me, a lot of kids,” he said. “It’s great if I succeed. It’s like I’m opening a door for other kids. If you want to be a pro football player, dream. I did.”
“Many Vietnamese people I know are very inspired by him,” said Bill Lee, editor of asiansportsnet.com, which tracks Asians in professional sports in the United States. “He’s been a good role model for them not just on the football field but off the football field. A lot of non-Asians know him.”
“He certainly breaks the stereotype of a small, docile Vietnamese,” Hubris said. “Despite his size, he truly is a gentle giant. I’ve had the pleasure of spending some time with him and his loving family, and I can say without reservation that he is one of the kindest men I’ve ever met, much less an NFL superstar.
“He demonstrates a sense of humility and grace I seldom see in accomplished professionals.
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