A star wideout whose elite talent propelled Dallas toward championship glory, Rentzel leaves behind a legacy defined by gridiron brilliance and a career derailed by legal scandal.
FRISCO - Wide receiver Lance Rentzel, who once led the NFL in touchdown receptions but is widely remembered for his troubling behavior as a member of the Dallas Cowboys, is dead at 82.
Rentzel died on June 7.
Rentzel was chosen in the second round of the 1965 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings after a stellar career at the University of Oklahoma. Over the course of a decade, he would total 268 catches for 4,826 yards and 38 touchdown catches.
Minnesota traded him to the Dallas Cowboys before the 1967 season, a transaction that accelerated his career.
Rentzel reached 900 receiving yards in each of his first three seasons with Dallas, and earned All-Pro recognition in 1968. He was a key figure in helping Dallas reach consecutive NFL Championship Games.
But what some observers are now calling a "colorful'' life was actually a troubled and controversial one. In 1969, Rentzel married movie star Joey Heatherton.
But a year later, Rentzel was arrested in Dallas in an indecent-exposure case involving a young girl.
In 1973, while on probation for the indecent exposure case, Rentzel was suspended indefinitely by the NFL on a drug charge.
