When Bills quarterback Josh Allen took over as Week 13 wide receiver Amari Cooper and carried the ball he had originally thrown He completed two-thirds of a rare NFL trifecta in the end zone. That one play gave him both a passing and a receiving touchdown Game on Sunday eveningbut Allen wasn't finished yet. He then went for another score in the fourth quarter to put the game on ice for Buffalo.
Allen became just the 14th player (and the first quarterback) in league history to score a passing, rushing and receiving touchdown in the same game. Christian McCaffrey last did it in 2022. LaDanian Tomlinson did it in 2005. Hall of Famers Walter Payton and Frank Gifford are in the ultra-exclusive club. to.
And so it is with a cowboy.
Dan Reeves was listed as a running back during his eight-year playing career and remains the 17th leading rusher (in yards) in Cowboys history. But he was also a dangerous pass catcher; His 1,693 receiving yards still rank in the franchise's top 40 all-time. He returned a few punts and kicks in his day, and Reeves even scored an extra point in a game in 1971.
But he had also started at quarterback at South Carolina for three seasons and graduated in 1965 as the school's leading passer. And that experience made him a unique weapon in Dallas' offense, one that head coach Tom Landry wasn't afraid to use.
Josh Allen is the FIRST QUARTERBACK ever to have a passing touchdown, a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown in the same game.
He is the 14th player to achieve this feat and the seventh in the Super Bowl era.
— Nick Veronica (@NickVeronica)
The halfback option pass was just one of Landry's favorite creative innovations. But to really make it, he needed a true ball carrier who was smart enough to read a defense and also had a strong throwing arm.
It was precisely these skills that earned the undrafted Reeves a roster spot in Dallas.
Reeves attempted at least two throws in every NFL season he played. In the 1967 regular season, he recorded a career-best performance of seven passes and completed four of them, also a career high. That season, Reeves also recorded his only touchdown passes, a 74-yarder to Lance Rentzel in the Thanksgiving victory over the Cardinals and a 45-yarder again two weeks later to Rentzel, who scored the final score in the 38-17 win Eagle.
But Reeves had also been in the end zone twice that Dec. 10 afternoon, first catching a five-yard throw from quarterback Craig Morton in the second quarter and then adding a one-year touchdown plunge in the third.
Reeves' stats for the day: 10 rushes for 47 yards and a touchdown, four receptions for 28 yards and a touchdown, 1-on-1 passes for 45 yards and a touchdown.
At that point, he became the eighth player in league history to achieve the triple TD feat.
The Georgia native finished the 1967 season as the league's 15th rusher and top-30 receiver, and did not lead the Cowboys in any category. But the versatile Reeves was No. 10 in the league in scrimmage yards, beating players like Bobby Mitchell, Charley Taylor, Dallas teammates Bob Hayes, Don Perkins and Rentzel and even Gale Sayers.
He also finished the regular season with the nfl's highest passer rating (101.8) for any player who attempted five or more throws.
Reeves would only throw one more touchdown pass in his career, and that was it his most memorable of all.
Three weeks after his trifecta, Landry and the Cowboys played the halfback option again, this time in the playoffs against the Green Bay Packers, on a frozen Lambeau Field, where the temperature was 13 degrees below zero that New Year's Eve afternoon.
Trailing 14-10 on the first play of the fourth quarter, Reeves took a throw from Don Meredith near midfield and stumbled left onto the icy turf. But after half a dozen steps, he paused and flat-footed the ball from 35 yards to Rentzel, who practically entered the end zone from 20 yards away.
The goal was a huge surprise given the arctic conditions and gave Dallas its first lead of the day, a 17-14 lead that lasted until the final, fateful seconds of the game. If Bart Starr hadn't made his famous goal-line jump to win the now-legendary Ice Bowl, this improbable 50-yard touchdown pass from the team's RB2 might still be considered the most famous moment in Dallas Cowboys history.
Reeves went on to a successful coaching career, spending a decade on staff in Dallas and then running the show as head coach of the Broncos, Giants and Falcons. Reeves died in 2022 at the age of 77.
Reeves undoubtedly had a long and successful football career, winning Super Bowl VI as a player and Super Bowl XII as an assistant coach. He's in the Broncos Ring of Honor and was a semi-finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025. But perhaps none of his days on the gridiron ever quite compared, as Reeves reached the end zone three times, in three different ways, cementing his place — alongside Payton, Gifford, Tomlinson and now Allen – on one of the most exclusive lists in the history of sports.
