Burton Lawless

Richard Burton Lawless (born November 1, 1953) is a former American college and professional football player who was an offensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for six seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. Lawless played college football for the University of Florida, and earned All-American honors. A second-round pick in the 1975 NFL Draft, he played professionally for the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions of the NFL.

Early years
Lawless was born in Dothan, Alabama in 1953. He attended Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda, Florida, where he was an all-state tight end and offensive lineman for the Charlotte Fighting Tarpons high school football team. In 2007, thirty-six years after he graduated from high school, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) recognized Lawless as one of the "100 Greatest Players of the First 100 Years" of Florida high school football.

College career
Lawless received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach Doug Dickey's Florida Gators football team from 1971 to 1974. He was a three-year starter, a second-team All-Southeastern conference (SEC) selection in 1973 and 1974, and a first-team All-American during his senior season in 1974.

Lawless returned to the university during the NFL off-season to finish his bachelor's degree in exercise and sport sciences 1977, and he was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1978.

Professional career
Lawless was selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round (forty-fourth pick overall) of the 1975 NFL Draft, and he played for the Cowboys for five seasons. Lawless was the only member of 1975 draft to earn a starting job during his 1975 rookie season, and played for the Cowboys in Super Bowl XII, but he lost his starting job to Herbert Scott in 1976. He served as a messenger guard in Dallas for most of the remainder of the decade before being traded to the Detroit Lions in 1980. Lawless played one final season in Detroit. In his six-season NFL career, Lawless played in eighty-two games, and started twenty-three of them.

Lawless attended the Cowboys alumni reunion and closing ceremony at Texas Stadium in Dallas on December 20, 2008.