Former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Lance Rentzel, once one of the team’s brightest stars before a disturbing scandal derailed his career, has died at 82.
Rentzel, who became a major name in Dallas during the late 1960s, was known for his speed, talent and celebrity life off the field. He was married to actress and ’60s sex symbol Joey Heatherton, worked as a TV presenter and even tried his hand at music, releasing a single with Columbia Records in 1968.
But his glamorous life collapsed in 1970 after he was arrested for exposing himself to a 10-year-old girl at a playground in Minnesota.
Rentzel, who began his NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings after being drafted in 1965, later pleaded guilty in the case. He avoided jail time after his attorneys said he had been receiving psychiatric treatment. He was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to continue psychiatric care.
The scandal quickly ended his time in Dallas. In May 1971, the Cowboys traded him to the Los Angeles Rams.
Legendary Cowboys coach Tom Landry admitted at the time that the team was parting ways with a major talent.
“We know we are giving up one of the top flankers in the league,” Landry said. “I thought he would be better off in another city where he had the same opportunity regularly. We found this in Los Angeles, and it was one of the teams Lance wanted to be traded to if he were traded.”
Rentzel’s marriage also fell apart. Heatherton divorced him soon after the scandal, though Rentzel later claimed their split was not caused by the arrest itself, but by what he described as his “let’s-have-some-laughs-and-forget-it” attitude toward the situation, according to the Dallas Morning News.
After the divorce, Rentzel briefly dated actress Victoria Principal, who had previously been linked to Frank Sinatra.
His troubles did not end after his move to California. In 1973, Rentzel was convicted of marijuana possession and suspended by the NFL for 10 months.
Rentzel never returned to the level of success he had enjoyed with the Cowboys. After being placed on waivers by the Rams in 1975, his NFL career came to an end.
He spent his later years in Virginia, where he died on June 7.
He was a special kind of stupid!