ARLINGTON — Lance Dunbar didn’t realize how it would feel to be on the outside looking in until he was there, waiting. It was depressing, the former Dallas Cowboys running back says now, hoping and working for a football future that he couldn’t guarantee.
“It's tough when you're training every day and getting your mind ready to play, but you don't know when you're going to get that call or if it's going to happen,” Dunbar said. “It kind of brings you down a little and makes you want to give up.”
But that’s not part of Dunbar’s makeup. Not for the running back who came to Haltom from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and found a home. Not for the running back who had over 5,000 yards at North Texas and still went undrafted. Not for the running back who spent six years in the NFL, suffered multiple knee injuries and still wants another shot — three years after his NFL door closed.
Now, the opportunity Dunbar worked for is here. He’s one of four running backs on the Dallas Renegades roster, an XFL team that will make its debut Sunday at Globe Life Park at 4 p.m. The 30-year-old has felt what it’s like to have professional football ripped away from him and now he has an opportunity show why he still belongs, a motivation that might epitomize the XFL.
“This is considered a second-chance league,” said Daryl Johnston, a former Cowboys fullback who now works as the director of player personnel for the Renegades. “He’s had the opportunity to get himself healthy.
“The NFL really hasn’t embraced that opportunity for a comeback and maybe we can get Lance back out on the field and he can show the NFL that he is back, with us in the XFL.”
An opportunity, however, is only that. The eight-team XFL is filled with motivated players who are thankful to have one. For those players, it’ll be about what they do with this opportunity. They’ll have to prove themselves, something that Dunbar has done his entire life.
“He’s always found a way to get things done,” said Renegades safeties coach Kenny Perry.
Perry would know. In 2005 he was the head coach at Haltom. After a couple of games that season, he realized the varsity team had a need at running back. One assistant approached him: “How about the sophomore on junior varsity?” Perry recalled.
That sophomore was Dunbar. And once Perry gave him the opportunity, Dunbar ran with it. He impressed immediately and was a first-team all-district player his junior and senior seasons. He had over 1200 rushing yards in his final year, opening the eyes of colleges like Colorado, Oklahoma State and Virginia. Instead of going to a bigger school he chose to stay close to family and the home he made after Hurricane Katrina and sign with North Texas.
There, Dunbar starred. He ran for over 4,200 yards and 41 touchdowns, but that wasn’t enough to be selected in the NFL Draft.
Right away, Dunbar had a taste of just how slim the margin between being in the NFL and out of it is, but he did what he could to ensure he was on the right side of it. He signed with the Cowboys and spent five seasons there as primarily a backup running back and kick returner. He spent one season with the Los Angeles Rams, but hasn’t played in the NFL since.
The reason, he says, without a doubt in his mind, was the knee injuries. He suffered a torn ACL and MCL on a kickoff return against the Saints in 2015 — a week after he had a 10-catch, 100-yard performance against Atlanta. Two years later a nagging knee injury proved to be a fracture, landing him on the physically-unable-to-perform list with the Rams.
"Every time I got going and I was feeling good about things, an injury happened and shut me down,” Dunbar said. “It was tough. It was hard for me."
So has been the waiting since he last played. He says he’s been fully healthy for two years, but NFL teams still shied away. The Prosper resident even started a trucking business five months ago to take care of things off the field just in case he never had another chance on it.
With the Renegades, he has that chance.
“Lance has looked good in everything he’s done,” said head coach Bob Stoops.
“When he’s been on the field he’s been an exciting player.”
Now Dunbar hopes to prove he can stay there.
