Feb. 8, 2026, 4:10 a.m. PT
Kickers come and go very quickly in the NFL. By that measurement, UCLA football alumnus Efren Herrera had a very good career. Herrera lasted eight years in the league, from 1974 through 1982. His career included a mountaintop moment as a Super Bowl champion with the 1977 Dallas Cowboys.
Herrera bounced around various NFL teams, and his tenure in Dallas wasn’t lengthy. He was known for a fake field goal touchdown with the Seattle Seahawks against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football in 1979, and he recovered numerous surprise onside kicks in his career as well. Yet, the main achievement of Herrera’s NFL life was his 1977 season with the Dallas Cowboys.
The 1977 Cowboys are one of the great NFL teams ever. They stormed through the regular season, NFC playoffs, and Super Bowl XII against the Denver Broncos to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy. The Super Bowl was a 27-10 blowout in which Herrera kicked multiple field goals. Because the 1977 Dallas offense was so productive and prolific, Herrera had plenty of chances to kick PATs and field goals. He scored the second-most points — 93 — in the NFL that season. He was named to the Pro Bowl roster for his season and then made it complete with a Super Bowl ring.
Efren Herrera had a great time in the NFL. Notably, he was part of a wave of soccer-style kickers who, in the mid-1970s, began to gradually replace the straight-on kickers who had been the norm in previous decades. Herrera was part of a pro football evolution, and he was a success story within that revolution. The former UCLA Bruin did extremely well in the pros, and had a Super Bowl championship to show for it.
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