From FBI to NFL

Four years ago, undercover agent Larry Wansley ended a ten-year FBI career to move to the quieter-and safer-arena of professional football. He’s director of counseling services for the Dallas Cowboys, the only such counselor in the NFL. The title only hints at the responsibilities he juggles from his office at the Cowboys’ new Valley Ranch complex. In addition to providing counsel to team members on everything from drug and alcohol abuse to checking on the legitimacy of the business deals constantly offered players. Wansley is the man in charge of security of the team at home and away. Before Dallas’s visit to London last August for a pre-season game with the Chicago Bears, Wansley worked closely with Scotland Yard officials in setting up security at hotels and in Wembley Stadium. And before any visit to other NFL cities for games, the players and coaches can rest assured that Wansley has already arranged for light hotel security wherever the team will headquarter.

He is, then, part Father Confessor, part guardian, and part advance man. And he seems to love every minute of it. “Working with this team.” says the forty-three-year-old Wansley, who admitted when he met Cowboys president and general manager Tex Schramm that he’d never really been a fan of the Cowboys, “has been an exciting and rewarding experience. I particularly enjoy the relationships with the players; helping them in any way I can.”

An ex-Marine and former Compton. California, police officer. Wansley spent more than eight years of his ten-year FBI career using so many false identities that he sometimes found it hard to remember who he was. His career with the bureau saw him involved in such highly publicized cases as the search for Patty Hearst, the investigation of the murder of San Antonio federal judge John Wood, the round-up of some 200 members of a Los Angeles-based theft and fraud ring, and recovery of more than $42 million in stolen property. Posing at various times as an executive of a shady Hollywood-based investment firm. president of a trucking company, nightclub owner, newspaper publisher, and operator of a massage parlor. Wansley found himself in the company of high-rolling members of the New York Mafia, redneck Southern crime bosses, law officials involved in a variety of criminal activities. pimps, high-priced prostitutes, show business personalities, kidnappers, killers, and con men of every variety.

Needless to say. the controlled violence of pro football is nothing compared to what Wansley has seen. He’s happy with the Cowboys. Best of all. he can use his real name.