New York acquired receiver Pete Gent from Dallas on June 13,…
New York acquired receiver Pete Gent from Dallas on June 13, 1969 for a conditional future draft choice. Contemporary transaction summaries state that the pick was not exercised, and the Giants waived Gent on September 8 before he appeared in a regular-season game. The deal therefore produced no on-field value for New York and no exercised draft compensation for Dallas.
Dallas Cowboys Received
- pick future draft choice (not exercised)
New York Giants Received
- player Pete Gent
Trade Analysis
The surviving evidence supports a much simpler transaction than the legacy row. On June 13, 1969, Dallas traded receiver Pete Gent to the New York Giants for a future draft choice. Transaction histories citing the contemporary Associated Press account state that the choice was not exercised. Gent then failed to make the Giants' regular-season roster and was waived on September 8. There is no reliable evidence that defensive end Ernest Sterling was part of the Gent trade, and the generic undisclosed-consideration placeholders in the legacy row are unsupported.
Sterling is particularly important to separate from this transaction because Dallas' own 1969 media guide lists Ernest Sterling as a Cowboys defensive end returning for a second try after spending 1968 on the taxi squad. He appears in the club's 1969 rookie/camp roster material independently of Gent. That is inconsistent with treating Sterling as a Giants acquisition in the June Gent trade. Without a contemporaneous transaction source linking Sterling to New York, TradeVerdicts should remove him rather than preserve a likely conflation from the older dataset.
Gent's Dallas career had real value before the trade, but that production belongs to the Cowboys before the exchange. Pro Football Reference credits him with 48 regular-season games from 1964 through 1968, including 68 receptions for 989 yards and four touchdowns. His most productive year was 1966, when he caught 27 passes for 474 yards and one score. Injuries reduced his role over the next two seasons, and by 1969 Dallas was willing to move him for conditional future compensation.
New York hoped Gent could provide another deep receiving option opposite Homer Jones, and contemporary Giants outlook material discussed him as a possible flanker solution. That plan never reached the regular season. Gent was waived on September 8, and his NFL career statistics contain no Giants appearance. The Giants therefore received no regular-season snaps, receptions or starts from the player they acquired.
Because the future draft choice was not exercised, Dallas likewise received no realized draft selection from the transaction. There is no sound basis to assign a later Cowboys draftee to this deal. The proper hindsight result is an Even Trade at a low grade: both clubs ended with effectively zero post-trade football value. D grades for both sides reflect the absence of a regular-season Giants contribution and the absence of an exercised Dallas pick.