Derrick Thomas a HoF'er

[War Wagon]

Opened up my paper this morning and see that DT finally was voted in after the 5th time on the ballot. Wow. I didn't think it was ever going to happen due to his off the field issues of knocking up women he wasn't married to. Say what you want about that, but there's no doubt his impact on the field deserved this honor.

It was 9 years ago on SB Sunday that he wrecked on an icy highway just minutes from my house, so it's kind of fitting to post this tribute to the sack meister today.

Congrats to Bruce Smith and the other 2009 inductees as well.

[BSmack]

Well, they got 5 out of 6 right this time. I guess this means Kevin Greene and Greg Lloyd are going in soon?

[poptart]

Cris Carter, not IN ... again??

hmmmmm ......

Eight 1,000 yd seasons
Eight Pro Bowls
130 TDs
3rd all-time in receptions
'99 NFL Man of the Year


Not IN??



Oh, ok.

[Cuda]

He wasn't one dimensional. He could rush the passer, and Blitz the QB

[BSmack]

Cris Carter, not IN ... again??

hmmmmm ......

Eight 1,000 yd seasons
Eight Pro Bowls
130 TDs
3rd all-time in receptions
'99 NFL Man of the Year

Not IN??

Oh, ok.

You've got Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice and Tim Brown eligible next year. It might be a long wait for Carter.

[War Wagon]

Derrick Thomas was a completely one dimensional bastard factory. His induction makes a utter mockery of the Hall.

Worst Hall of Famer ever...in any sport.

You don't have a clue.

DT could single handedly turn a game around, and did so many times. He had to be accounted for on every play, thus making his teammates better players as well. No way Neil Smith has the career he did w/o DT around. Hell, he made flunkies like Dan Saleamua look good.

[Rack Fu]

Derrick Thomas was a completely one dimensional bastard factory. His induction makes a utter mockery of the Hall.

Worst Hall of Famer ever...in any sport.

You don't have a clue.

DT could single handedly turn a game around, and did so many times. He had to be accounted for on every play, thus making his teammates better players as well. No way Neil Smith has the career he did w/o DT around. Hell, he made flunkies like Dan Saleamua look good.

Homer says what?

[RJ]

Derrick Thomas was a completely one dimensional bastard factory. His induction makes a utter mockery of the Hall.

Worst Hall of Famer ever...in any sport.

RACK


Add Lynn Swann to that list as well. What a fucking joke.

[kcdave]

........and Tim Brown eligible next year. It might be a long wait for Carter.

How ya figure Brown gets in over Carter? Sure Brown had the return gimmick, but Carter had 30 more TD's. Their numbers are very close. I dont see how either one would go in over the other.

[Nixhex]

Funny how Charger, Bronco and Raider fan think DT doesn't deserve to be in the HOF. Haters. :D

Ask any offensive player or coach from those Bronco, Raider and Charger teams that DT absolutely terrorized for 10 straight years what they think. I bet they say something completlely different.

[KC Scott]

Article from Joe Posnaski - KC Star on DT's qualifications

It's ludicrous that Derrick Thomas isn't in the Hall yet
By JOE POSNANSKI
The Kansas City Star

Well, here we go again: Writing once more why Derrick Thomas should be elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It’s hard to write this column year after year because Derrick Thomas’ Hall of Fame credentials seem so blindingly obvious to me. It should have happened his first year of eligibility. It should have been open-and-shut.

But it wasn’t open-and-shut. Last year, for the third straight year, Thomas was a finalist but did not get into the Hall of Fame. The interesting part is that last year two “pass rushers” did get into the Hall: Andre Tippett and Fred Dean.

Tippett and Dean each had one interception, just like Thomas. Their job was to go get the quarterback, and they all did it extremely well.

However: Fred Dean and Andre Tippett did not have nearly as many sacks as Thomas.

Fred Dean and Andre Tippett did not force nearly as many fumbles as Thomas.

Fred Dean and Andre Tippett did not recover nearly as many fumbles as Thomas.

They didn’t get as many safeties, didn’t score as many touchdowns, didn’t play in nearly as many Pro Bowls. Neither Fred Dean nor Andre Tippett was chosen NFL Man of the Year either. Derrick Thomas was.

This is not meant to knock Dean or Tippett — they were both great players who had their own Hall of Fame cases. But I still don’t know how Derrick Thomas got passed over. I know there are people in town who are still mad at Thomas for some of the mistakes he made off the field — I know this because every time I write this column some of these people will write in angrily about the number of children Thomas had with different women or his relationship with them or something along those lines.

But I would say two things: One, Derrick Thomas was just 33 years old when he died, so he did not get a chance to right some of the wrongs. And he did many good things. He was one of George Bush’s “thousand points of light.” He almost never said no to a charity request anywhere. As mentioned, he was NFL Man of the Year.

Two, more to the point, we’re talking football.

So, let’s talk football. Everyone understands, or should, that Derrick Thomas was one of the greatest big-play defenders in the history of the NFL. Even now, he ranks 11th on the all-time list of sacks (he had 126 1/2 ) and there’s no doubt he would be even higher on the list if he had lived longer. He holds the NFL record for most sacks in a game with seven, and he’s also tied for second because he had six sacks in another game.

He forced 45 fumbles in his career, which is an unofficial NFL record — they didn’t start counting that as a statistic until recently. But to give you an idea just how amazing that number is: Lawrence Taylor, whom many people consider the most disruptive defensive player ever, forced 33 fumbles.

I certainly hope that the Hall of Fame voters in that room think about that: 45 forced fumbles. There might not be a single play in football that changes a game more than a forced fumble. And Derrick Thomas may have been the best in the history of the NFL at forcing those fumbles.

So what’s the knock on Derrick Thomas? I think there have been two: (1) His Chiefs never reached the Super Bowl and (2) He is often viewed as a one-dimensional player who was not especially good against the run.

Well, the first reason is ludicrous. The Chiefs made the playoffs seven of the 11 years that Thomas played for the Chiefs, and they had a winning record every year but one. More to the point, they had the best record in the conference twice. Once, they lost in the playoffs 10-7. The other time they lost 14-10. I’m not sure how Derrick Thomas gets the blame for that — the guy played defense.

The second knock is the infuriating one. It’s a myth. Was Derrick Thomas good against the run? Let me ask you a few questions in return: Was Dan Marino good at running the football? How well did Jim Brown block? Could Howie Long cover a wide receiver? Could Jan Stenerud punt?

Point is, Derrick Thomas was paid to go get the quarterback and make big plays. And he did it better than anyone. In his time, the Chiefs twice led the NFL in scoring defense. Three times they finished in the top five in the NFL in yards allowed. Eight times they finished in the top five in the NFL in takeaway-giveaway margin. They won in the 1990s because of a ferocious defense — they stopped the run — and Derrick Thomas was the unquestioned leader of that defense.

When you are talking about the Hall of Fame, you are talking about great players. This probably sounds obvious, but there’s a point to it: All 17 of the Hall of Fame finalists this year were great players. I think because Derrick is gone, it has been tempting for the voters to put him on the backburner, vote for one of the other great players in his spot while thinking, “We’ll get to Derrick Thomas eventually.”

But the longer we move away from Derrick Thomas’ career, the more his brilliance will fade from people’s minds. He has great numbers, yes, but real greatness was in the moment, with 80,000 people going crazy, with the opponents’ offense backed up to its goal line, with Thomas signaling “safety” before the ball was even snapped. In the big moments, he was the bigger than life. That’s what the Hall of Fame is about, right?

Yea DT was one dimensional, but he so dominated that one dimension the HOF thought it merited inclusion.

[KC Scott]

Putting that into context though, what if his assigned position had been DE?

Until I read the article I didn't know about the 45 caused fumbles -
He couldn't stop the run, but that doesn't diminish the impact he had on many games.

Here's how he ranks All time in Sacks:

1 Bruce Smith 200
2 Reggie White 198
3 Kevin Greene 160
4 Chris Doleman 150
5 Michael Strahan 141
6 John Randle 137
Richard Dent 137
8 Lawrence Taylor 132
Leslie O'Neal 132
10 Rickey Jackson 128
11 Derrick Thomas 126
12 Simeon Rice 122
13 Clyde Simmons 121
14 JASON TAYLOR 120

Based on DT getting in - Kevin Greene needs to go in as well

[RumpleForeskin]

DT was a helluva pass rusher no doubt.

I think where most impartial fans have a problem with DT as a HoFer was his impact on the entire Cheifs defense. I know some might think this is unfair to evaluate a player based on the entire defense's performance, but it has to be asked...

How memorable were those Cheifs defenses from '89 to '99? Sure, they were good enough to make a playoff run every season, but they crumbled like a bag of potato chips anytime they played a really good offense. The Bills offense absolutely pwned the Cheifs defense.

It seems everyone else on the list that Scott posted played on some lockdown defenses.

DT may have made other players around him better, but not to the point where KC's defense was feared most.

In my mind, DT fell short on the intangibles side of things.

In saying that, I think DT belonged in the Hall.

[Dinsdale]

C'mon, you guys know the rule...

And it doesn't even matter what sport you're talking about...

If a halfway decent player dies at the peak of their career, logic and common sense go out the window, and he becomes the "greatest _____ ever!"


You know the drill... nevermind that he played his position so poorly that his coach had to make up a new name for his position, since he sure the fuck wasn't "backing" anything, except possibly backing his SUV over one of his kids while liquored up.


Wonder how Douchenheimer even came up with that name? Maybe while playing Atlanta, he was so badly out of position that the announcers thought he was lining up for the Falcons?

[Felix]

C'mon, you guys know the rule...
If a halfway decent player dies at the peak of their career, logic and common sense go out the window, and he becomes the "greatest _____ ever!"

you're absolutely right Dins

Thomas was the greatest falconback in Kansas Shitty history...ever

[Nixhex]

DT has total on all the haters.

[Goober McTuber]

I’m sure DT is thoroughly enjoying all of that right now.

[Nixhex]

I’m sure DT is thoroughly enjoying all of that right now.

Chiefs' fans sure are.

[Goober McTuber]

I’m sure DT is thoroughly enjoying all of that right now.

Chiefs' fans sure are.

Nice that they have something to cheer about.

[ucantdoitdoggieSTyle2]

Maybe while playing Atlanta, he was so badly out of position that the announcers thought he was lining up for the Falcons?

Excellent.

[BSmack]

I’m sure DT is thoroughly enjoying all of that right now.

Chiefs' fans sure are.

You got Manny ready to wing the ball? It's our only chance.

[Nixhex]

I’m sure DT is thoroughly enjoying all of that right now.

Chiefs' fans sure are.

You got Manny ready to wing the ball? It's our only chance.

He's always ready.

[Nixhex]

I’m sure DT is thoroughly enjoying all of that right now.

Chiefs' fans sure are.

Nice that they have something to cheer about.

This is true. We've been pretty deprived of something to cheer about for quite a while now.