Derrick Thomas Second to None Despite Hall of Fame Snubs (Guest Blogger)

Derrick Thomas was born to rush the passer. No one did it as well before he came along and no one has done it better at the college level since. That’s right Jadeveon Clowney fans I said it and the numbers back me up. Clowney’s best season ever with the Gamecocks only netted him 13 sacks. I’m also not alone. There are others that can tell you from first hand knowledge.

Despite his unparalleled career at Alabama, he’s so far been denied admittance into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Like the teams on the 1988 Crimson Tide’s schedule whom he totaled 27 sacks and 39 tackles for loss against. No that’s not a misprint. He actually recorded 27 sacks and 39 tackles for loss in one season.

You could also ask the other teams he faced during his career at Alabama. After all, he recorded 52 total sacks  and 74 tackles for loss during his college career. He also holds the Alabama record for blocked kicks with seven. Who recorded the second most sacks in a season? Why Derrick Thomas of course. He totaled 18 in 1987 during his junior campaign.

He finished his senior year being named a consensus All-American, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year,  won the Butkus award for college footballs best linebacker and finished tenth in Heisman trophy voting at a time when it was rare for defensive players to even make the ballot. He topped it off the following May by being the fourth pick in the first round by the Kansas City Chiefs.

Since Thomas moved on to the NFL the closest any player has come to either of his totals was in 2005 when Mississippi States Willie Evans totaled 15. Georgia Bulldogs great Jarvis Jones was considered a freak of nature when rushing the passer and rightfully so. His two best seasons with the Bulldogs netted him 14.5 and 13.5 total sacks. So his two best seasons were only good enough to give him a whopping total of one sack more than Derrick Thomas’s 1988 assault on the record books.

Ask Tony Sacca, the former Penn State quarterback, who after one game in 1988 must have been seeing number 55 in his sleep. After all he accumulated nine quarterback hurries, yes you read that right, three sacks with one resulting in a safety while also adding eight solo tackles and two passes batted down. There are highly rated players who can go all season without registering nine hurries yet Thomas did it in one game.  He was a one man wrecking crew. It didn’t matter what scheme the Nittany Lions used to try and block him. He ran over them, around them and by them so often they may as well have let him start each play in their backfield.

Thomas went on to produce even gaudier stats in the NFL. He is in first and second place for the most sacks in a NFL game totaling seven sacks in one game against the Seattle Seahawks and six against the Oakland Raiders. He accumulated 20 sacks in one NFL season. Was named to nine straight Pro Bowls, had over 126 career sacks and forced 41 career fumbles. He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2009.

Yet despite all the gaudy stats Thomas accumulated during his four seasons at the Capstone, the College Football Hall of Fame has seen fit in its infinite wisdom to so far deny him access.

This is Thomas’s fourth straight year on the ballot. Last year Michigan State linebacker Percy Snow, Oklahoma linebacker Rod Shoate, and former Arizona great Tedy Bruschi were inducted. Bruschi is tied for the lead as NCAA career all time sack leader and deserves to be in the HOF on that alone. Of course the fact that he’s tied with Thomas who has been rejected three straight years somewhat boggles the mind.  Snow was a good college linebacker but as the saying goes would have been unable to carry Thomas’s proverbial jock strap. The Michigan State Hall of Fame sure but the College Football Hall of Fame in place of Thomas? That just shows the horrible bias those doing the selecting suffer from.

Shoate was a fine linebacker for the Sooners but it took me googling him to find that out. He had a good college career in the early 70’s and spent seven years in the NFL so there is no doubt he was a very good player. It’s not that Shoate shouldn’t have been inducted but that when compared to Thomas on stats alone it’s a shame he got in beforehand.

There is no doubt there’s a bias towards southern schools. A look at the top 20 schools total number of players inducted clearly shows that. It seems as though half the population of the Hall is made up solely of players from Ohio State, Michigan, or Notre Dame. Meanwhile other traditional southern powers like Alabama, Texas and Tennessee have roughly half the players inducted their northern brethren can claim.

To truly point out the level of bias you only need to take note of the fact Notre Dame has more players in the Hall than powerhouses duo’s Texas and Alabama or Alabama and Tennessee combined.

Hopefully the fourth time for Thomas will be the posthumous charm. If not then instead of opening up the new Collegiate Hall of Fame in Atlanta this fall they should just turn it into a comedy club, because it will be nothing more than a joke.

Guest Post Written by Doug. His details are below:

Written by: Doug Webb

Twitter: @drweb66