D.T. Should Have Been There

Aug 04, 2008, 8:51:15 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ

Canton, OH – It was tough sitting through the induction ceremonies this weekend at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

No offense to the men who joined the hallowed hall of the great sport. They had great careers and deserved recognition. It’s just hard to get excited about Fred Dean and Andre Tippett becoming Hall of Famers while the late Derrick Thomas is still outside, unable to muster enough support to take his deserved place with the greats of the game.

Tippett put up some great numbers during his career with the New England Patriots, but he was not the game changer that D.T. was over his 11 seasons. Dean ranks among the top pass rushers in the history of the game, but he was a part-time player, especially in the second part of his career with his role created by Bill Walsh in San Francisco where he was just a pass rusher.

One of the knocks against Thomas was he was only a pass rusher and did not play the run. That is simply untrue, but that didn’t seem to hurt Dean and his step forward into the Hall as a specialist.

So why did this happen? Why Tippett/Dean and not Thomas? I sat in the voting room, I cast ballots and I’m not sure I can provide a clear picture of why the voting came down the way it did. Going into that meeting at the Phoenix Convention Center there had been a great deal of talk among voters and people in football about the inequity between offensive and defensive players going into the Hall. There seemed to be a determination to even up the scales in some manner.

The class of 2008 had four defensive players (Tippett, Dean, CB Darrell Green and the Chiefs great CB Emmitt Thomas) compared to two from the offense (WR Art Monk and T Gary Zimmerman.) The Hall now has 247 members. Among that group are 214 players. For our purposes, eliminate 16 linemen who played before World War II and went both ways. Also eliminate former Chiefs kicker Jan Stenerud. So it’s 197 players on offense and defense. The split should be pretty even.

It’s not. There are now 135 offensive players compared to 62 defensive players. Break down the percentages and that’s 68.5 percent for the offense and 31.5 percent for the defense.

Those are the numbers, but they simply do not compute. It should be 50-50, or even titled a bit towards the defense. How many times have we heard coaches, general managers, owners, even players talk about how offense sells tickets and defense wins championships?

That’s a gross oversimplification of course. Balanced football teams with talented players win championships. Teams titled towards one side of the ball or another can sometimes pull off a title season, see St. Louis/offense (1999) and Baltimore/defense (2000) for recent examples.

No one can dispute how huge an influence defense has on winning and losing and that’s why the lack of balance between offensive and defensive players must continue to be corrected by the Hall of Fame voters.

I know I’m conscious of the inequity every year when I vote. While it may be impossible to level the scales, they must be adjusted to something around 60-40. That won’t be easy. Say there are six new members each year and say the ratio remains what it was for the class of 2008: four defense, two offense.

The overall ratio would not reach 60-40 until the class of 2019. To get to 50-50 with the same conditions would take until the class of 2044.

That offense-to-defense imbalance is among the factors that have worked against Thomas. The others have become well known over the years based on comments from the voters: he was a one-dimensional player, he didn’t play the run and he was a creation of the artificial turf at Arrowhead Stadium and the vociferous Chiefs crowd.

All of that reasoning has been shot full of holes many times, and any voter with an open mind concedes those are invalid points.

One other factor has probably hurt Thomas more than anything and that was the lack of post-season success for those Chiefs teams. In his 11 seasons, Thomas went to the playoffs seven times. The Chiefs won three games, with one appearance in a conference championship game.

Of the six inductees this past weekend, five have Super Bowl rings and all six played in football’s ultimate game. It makes a difference.

Saturday at Fawcett Stadium I had the chance to briefly speak with two players who knew Thomas well: Hall of Fame quarterbacks Jim Kelly and John Elway. Both have spoken before of their belief that D.T. should be with them in Canton. Both said they believe it will happen soon.

“I think this next year when Bruce (Smith) comes up, he and Derrick should go in together,” Kelly said. “They were the best pass rushers of their generation.”

The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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A former beat reporter who covered the Pittsburgh Steelers during their glory years, Gretz covered the Chiefs for the Kansas City Star for nine years. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Board of Selectors. He has been the senior columnist for the Chiefs web site since its inception.