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Gretz: DT the Foundation
Jan. 31, 2005
This is the first of four columns this week on Derrick Thomas and Saturday’s vote for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. On Wednesday, we’ll look at the voting process and on Friday, the argument for DT’s induction. On Saturday afternoon, an inside report on what went on in the voting session.
It was March 1989 and Carl Peterson was mad.
Peterson, Marty Schottenheimer and Bill Cowher were in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They were there to work out a prospective No. 1 draft choice, linebacker Derrick Thomas.
“Derrick had been at the Combine, but he didn’t do any of the drills or take any of the tests,” Peterson remembered. “I wasn’t very happy with that decision. We were trying to decide just who was going to be our choice with the fourth pick and he decided not to work out.”
Peterson had just been hired to breathe life into the moribund Chiefs franchise. He hired Schottenheimer to be his head coach. Marty hired Cowher and named him defensive coordinator.
The decision was made that with the fourth pick in the first round, the Chiefs would go after a defensive player.
“That’s the side of the ball we wanted to start on,” said Peterson. “We hoped we wouldn’t be drafting this high ever again, so we wanted to make sure we got the best defensive player in the draft, a guy who could come in and make a contribution very quickly.”
The list the Chiefs checked out that year was not very long. They knew QB Troy Aikman was going to be the first pick in the draft, going to the Dallas Cowboys and new head coach Jimmy Johnson. They also learned very early that up in Detroit, Lions coach Wayne Fontes had his eye on Oklahoma State running back Barry Sanders with the third pick. The unknown was what Green Bay was planning with the second pick in the first round. The Packers decided on big Michigan State offensive tackle Tony Mandrich, who became one of the bigger busts in draft history.
The list of defensive players the Chiefs looked at for that fourth choice came down to three:
LB Derrick Thomas, Alabama.
LB Broderick Thomas, Nebraska.
CB Deion Sanders, Florida State.
It was Derrick Thomas who intrigued them the most.
“He was a really gifted athlete and you could see that on the film from Alabama,” Cowher said. “What you didn’t know was his personality, his drive, his heart, his intensity, those types of things.”
A host of players were lined up to workout with Thomas that day on the Alabama campus. There were several linebackers, Thomas’ good friend, tight end Howard Cross, and others. Cowher ran the workout.
“Usually those things don’t last very long, but Carl told me before we started to really make him work,” Cowher remembered. “So I’m out there and I ran him through every linebacker and secondary drill that I knew. Some I did more than once. Guys were falling out and after 45 minutes or so, the only guy left was Derrick.
“I go over and tell Carl, ‘I’m out of drills’ and Derrick comes over with that big smile on his face and says ‘Is there anything else you want me to do?’ Carl looks at me and says, run him through some more drills, so we went back out and ran through some more.
“We learned a lot about him that day. We learned about his athletic ability, but we also learned about his desire and his passion for the game. I don’t remember if it was said out loud, but on the way out of town I know I was thinking it would be tough to pass that guy up in the draft.”
The Chiefs did no such thing. They grabbed Thomas and laid the foundation for one of the NFL’s most successful franchises in the 1990s. And make no mistake, Thomas was the cornerstone. Just understand these two facts:
In his 11 seasons with the team, the Chiefs had one losing season.
In the five seasons since his death, the Chiefs have had one winning season.
The argument could be made that the Chiefs have never recovered from Thomas’ death in February 2000. Certainly, the defense hasn’t.
“I don’t know about any of that, but I know this,” said Cowher. “In his last year on the field, Derrick Thomas was still an impact player. He made everybody on his side of the ball a better player.
“That’s hard to replace.”
from KC Chiefs.com
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