Why isn’t ex-Dolphin on list?
If Urlacher is a Hall of Fame semifinalist, Zach Thomas should be one, too
In 184 games, Linebacker X was a seven-time Pro Bowl player, five-time All-Pro and member of the All-Decade Team in the 2000s. In 182 games, Player Y was an eight-time Pro Bowl player, fourtime All-Pro and member of the All-Decade Team in the 2000s. Similarly strong careers, right? So why is Player X, Zach Thomas, not on the 27-member Hall of Fame semifinalist list and Player Y, Brian Urlacher, is?
What has Urlacher done better than Thomas to deserve that?
And can we remedy this somehow?
You can break down their careers into the numerical details. Thomas was in on 1,720 tackles, had 17 interceptions, 17 forced fumbles, 20.5 sacks and four touchdowns.
Urlacher was in on 1,353 tackles, had 22 interceptions, 12 forced fumbles, 40.5 sacks and two touchdowns.
So Thomas had nearly 400 more tackles. That’s about 25 percent more. Urlacher had 20 more sacks — virtually all of them in the first half of his career when he was used as a blitzing linebacker. They both had an exactly equal 34 on interceptions and forced fumbles.
So, again, why Urlacher and not Thomas?
This is one of the oddities of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It’s not an inclusive debate. It’s not a fun, free-for-all like the Baseball Hall of Fame. It just appears. So when a name like Urlacher turns up and Thomas doesn’t, you scratch your head.
Urlacher was part of a Bears’ Super Bowl team in 2006 that lost to the Colts. Thomas had little playoff success (one win in 2001). So that could be held against him if voters were swayed by such things. But more than anyone, the small, cabal of NFL Hall of Fame voters should know success in the playoffs goes far beyond one player. They’re supposed to put everything in perspective.
Was it the defenses they were part of?
Urlacher was on five defenses that ranked in the top five in scoring. Same as Thomas. Urlacher was on two No. 1-rated defenses in scoring. Thomas was on two No. 2 defenses in scoring (1998, 2003) and the top-rated defense in yardage against (1998).
Again, similar.
In the Hall, all politics are local — and that’s what this is, of course. It’s not the first time the Dolphins have been oddly slighted. Bob Kuechenberg was a finalist for eight years in a row — but never made the Hall. That’s the longest time of any player not to make the Hall as a finalist. By comparison, another offensive lineman of his era, Mick Tinglehoff, was never a finalist until the Senior Committee made him one — 32 years after his career.
Tinglehoff was voted into the Hall off that one Finalist choice.
Look, I’m not arguing Tinglehoff should be on or off. The Senior Committee was set up to correct wrongs. Maybe this was one. But Kuechenberg was good enough that experts who saw him play made him a finalist for eight straight years while Tinglehoff wasn’t deemed good enough to be voted a finalist once.
Hmm.
Also on the list: Jimmy Johnson. He should be in. Look, Jerry Jones was voted in as Dallas owner off hiring Johnson — Jones’ Cowboy teams have won a single playoff game since Johnson left. Throw in three playoff appearances in four years as a Dolphin — something that would draw a parade on Biscayne Boulevard these days — and Jimmy should be in.
Does Thomas deserve to be in the Hall? I haven’t done that research. Let’s start with something far simpler. It jumped off the page of semifinalists that one defining middle linebacker of his era was one of the 15 finalists to be voted for the Hall and another was not. They had similar careers by most anyone’s view. Urlacher is on. Thomas is not. Huh?