This one's actually a myth. LT had 9.5 sacks his rookie season which was the year before sacks were an official record. Therefore, LT really had 0.77 sacks per game. If you don't count the 9.5 you should at least remove the games from that season from his total games played when calculating the statistic, and it's higher than DT's then as well.

Guess i cant argue that one, but still...

DT was a dominant player of his era, no excuse why he wasn't put in this year.

Bottom line - I remember the game against the Raiders when we had them pinned back at their own endzone. DT raises his hands and calls for the safety - THEN GETS THE SAFETY - this, in my opinion, is like calling your shot in baseball, it's unbelievable. He did these kinds of things all the time, when he was on the field our defense believed they could stop anybody, we haven't had that mentality since. He was a game changer.

Great article by Joe, as always.

These bozos not voting DT in, lessens credibility of the HOF.

bigger shame, buck o'neil, or derrick thomas both cause in many way they represent the best in thier sport.

He should be presenting!! Yep I have always liked Joe-he is a helluva writer and knows his shit about DT.

I could not have said it better. To say DT was a "Liability" in any shape or form has to be the dumbest fuggin thing I have ever heard. I would like to kick the dumbfuck who said that, right in the nuts. :banghead:

It's an anti-Midwest bias. He'll get in, but it won't be for many years.

Actually, every player usually has a representative to present the case for any player being considered. Gretz has a vote and has been the one that has been making the case for DT when voting comes up. I don't think JoPa has a vote, but I'm not all together sure.

What hasn't been mentioned and was a real big issue was the fact that in one of the prior years of DT's case being presented, one of the other voters, King, if I remember the story correctly, actually stood up and presented a case in the negative against DT. This is apparently not really the procedure that is followed when they meet to decide, and Gretz and a few other voting members were supremely pissed about this happening.

I'll look to see if I can find it, but it created quite the background shit-stir.

Someone ask John Elway if DT should be worthy of the hall. I'm pretty sure he'd know how effect and gameplanning went into making sure DT didn't come off the edge clean and forcibly remove his spinal column and the ball simultaneously!

The DT can't stop the run Bullshlt started cropping up when teams would look to take advantage of him coming up field around the tackle and then using that gap to run off. No different than any other team does with any other DE that speed rushes from the outside. They do it to Freeney et al. Hell, they do it to Jared Allen. Its not like Derrick was a poor tackler.

Gist of the story here. You can read it one of 2 ways, to me it sounds like Gretz meant to debunk the myth and Dr.Z already had his opinion decided. When you have testimonials from around the NFL to address it, it doesn't seem to me you're highlighting a weakness by building a case in the contrary?

Decide for yourself.
I say Dr.Z is the resident OB-GYN of the HOF voters.

This is what Peter King said about him last year.

It's going to be tough for DT to get in. He has 6 big strikes against him:

1. He played defense. If you are a defensive player or OL you are walking into the voting with one strike against you. Voters love QB's and WR's.

2. He died before he could pad his stats. People looks at overall numbers. Thomas missed out on being able to pad his stats like Bruce Smith did. Strike 2.

3. He isn't around to hob-nob. Irvin is on television. He sees and meets the national writers that will vote for him. He's a person as opposed to a stat sheet. Does anyone think 70% of those writers ever met DT and got to know him? Strike 3.

4. No Super Bowl appearance. Strike 4.

5. Not a large amount of postseason success. Strike 5.

6. Small market. Strike 6.

Total dufus making HOF presentation argument.

Strike 7.

FAX

You mean like Roger Wehrli?

:rolleyes:

Well said JoPo...well said.....like someone mentioned earlier, it makes me sick that these media turds like Dr Z and Peter King hold so much clout when it comes to the HoF. Unreal....

As i said yesterday, i dont think they are intentionally biased, but they are biased due to the fact they just never saw DT play enough outside of the "big games"


I also do beleive Irvin definately deserves to be there. He was a key part of that team and always made big plays and 1st downs when it mattered most. Just like DT, if you cant see that Irvin is deserving, your just clueless.....