Zach Thomas signed a one day contract yesterday with Miami so he could retire as a Dolphin. As a Jets fan, I can say that I hated his guts for over a decade, but he always had my respect. Thomas played middle linebacker for 13 years at 5’10” 225, way undersized for the amount of punishment he took and doled out over his career.
He has more tackles (yes, it’s an overrated stat) than any linebacker presently in the Hall of Fame, was a 5 time first team All-Pro, (2 time 2nd team), the 1996 AFC defensive rookie of the year, and started 185 games. He may not have the name recognition of a Ray Lewis, Junior Seau, or Brian Urlacher, but he was just as important to the Dolphins defense and was as good a player or better than 2 of those guys.
He was treated like garbage by the new Parcells regime; they cut him (understandable) in early 2008, but wouldn’t let him have a presser to thank the fans (unforgivable). He took the high road and never said a word about it, even this week when pressed about it he said: “I’m not going to be the guy who second-guesses everything the Dolphins do just because they cut me.”
Zach Thomas is a class act and a first ballot Hall of Famer.
*I’ll shower as soon as I stop throwing up
Original Story:
