(EDITOR'S NOTE: To listen to Dwight Freeney, click on the following link: Megaphone)
Dwight Freeney is a member of the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame’s Class of 2024 and for all the right reasons: He was one of the game’s most accomplished pass rushers, producing 125-1/2 careers sacks, or more than all but 17 players in NFL history.
And that’s great.
Except talk to the former Indianapolis Colts' star – and we did – and you realize that sacks aren’t what matter most to him. Forced fumbles are, and Freeney had 47 of them in his 16 seasons. He also had 148 quarterback hits and 128 tackles for loss, and, yes, he said, they’re important.
But not as important as the 47 forced fumbles.
“That is probably one of the most important stats there is,” he said. “When you force a fumble, it’s no different than getting an interception, OK? (But) people don’t give it the level of gratitude … or level of importance and respect … because people don’t talk about it as much. But it’s more important than a sack because you’re getting the ball back for your offense.
“When you get a sack, it’s a great play, move, whatever you want to call it … but there’s another down. Chances are there’s a third or fourth down. When you cause a fumble, it is an immediate … immediate … change in going back to the offense. No different than an interception.
“But it doesn’t get talked about. It doesn’t get recognized the way that it should … and it should. Because it’s a monumental, big-game shifting tackle play.”
Freeney’s 47 forced fumbles are tied for third all-time with John Abraham, seven behind Robert Mathis’ 54. A former teammate of Freeney, Mathis has never been a Hall-of-Fame finalist, while Abraham – who had 133-1/2 career sacks, too – has never been a semifinalist.
“People don’t understand how great Robert actually was,” said Freeney. “His stats speak for themselves.”
No argument here. But that’s a conversation for another day.
People do, however, understand how great Freeney was. He made a surfeit of “monumental, big-game shifting plays,” as he put it, and they began immediately. In his first season with the Colts (2002).he set a rookie record with nine sacks, including three in one game vs. former Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb.
He also had 13 sacks, a combination that should have made him Defensive Rookie of the Year. Only one problem: Julius Peppers was a rookie then, too, and he won the award. Freeney was second. Ironically, the two are together as modern-era inductees in the Hall’s Class of 2024.
Peppers was a two-time all decade player who had more sacks (159-1/2, fourth most in NFL history) and more forced fumbles (52) than Freeney. He was also a nine-time Pro Bowler and six-time All-Pro. But Freeney was part of a Super Bowl champion, while Peppers was not. Granted, he came close in 2003, but the Panthers lost to New England that season.
But there’s something else that separates the two. Freeney had lightning speed and quickness and authored a signature spin move that was copied by dozens of pass rushers. That, plus another move that he, like others, imitated, produced big plays and turnovers.
“I was a big Lawrence Taylor fan growing up,” he said, “and I just remember Lawrence Taylor coming on multiple plays with a big tomahawk trying to strip the ball. I don’t say that I consciously thought about Lawrence Taylor when I was doing it, but I think, subconsciously watching him over all the years, it became part of what just I always did anytime I was going to tackle anybody.”
Freeney was elected to Canton in just his second year of eligibility, and that surprised Freeney as well as some Hall followers. As a first-year finalist in 2023, Freeney didn’t make the first cut from 15 to 10. Then one year later, he and two other candidates who failed to reach the Top Ten in 2023 (linebacker Patrick Willis and return specialist Devin Hester) vaulted to the top in an unprecedented move.
All were elected, with Freeney caught off guard.
“When I didn’t make it last year,” he conceded, “I pretty much didn’t -- to be honest with you –pay attention to the process this year. I had no idea who was going to be a semifinalist. I had no idea who was on the finalist list. I just knew whenever the day happens, it’s going to happen. Whenever they call me, they’re going to call me. And I’m leaving it alone.
“So, when I got the call … or The Knock … or whatever ... I was shocked. And I was surprised because I didn’t even have it on my radar.”
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