Miami Dolphins: Zach Thomas Deserves the Hall of Fame

I’m just going to say what most Miami Dolphins fans already know, Zach Thomas belongs in the Hall of Fame. After becoming a finalist this year and missing out who knows how long he’ll be held out. Personally, if he doesn’t make the Hall of Fame, it’s an absolute joke and no one should take it seriously anymore.

Not taking anything away from the guys who were inducted this year, or last year for that matter, but Thomas is the prime example of what you want out of an athlete. Coming out of college, he was told he was too small and too slow to play in the NFL. After his combine performance, it wasn’t looking promising at all. Thomas would go on to be drafted by the Miami Dolphins in the fifth round of the 1996 NFL Draft and became a staple of their defense.

Looking back, the one thing that stood out during his career, no matter where the football was, he was there. He might not have been the biggest guy on the field or the strongest, but he was one of the smartest, and that lead to his success. So many people will point to stats as the ground floor for getting into the Hall of Fame, and Zach Thomas had the stats, but it’s more than just stats making his case.

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You could go on and on for days comparing him to current Hall of Famers, some with very similar stats and some with not as good. Stats flat out do not tell the tale of Thomas as a member of the Miami Dolphins. The guy flat out loved to play football and every time you watched him play you knew he was giving everything to the Dolphins. He earned his spot from a fifth-round pick to Fins legend.

Zach Thomas isn’t just one of the Miami greats, he was the example of wanting something bad enough to go out and prove people wrong. He took dedication and knowledge and turned it into one of the more impressive careers as an NFL linebacker. If he doesn’t make it into the NFL Hall of Fame, then it’s just another sports accolade that has turned into a popularity contest.