Tuesday, January 22, 2013

THE ULTIMATE SUPER BOWL QUOTE


"If it's the ultimate game, how come they're playing it again next year?"
 
-Cowboys RB Duane Thomas, Super Bowl VI.  One of the NFL's all-time great malcontents. He said Cowboys Head Coach Tom Landry was "'[a] plastic man really, actually no man at all."

PARTIAL CAREER SUMMARY FROM WIKIPEDIA

He was drafted in the first round of the 1970 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys. As a rookie in 1970, he led Dallas and finished eighth in the NFL in rushing with 803 yards on 151 carries (5.3 yards per carry) and five touchdowns. He was named the NFL rookie of the year for the National Football Conference



During the 1971 offseason, because of a contract dispute (he requested for his 3 year contract to be rewritten) and refusing to report to training camp, he was traded to the New England Patriots alongside Halvor Hagen and Honor Jackson, in exchange for Carl Garrett and the Patriots No. 1 draft choice in the 1972 NFL Draft. In an unprecedented move, the NFL commissioner voided part of the trade, sending Thomas and Garrett back to their original teams. The Patriots kept Hagen and Jackson in exchange for 2 draft choices. Thomas returned to the Cowboys but decided to keep silent all season long, refusing to speak to teammates, management and the media.

In 1971  Thomas led the league in rushing and total touchdowns with eleven rushing and thirteen overall. He also was named All-Pro and led the Cowboys with 95 rushing yards and a touchdown in Dallas' first franchise Super Bowl victory, a 24-3 win over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI.
 
During a postgame interview following that Super Bowl, CBS television announcer Tom Brookshier noted Thomas' speed and asked him, rhetorically, "Are you that fast?" Thomas responded, "Evidently." 

Thomas was reportedly voted as the Super Bowl's Super Bowl Most Valuable Player by an overwhelming margin. However, Thomas had boycotted the media throughout the season as well, and Larry Klein, editor of Sport, which presented the award, didn't know how Thomas would act at a banquet in New York. With this in mind, Klein announced Roger Staubach as the winner.[1] 
 
According to Hunter S. Thompson: "All he did was take the ball and run every time they called his number - which came to be more and more often, and in the Super Bowl Thomas was the whole show." 

During the 1972 offseason he became even more isolated and insubordinate, so he was traded to the San Diego Chargers in exchange for Mike Montgomery and Billy Parks. He later had a cup of coffee with the Packers.

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