Weegie Thompson

[Truthteller]

I just saw this articleabout a black WR back in the 1980's that ran close to a 4.8/40at the Combine and was shocked when his draft stock plummeted because of it...In the article he seems to call out the Steelers coaching staff for keeping a tall "deep-threat project" named Weegie Thompson over him. My guess is he believes he was a victim of racisim, but is reluctant to say it openly.

http://thehullabaloo.com/2011/01/28/finding-zeno


What's my point? I don't really remember Weegie, so I looked up his stats. Man, they are surprisingly good, considering he must have rarely played. Only 79 career catches, but 11 TD's and over 17 YPC. If anyone got screwed, it wasn't the slow-poke that couldn't make evencarve outa decent CFL career, it was Weegie, who could've had a prolific NFL career.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/T/ThomWe00.htm


Looks like Weegie was a awesome blocker: Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott gushes when he talks about Thompson. In Thompson's rookie season, 1984, the Steelers were the only team to beat the 49ers. One reason they did was by assigning Thompson to block Lott on every play. "He blocked my butt all day -- and fair," Lott remembered. "Every play, he came after me. And I respect the hell out of Weegie Thompson to this day. He's one of the toughest guys I ever played against."

 

[Don Wassall]

Weegie Thompson wasn't terrible, but he wasn't very good. What I remember best about him -- and he played before fantasy football and DirecTV's Sunday Ticket so I watched almost all of the Steelers games back then -- is that they did use him almost solely as a deep threat, presumably because of his height, but he just couldn't get open because of his lack of speed. There was play after play where Mark Malone -- who wasn't very good either -- would come very close to completing a long pass to Thompson, but they could rarely connect as Thompson was either too closely covered or the pass was just off.






The era when Thompson played was far and away the low point of Chuck Noll's head coaching career. In Thompson's rookie year, 1984, the Steelers surprisingly made it to the AFC championship game coming off a 9-7 mark, but then missed the playoffs for four straight seasons. They surprisingly madethe playoffsagain at 9-7 in 1989 and again made it to the AFC championship game, but Noll brought in Joe Walton after that season to redesign the offense, whichproved to be a disastrous hiringas the team quickly sank back intonon-playoff mediocrityin '90 and '91, following which Noll resigned and the-then youngCaste zealotBill Cowher took over.

Thompson played just as the Caste System was solidifying its no Whites need apply at WR and RB policy. He would never be drafted now; most likely he'd be a free agent signing as a tight end at best. The wayJohn Madsen was treated comes to mind, butMadsen was a more accomplished receiver than Thompson, and faster as well.Edited by: Don Wassall