I can't really think of too many people in the history of the NFL that seemed intent on destroying a franchise all by themselves. Matt Millen, just recently, did a number on the Detroit Lions. As an owner, Mike Brown is doing no favors for the Cincinnati Bengals. The idiot that grabs my attention now is Joe Thomas. He even started his path of destruction with the Minnesota Vikings. Fortunately, he wasn't in a position to inflict too much damage there. Working under Jim Finks, he did learn from one of the best general managers in league history. Perhaps Finks' mentorship is what kept jobs coming Thomas' way. Nothing else can explain it.
Thomas moved to the Dolphins in the late '60s and was fired in 1971. The Dolphins then went on to win a couple of Super Bowls. Thomas was then very involved in one of the most bizarre transactions in league history. He arranged for the Los Angeles Rams to be purchased by Robert Irsay for $19 million before exchanging the team for Carroll Rosenbloom's Baltimore Colts. As a result of this deal, Thomas became general manager of Irsay's Colts team. He then systematically destroyed a team only a couple of years removed from a championship. He even shipped Johnny Unitas to the San Diego Chargers. From 1971-76, Thomas had five different coaches, including himself. Irsay finally fired him.
Thomas then latched onto a family looking to buy an NFL team. The DeBartolo family, of Youngstown, Ohio, befriended the inept personel man. He brought them to the San Francisco 49ers. This would probably be the last good thing that Thomas did for Eddie DeBartolo Jr. The 49ers were a promising team under head coach/GM Monte Clark. Thomas had to be the GM so Clark was gone. The promising 49ers were soon one of the worst teams in the league. Thomas dumped Jim Plunkett and traded a bunch for a fading O.J. Simpson. Like the Dolphins before, the 49ers became a powerhouse once Thomas was fired.
Typically, I never would have bothered spending time on Joe Thomas. That changed when I read the following from David Harris' book "The Genius" about Bill Walsh:
"...Joe Thomas immediately set about ridding the organization of any evidence of its existence before Joe Thomas arrived. ...All the club's bound volumes of old game programs, all its thousands of accumulated photos, even its original charter from the AAFC were unceremoniously dumped. "I came into the team's headquarters down in Redwood City one day," a team employee remembered, "and there were all these boxes along the wall, stacks and stacks of them, all full of memorabilia and photos and stuff like that. I figured that they were taking it up to storage at Candlestick Park but the secretary said no, they were taking all this stuff to the landfill. I couldn't believe it. I said, 'Really, where is it going?' I was told that Joe Thomas had said to get 'this shit' out of here.' History starts today. We don't need any of this.' I took as much as I could." The franchise had long maintained an alumni organization for former players but Thomas quickly dismantled it. He even threw away the Niners' priceless library of old game films."
I felt like the wind was knocked out of me when I read this. To destroy the teams history like that is simply unimaginable. You can't recreate it. I hope that it was all saved by someone, anyone. I have always known Joe Thomas to be an idiot. I just never realized how far he had taken things.
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