One of the original ‘Ball Hawks’ for the Kansas City Chiefs, Emmitt Thomas, didn’t touch a football until his Senior year of High School.
Born in Angleton, Texas, Thomas played baseball and basketball and was a part of his high school band before he was introduced to football during his final year before graduating. He attended Bishop College and planned to play for the school’s baseball team. But an assistant football coach saw Thomas’ skill and urged him to try out for the football team, setting him on a path for gridiron success.
Thomas made the team in his Sophomore year as a quarterback and defensive back. In a game against Prairie View A&M, Owner Lamar Hunt and scouts of the Chiefs were in attendance to see physically gifted Otis Taylor play. The toughness and skill of Thomas’ play caught the attention of the Chiefs, and Hunt returned the following year to offer Thomas an opportunity to earn a contract as an undrafted free agent.
Thomas made the most of that opportunity and was signed by the Chiefs ahead of the 1966 season, in which the Chiefs won its second AFL Championship and appeared in Super Bowl I. The following year, Thomas became the starting left cornerback and quickly became a takeaway machine that helped make the Chiefs’ defenses dominant during the 1960s.
In 1967, Thomas nabbed four interceptions on the season and recorded four more the following year, making the first of five Pro Bowl appearances following the 1968 season. In 1969, Thomas caught an AFL-leading nine interceptions, helped an overlooked Chiefs team through the AFL playoffs, and capped the season off with an upset victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.
In 1974, Thomas led the NFL with a career-high 12 interceptions on the season.
He retired following the 1978 season and got into coaching. After spending two seasons on the Central Missouri State coaching staff, he was brought on by the St. Louis (football) Cardinals as an assistant in 1981. In 1986, he moved on to the Washington Redskins, where he coached the wide receivers and defensive backs until 1994. In 1995, he was hired by the Philadelphia Eagles as the franchise’s defensive coordinator. By 1999, he became the DC for the Green Bay Packer for the season before serving a two-year stint with Minnesota in the same coaching position. In 2002, Thomas was hired by the Atlanta Falcons as the team’s assistant head coach and defensive backs coach. In 2007, Thomas served as the team’s interim head coach before returning to his original position for the ’08 and ’09 seasons.
In 2010, Thomas returned as a defensive backs coach to his old stomping ground in Kansas City. He remained on the Chiefs’ staff for eight more seasons before retiring from football in 2019.
Emmitt Thomas recorded 58 career interceptions as a player and compiled 937 yards and five scores. He was a 5x Pro Bowler, a 2x AFL Champion, a 2x AFL All-Star, a 2x First Team All-Pro selection, and a Super Bowl Champion.
During his coaching career, Thomas won two more championships as an assistant with the Washington Redskins.
Thomas is a member of the Chiefs Hall of Honor (1986) and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008. Finally, Thomas’ number 18 jersey is one of ten jersey numbers retired by the Chiefs.
In 2016, Thomas was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame.
