Monday, July 20, 1998

Knee injury sidelines Cowboys linebacker Thomas for season

By Kevin Lyons

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

WICHITA FALLS, Texas - With last year's retirement of Charles Haley, and last spring's waiving of Tony Tolbert, the Dallas Cowboys' most accomplished pass rusher was linebacker Broderick Thomas. But the club must now turn to another source for putting heat on the quarterback as Thomas sustained a season-ending knee injury Sunday, severely hampering the club's depth at linebacker and defensive line.

Thomas, 31, injured his left knee during team drills as he made a cut on the grass at Midwestern State University. A magnetic-resonance-imaging exam late Sunday showed a torn anterior-cruciate ligament, which normally takes about six to 12 months to heal.

"Broderick Thomas is out for the year," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. "That's what our doctors tell us. I'm really sick for Broderick. He was having an outstanding camp and he had a great off-season."

Thomas' injury effects the Cowboys on several fronts. He was competing for a starting position at strong-side linebacker. Because coaches felt he was competent at the position, the Cowboys were experimenting with moving starting strong-side linebacker Randall Godfrey to middle linebacker.

And because of Thomas' pass-rushing skills - he has 47 1/2 career sacks and led the Cowboys with 10 quarterback pressures in 1997 - the club was also counting on him as a pass-rushing defensive end during obvious passing situations. This would have taken some of the pressure off starting defensive ends Kavika Pittman, who has one sack in two years with the Cowboys, and Greg Ellis, a rookie.

Late Sunday night, the Cowboys brass still was huddling on what changes, if any, would be made to the roster because of the injury to Thomas, who had signed a one-year, $325,000 contract in the off-season.

Immediately after practice, Jones hinted that the club would probably look to fill the void from within. Darren Hambrick, this year's fifth-round draft choice, who returned to practice Sunday after missing a few sessions with a toothache, took Thomas' repetitions in workouts Sunday.

The Cowboys could also stop its experiment with Godfrey at middle linebacker and move him back to the strong side. That would give the starting middle linebacker spot to Fred Strickland. But Strickland's subpar play last year was one of the reasons Godfrey was moved to middle linebacker.

"We think we've got some players on this team that could step in and play," Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones said.

(c) 1998, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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