Emmitt Thomas announced his retirement Tuesday as the def

KANSAS CITY Jordan Lucas Jersey , Mo. (AP) —ensive backs coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, ending an NFL career that began as a Hall of Fame player and wound up spanning five decades.Thomas spent 13 seasons playing for the Chiefs, helping the organization to a pair of Super Bowl appearances and their only championship in 1970. The two-time All-Pro retired in 1978 and began coaching at Central Missouri State before moving onto the pros with the St. Louis Cardinals.He helped the Redskins win a pair of Super Bowls, and also worked for the Eagles, Packers, Vikings and Falcons, before returning to Kansas City in 2010. He’s been the Chiefs’ secondary coach ever since, first under Todd Haley and retained by Romeo Crennel and current coach Andy Reid.“My journey started in Kansas City, and by the grace of God I am able to end my NFL career here as well,” said Thomas, who was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008. “It has been a privilege to work alongside the great coaches that have come through this building. Having the opportunity to coach so many talented young men in my time as a coach has been one of my greatest gifts.”Thomas joined the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent out of tiny Bishop College in 1966, just four years after the organization moved from Dallas to Kansas City. He helped the Chiefs reach the first Super Bowl as a rookie, losing to the Green Bay, before returning three years later.He had nine interceptions that season Jordan Lucas Jersey , including one in their Super Bowl triumph over Minnesota.Thomas continued to be a productive player until his retirement, then became a sought-after coach for defensive backs. He spent four years with the Cardinals, eight more with the Redskins and three with the Eagles before serving as defensive coordinator of the Packers.After a stint as defensive coordinator of the Vikings, he joined the Falcons coaching staff, where he got his only taste as a head coach. It was Thomas who was appointed interim coach after Bobby Petrino’s sudden retirement in 2007, and he rallied a broken locker room to a season-ending win over Seattle.He was retained by new Falcons coach Mike Smith the following year, then joined the Chiefs in 2010, a move that allowed him to bookend a playing and coaching career spanning 51 years.“Over the course of a career that spans two leagues and most of the modern era of the NFL, Emmitt was a Hall of Fame player and one of the most respected coaches in the league,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said. “Emmitt will always be a part of our Chiefs family.”The 75-year-old Thomas’ retirement had been expected after the Chiefs, who lost in overtime to the Patriots in the AFC championship game, fired longtime defensive coordinator Bob Sutton.Steve Spagnuolo has been hired to handle the defense and is bringing in many of his own assistants.“It was an honor to have Emmitt on our coaching staff,” Reid said. “Having a Pro Football Hall of Famer lead that room and share his experiences as a player and a coach has been incredible for our guys. Beyond football, he’s a tremendous person Laurent Duvernay-Tardif Jersey , and I’ve enjoyed working with him and getting to know him.” The press release masquerading as a letter to the NFL’s in-house discipline czar was intended to sway public opinion regarding Chiefs receiver Tyreek Hill. But while the effort to turn the tables of child-abuse allegations from Hill to Crystal Espinal may have given red meat to red-clad fans looking for a reason to defend Hill, the letter was, all things considered, ill-advised.The goal was simple and obvious. Hill’s lawyer wanted to push back against Hill’s swift conviction in the court of public opinion that came after the release last week of disturbing audio recorded by Espinal, the mother of Hill’s three-year-old child. A press release would have made the effort too transparent; couching the quickly-leaked-to-ESPN statement in the form of formal correspondence to the NFL made it seem more organic and natural.Regardless of whether the it was issued as a press release or as a letter to the league, here’s the problem for Hill: At some point, he’ll be grilled by NFL executives about the situation, and it will be critical that he be credible. To be credible, he’ll need to be accurate. And the letter will make it more difficult for Hill to tell his story in a way that doesn’t create the kind of inconsistencies, accidental or otherwise, that could prompt the league to conclude that he’s not being truthful.Case in point: If someone from the league decides to aggressively question Hill on the claim in the letter that the breaking of his son’s arm was deemed to be an accident, even though the prosecutor has said publicly that a crime was committed against Hill’s son, Hill could quickly get so twisted in knots that he’ll be too rattled to thereafter remember the broader facts in a way that will result in the overall story being told in a believable way. Throw in the fact that the league already will be skeptical of Hill given his admitted misconduct against Espinal from 2014 (he assaulted her while she was pregnant), and Hill’s challenge of passing the NFL’s unofficial lie detector test will become even more daunting.Also Terrance Smith Jersey , by accusing Espinal of child abuse, the letter could make Espinal determined not only to defend herself but also to implicate Hill. Which could prompt her to choose to fully and completely cooperate with the league office. If she’s credible and Hill isn’t, that’s very bad news for Hill. (And since the past misconduct against Espinal becomes an aggravating factor in any potential punishment, Espinal easily will become more sympathetic in the eyes of league officials who hear the story of Hill choking and beating her.)Ultimately, nothing in the letter changes the fact that Hill’s suddenly menacing message — “you need to be terrified of me too, bitch” — shows that Mr. Hyde still lurks under whatever Dr. Jekyll façade Hill’s lawyer tries to concoct. Given Hill’s history, hearing those chilling words made me think that Hill continues to be the same guy he was when he did what he did to Espinal more than four years ago, making him (in my opinion) unfit for the privilege that is a career in the NFL.Remember, every second (or third) chance given to an NFL player takes away the first chance of some other player who did nothing wrong. Although some will believe Hill’s talent justifies affording him consideration that never would be granted to a lesser player, his admitted misdeeds from the past necessarily gave him a very small margin for error. His admitted words to Espinal put him on the wrong side of that line.And nothing his lawyer could ever say will change that.