From 99-0, TeamFB7 is looking back on the greatest players in NFL history to don each jersey number. No ties allowed, tough decisions will be made — next is No. 93 and John Randle.
It used to happen more often in the 1970s and earlier when scouting still had its limitations and more prospects fell through the cracks, but since 1975 only four NFL players have gone from undrafted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
There aren’t many more exclusive lists in football history than that one.
Which brings us to the greatest NFL player to ever wear No. 93 — longtime Minnesota Vikings (and later Seattle Seahawks) defensive tackle John Randle.
Randle started out at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas, before continuing on to Division II Texas A&I (now known as Texas A&M-Kingsville). He went undrafted in 1990 and his story only gets more improbable from there.
He tried out for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, hoping to join his older brother Ervin Randle, a linebacker for the team, but the younger Randle eventually got cut by the Bucs and then by the Atlanta Falcons as well. Randle next turned to the Vikings, and as he recounted to NFL Films, he was initially told by defensive coordinator Floyd Peters he was too small but that if he got himself up to 250 pounds in the next month they’d give him another shot.
“I knew in my mind and my heart I could play defensive line,” Randle said in his ‘A Football Life’ documentary. “… I come back to Minnesota for another minicamp, I’m like 244-245, so I go to one of these hardware stores, I see this big old chain and I see a little padlock. Next morning, I go to the practice facility and hop on the scale, I take this chain, wrap it around my waist, put the padlock on, pull my sweats over top. In walks Floyd Peters, ‘What’s his weight?’ ‘251.’ He goes, ‘OK, we’ll give you a shot.’ And that’s how I did it.”
It’s incredible that the NFL almost missed on Randle entirely, because after a quiet first season in Minnesota in 1990 he broke out with 9.5 sacks the next year and then reeled off eight straight seasons with double-digit sacks (leading the Vikings each of those season). He was named first-team All-Pro six times in that span and finished second in NFL Defensive Player of the Year voting in 1998 when he had 41 tackles, 10.5 sacks and 3 forced fumbles for a 15-1 Vikings team.
Randle would finish his 14-year career, including his final three seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, with 137.5 sacks, which is tied for 11th overall with Richard Dent.
To put that number in further context among true defensive tackles, though, it’s a little more complicated but worth the exercise.
How John Randle Became An NFL Hall Of Famer
Technically, fellow Vikings great Alan Page (148.5 “unofficial” sacks from 1967-81, per ProFootballReference.com) would be the standard bearer among true defensive tackles with Randle next on the list. But sacks didn’t become an official NFL stat until 1982, so on the league’s “official” career sacks leaderboard Page is nowhere to be found.
Meanwhile, some lists now categorize 3-4 defensive ends as interior defensive linemen to differentiate them from 4-3 defensive ends/outside linebackers, collectively known today as edge rushers. That would technically bring all-time leader Bruce Smith (200 sacks) into the conversation as a 3-4 defensive end for those great Buffalo Bills teams of the 1990s.
Either way, the point is clear — few defensive tackles/interior defensive linemen did it better than Randle.
Or with more personality, for that matter, as he was known as a legendary trash-talker on the field.
He finished with seven Pro Bowl honors and also tallied 556 total tackles, 28 forced fumbles, an interception and 2 defensive touchdowns. He was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame his second year on the ballot.
As for the other undrafted players since 1975 to make the Hall of Fame, they are quarterbacks Warren Moon and Kurt Warner and linebacker Sam Mills.
Meanwhile, Randle is actually one of three Hall of Famers to wear No. 93 for most of his career.
Defensive end Dwight Freeney earned seven Pro Bowl honors with the Indianapolis Colts, was three times voted first-team All-Pro, led the league with 16 sacks in 2004, finished top 3 in Defensive Player of the Year voting twice, finished with 125.5 sacks and 47 forced fumbles and made it to Canton on his second year on the ballot.
And defensive lineman Richard Seymour, a key defensive catalyst on the New England Patriots’ first three Super Bowl teams, wore 93 for eight years before switching to 92 with the then-Oakland Raiders for his final four seasons. He made seven Pro Bowls, earned three first-team All-Pro honors, finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2003 and totaled 57.5 career sacks.
Other honorable mentions for No. 93 include still-active veteran defensive lineman Calais Campbell (117 sacks in 18 seasons for five franchises), another former Vikings defensive tackle Kevin Williams (63 sacks, five-time first-team All-Pro, six Pro Bowls) and former defensive lineman Kevin Williams (104.5 sacks, best known for his time with the then-St. Louis Rams and leading the league with 17 sacks in 1999).
