Chiefs’ Thomas Finally Makes It : Football: Linebacker has turned his life around after a troubled childhood.

Derrick Thomas was 5 years old when the squadron of B-52s took off on a bombing run over Vietnam in December, 1972. In one of those eerie twists of fate, the Air Force had decided to call this mission “Operation Linebacker.”

His father, Capt. Robert Thomas, never made it back. After making sure his crew had successfully escaped his damaged plane, Robert Thomas bailed out moments before the B-52 erupted in a fireball.

The crew survived to tell the story, but Robert Thomas was never seen again.

He wasn’t declared legally dead until 1980, however, but Derrick Thomas isn’t convinced that the remains returned to the United States were really his father’s. He still clings to the hope that the father he hardly knew is still a POW somewhere in Southeast Asia.

If Thomas’ dream were to come true and his father did return home, only one tape of one game would be required to show the senior Thomas how his son turned out. NFL Films would probably call it “Operation Linebacker.”

On Veterans Day last year, Kansas City was playing host to Seattle and the pregame show featured a fly-by of four Air Force warplanes over Arrowhead Stadium. Capt. Jim Preston presented Thomas with a commemorative headband.

Thomas wore the headband during the game in honor of his father.

And he sacked Seahawk quarterback Dave Krieg an NFL-record seven times.

There are many quarterbacks in the NFL who could look at that game film and say, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”

Derrick Thomas has been catapulting himself off the Chiefs’ right corner and into quarterback’s nightmares since the day he blitzed full-bore into the league.

The Chiefs made the Alabama All-American their first pick in 1989, and Thomas said his goal was to make the Pro Bowl as a rookie. He made it.

Last year, his goal was to lead the league in sacks. Twenty--including the seven of Krieg--did it.

This year, he says, he simply wants to be “the best I can be.” He’s not ready to say he’s reached that peak, but he’s generally pleased with his play so far. He leads the Chiefs with 7 1/2 sacks.

“My play hasn’t been fluctuating up and down like it had in the previous two years,” Thomas said.

“I spend more time concentrating on playing the run. I know exactly what’s expected of me within the defense now, so instead of guessing in situations, I know how to react and that allows me to be more aggressive and more physical.”

More aggressive?

“Without a doubt, this is the finest season he’s had,” Coach Marty Schottenheimer said. “He’s been able to play the running game much better than he has and still continue to rush the passer very effectively with that great speed. He’s the fastest linebacker I’ve ever been around.”

More physical?

“Derrick hasn’t gotten that many sacks, numerically, but he continues to put pressure on the quarterback,” Schottenheimer said. “And one thing I think is evident. If he shows up around you, you better take care of the ball, because he’s forced three fumbles already this year.”

Schottenheimer has what he calls “a decided advantage” when he sends in the defensive unit. Thanks to Thomas, it’s like playing 12 or 13 against 11. Thomas is either double- or triple-teamed on almost every passing down.

“He can turn the game around,” Schottenheimer said. “You always have to be mindful of his presence.”

Opponents usually are. Just ask Krieg. Or Ram offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese, who has the unenviable task of designing a scheme to slow Thomas Sunday at Anaheim Stadium. Last week, NFL sack leader Pat Swilling of New Orleans sacked Jim Everett three times.

“We’re talking about two of the best pass rushers in football, and they’re very similar,” Zampese said. “High speed, high-intensity quickness. They get up the field so fast and then spin off.”

Thomas, who is a friend of Swilling, says their personal competition to out-sack each other is “big-time.”

“Me and Pat talk often and we have this ongoing competition,” he said. “I think we’re identical in a lot of ways.”

Both are often forced to fight their way through a quarter of the opposing team to reach their goal. Thomas admits it can be frustrating, but he says dealing with it is another facet of the game he’s handling with more maturity.

“I just go about it like that’s part of the game,” he said. “It’s going to happen. The only way to overcome it is to keep your composure. In every situation, you have to think that maybe the man who’s doubling you might not be going as hard as you’re going on that particular play and you’ll have a chance to break free.

“You can’t have any breakdowns in intensity. You can’t be in the middle of a rush and say, ‘Well, they’re doubling me, so I can’t get there this time.’ You just have to keep fighting through it.”

Thomas spent much of his childhood fighting to get through it. The oldest of seven children, he was raised by his mother, Edith Morgan, and his mother’s foster mother, Annie Adams, in low-income housing in south Miami.

If his father had been around, maybe Thomas’ role models wouldn’t have been pimps and pushers. Maybe he wouldn’t have spent his nights as a 12-year-old throwing rocks at buses. Maybe he wouldn’t have ended up in Miami’s Juvenile Justice Center at 14. And maybe he never would have been arrested on a burglary charge that resulted in a sentence to the Dade Marine Institute, a state-run facility for troubled youths.

But then maybe Thomas wouldn’t be the young man he is today.

The Dade Marine Institute program rewarded academic achievement with activities such as scuba diving. An inner-city youth, whose previous definition of excitement involved running from the police, was suddenly 50 feet underwater, swimming among a school of barracuda.

For Thomas, the experience at DMI had a profound effect. He wasn’t that fond of scuba diving, but he loved football. And he wasn’t playing any. So he finished the six-month program in three months and returned to South Miami High School for the second semester of his sophomore year.

At a South Miami High assembly, Thomas heard Mercury Morris, the former Miami Dolphin running back who was imprisoned in 1983 for dealing cocaine. He began to realize for the first time that one can learn from others’ mistakes.

“He opened my eyes to a lot of things and I often tell kids an excerpt from that speech,” Thomas said. “There are two ways to learn. You can learn by experience or by somebody telling you. Some things shouldn’t be experienced, and I should have listened and learned as opposed to experiencing.”

Thomas is only 24, but, baby has he come a long way.

He has a black Mercedes-Benz convertible with the license plate “IMAYDIT.” It was the same car he saw the 14-year-old drug dealers drive in south Miami, but he doesn’t have to keep his eye on the rear-view mirror for police or a rival dealer with a shotgun.

Thomas also has a Jeep with “ISACQBS” plates and a white Mercedes 560 and a black BMW. He owns a limousine service and works part time in a Kansas City bank, learning about high finance.

But he hasn’t forgotten his troubled youth and the feeling of growing up void of hope.

Last summer, he was named to the board of directors of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, a nonprofit research agency. He has testified before a House subcommittee on crime. And last year, after talking with the Miami judge who had sentenced him to the Dade Marine Institute, Thomas founded the Third and Long Foundation to benefit disadvantaged youths. He hopes to raise $100,000 a year through personal appearances and donations.

One of the foundation’s projects is a library reading program. Thomas and several teammates spend an hour at an inner-city library every Saturday before home games reading and discussing literature with kids ages 9-13.

“Third and Long is something I’ve been thinking about since my childhood and college days,” he said. “Part of it is me just loving kids. And when I was coming out of college, I said if I had the opportunity to help someone else, I would.”

After all, Thomas knows first-hand that a little caring can go a long way to help a kid.