Michael Dean Perry—The Dominant Perry Brother

By John Turney 

Michael Dean Perry's older brother, William "The Refrigerator" Perry, got far more attention than he did. "The Fridge" had size, charisma, and a coach who would occasionally play him at fullback.

Not to mention a Super Bowl ring, too.

However, the younger brother was the better NFL player. He was an All-Pro defensive tackle who played for Cleveland and Denver Broncos, had a cup of coffee with the Kansas City Chiefs and, for some reason known only to voters, can't get the attention of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Never was that more evident than when the Hall-of-Fame seniors committee's list of 12 semifinalists was released last week. Perry's name wasn't on it. Nor was it on its semifinalist list of 31, either. So, what's new? Hall-of-Fame voters have never seriously considered Perry. He wasn't a semifinalist as a modern-era candidate, and he's gotten no traction as a senior. Hopefully, that changes in the future.

It should, and here's why: Even though he didn't have huge sack numbers (he ended his career with 61), Perry was a superb pass rusher, drawing double-and-triple teams. When he played with the Browns, they didn't have elite edge rushers who required extra attention or another interior rusher who was an elite pass rusher.

Michael Dean Perry was the Browns' pass rush, and we have the proof.

In 1993, a company called STATS, LLC., (now Stats Perform) introduced a bundle of unique statistics, including something called "stuffs" -- their name for a tackle for loss on a play other than a sack. But those numbers didn't find their way into mainstream articles or player bios, so they drew little attention. Plus, they didn't cover players prior to 1993.

However, it's easy to reproduce what STATS did and backdate what it called "stuffs." And when you do (and researchers have), it reveals something intriguing about Michael Dean Perry. It confirms what people saw -- namely, that he was in the backfield spilling running backs for losses as often, if not more, as anyone in football.

He was a supreme run stuffer. In his second year he had 11-1/2 of the so-called stuffs. The next year he had another 11-1/2. In 1991, it was 10-1/2. All three years he was third in the NFL. In 1993, he had a career-high 14 stuffs, and in his 10 NFL seasons he totaled 78.

So how does that compare to his contemporaries who are in -- or on their way into -- the Hall of Fame? Let's take a look: 

-- Cortez Kennedy— 58, with a high of 14.

-- Warren Sapp— 61-1/2, with a high of 8-1/2.

-- John Randle— 44, with a high of 8.

-- Bryant Young— 82, with a high of 9.

-- Aaron Donald— 83, with a high of 13-1/2.

Perry had such rare quickness for a man of his size (6-1, 285 pounds) that football insiders ranked his take-off up there with Alan Page, Mike Reid, Sam Adams and Aaron Donald. In short, among the best of the best. Perry's anticipation allowed him to penetrate the line of scrimmage and make plays that most defensive tackles could not.

"Quickness is my best asset," Perry said. "It is not something you learn. It's God-given." 

So people noticed.

Perry was a first-team Sporting News (TSN) All-Pro five consecutive years, and that's significant. TSN's All-Pro team was the only one that wasn't a poll of sportswriters. It was determined by players, coaches and NFL personnel execs -- and still is. Furthermore, its All-Pro team is listed in the NFL's official encyclopedia, giving it the same imprimatur as the AP, PFWA, NEA and others.

What TSN's All-Pro team illustrated was that people connected to the NFL respected Perry's game.

And why not? In all, Perry was first-team All-Pro in 1989 (AP, PFWA, NEA, TSN), 1990 (AP, PFWA, NEA, TSN), 1991 (TSN), 1992 (TSN) and 1993 (TSN). He was also second-team All-Pro in 1994 (AP) and second-team All-AFC in 1995 (UPI) and 1996 (UPI), which means he had some sort of postseason honor in every season but his first and last.

And remember: He was All-Rookie in his first.

In 1989 he was the AFC Defensive Player of the Year. It was his first year as a starter when he totaled 71 tackles, including the 11-1/2 stuffs. He also had seven sacks, deflected seven passes, forced a pair of fumbles, recovered two and led the team in pressures with 49.

All as an interior rusher. Plus, he drew 16 holding penalties. 

Sixteen.

"And who knows how many more they didn't call or didn't see," said his offensive-line coach, John Teerlinck.

Offensive linemen couldn't block him from his cocked defensive tackle position -- something Browns' coach Bud Carson had done in previous stops with Joe Greene and Joe Klecko. Carson tinkered with it the following year, allowing Perry to flop sides, and the results speak for themselves: He had 86 tackles, two more forced fumbles and led the team in pressures again. But he also had 11-1/2 sacks, as well as another 11-1/2 run stuffs -- producing a rare double-digit finish in both categories.

Perry, Carson said, had "reached another dimension" in his game.

Unfortunately, so had the Browns, and it wasn't a good one. Carson was fired after the 1990 season. So his attacking, 4-3 stunting scheme was gone, and successor Bill Belichick's read-and-react 4-3 was in. Though not stylistically suited for two-gapping, Perry still performed at a high level ... even though he wasn't always happy about the new defense. 

"Anyone—offensive or defensively—wants to play in a scheme where they are used properly," he said. "Don't take away my attributes; that is getting off the ball, penetrating, causing chaos and making plays."

Then, realizing it was no good to quarrel with his head coach, he added, "Sometimes you have to sacrifice individual goals to aid the team."

In 1993, Belichick gave Perry some relief by signing massive Jerry Ball to play over the center so that Perry could be "used properly". His career-high 14 stuffs and six sacks were the result, evidence that ... at least in this case ... the player may have been right and the coach wrong.

The reviews were glowing:

-- Pro Football Weekly's Joel Buchsbaum, always plugged into NFL scouts, wrote that Perry was "the quickest defensive interior lineman in football."

-- Another annual publication with credible sources called Perry "an utter terror inside in a 4-3 front, using superb explosion and instincts to consistently beat his man off the ball."

-- The following year the same publication wrote that "(Perry is the) owner of the quickest two first steps in football. He has no peer in shooting the guard/tackle gap. On occasion, he reaches the ball carrier before the handoff ... his swim-and-spin moves are state-of-the-art."

However, the knee issues that troubled him early in his NFL career became more of an issue as his career wore on. Perry gutted through them, undergoing surgical procedures but still missing little time. In seven seasons with Cleveland, he missed only three games.

Unprotected and unclaimed in the 1995 expansion Perry was a Browns' cap casualty in 1995 subsequently signing a three-year, $7.2-million contract with the Broncos and giving them two solid years. But injured knees didn't allow him to play at his usual level in the final year of his deal, and he was waived the last week of the 1997 season -- thus missing out on a Super Bowl ring when Denver won its first Lombardi Trophy.

It wasn't one knee injury that short-circuited Perry's decline. It was a series of less severe ones that became chronic and eventually ended his career after 10 seasons.

Hall-of-Famers with shorter careers that ended abruptly by injuries have been given a pass by voters lately, with Terrell Davis, Kenny Easley and Tony Boselli examples. Maybe for candidates like Perry, who had chronically bad knees, the same lens can be applied for longevity.

All I know is that in his 10 years, he was a five-time All-Pro (twice consensus), six-time Pro Bowler and an AFC Defensive Player of the Year. He was the complete player. Few, if any, defensive tackles of his era tackled more running backs behind the line of scrimmage, and he routinely drew double-and-triple teams -- as well as holding calls -- on pass plays.

Perry is in the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame, the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame and the State of South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame. That's because he was a two-time All-ACC selection, a 1987 All-American selection and that year's ACC Player of the Year. Not just the top defensive player, but the top player in the conference regardless of position.

Now it's time the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame voters take a closer look at the better of the football-playing Perry brothers and one of the quickest defensive tackles in pro football history.

Career stats—

Stats from NFL Gamebooks