Talk:Mel Tom

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. Track your hook after promotion. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Dclemens1971 (talk) 04:04, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

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• ... that Eagles DE Mel Tom told a coach to "Trade me, fire me, or fight me", got traded four games into the season to the Bears, and still finished second on the Eagles in sacks that season?

• Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/13/archives/people-in-sports-sparky-ashamed.html (for quote)

https://access-newspaperarchive-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/us/pennsylvania/towanda/the-daily-review/1973/10-17/page-10 (for trade)

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/phi/1973.htm (for finishing second on team in sacks)

• • Reviewed:

5x expanded by EaglesFan37 (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

EaglesFan37 (talk) 22:26, 23 May 2026 (UTC).

• I think the hook could be modified to be more "hook-y" (current hook is a bit long). For example, ALT1 ... that NFL player Mel Tom told a coach to "trade me, fire me, or fight me"? or ALT2 ... that NFL player Mel Tom was traded away by the Philadelphia Eagles four games into a season but still finished second on the team in sacks? BeanieFan11 (talk) 18:47, 24 May 2026 (UTC)
  • @BeanieFan11 How about ALT3 ... that NFL player Mel Tom was traded away by the Philadelphia Eagles four games into a season after telling a coach to "trade me, fire me, or fight me,", and still finished second on the team in sacks? It's just just an absurdity (the fact that the quote is real, and that he finished second on the team in sacks (with 2.0). I hope there is a way to get both in, but if not, I'd favor ALT1EaglesFan37 (talk) 19:32, 24 May 2026 (UTC)
    • That may work (the hook to be featured will ultimately be determined by the reviewer) – but I think usually hooks that are shorter and more "punchy" perform better, so I was just offering another option. BeanieFan11 (talk) 20:04, 24 May 2026 (UTC)
• ALT1 or ALT2 only! Welcome to DYK, EaglesFan37. The article is a new enough and large enough expansion. Hook fact backed up in article. You didn't need to supply QPQ. Since I can tell you're a bit new at DYK, I'd like to make some comments:
  • WP:SEAOFBLUE: We don't permit back-to-back unbolded or bolded links. (However, something like defensive end Mel Tom is permissible.) "DE" as an abbreviation is too jargon-y for a general audience, especially a non-sports one.
  • BeanieFan11's sense for hooks is spot-on. We get a lot of sports biographies, especially American football, here, and we have to run them in ways ethat might entice readers not familiar with American football to read. I think ALT1 is your best hook because of its punchiness and suggest it to be the one approved. ALT2 also works, but it is a little less interesting. The promoter should not consider ALT0 or its variant ALT3.
  • The article has many clipping link errors because of the use of TWL links that not everyone can access. I'd read the NewspaperArchive section at WP:CLIP to learn how to make actual clippings. Important: after you make clippings, you then need to log in to your NewspaperArchive account again, outside the proxy, and copy the URLs of the clippings you made while in proxy. I may be approving the article, but please fix this when you can.

Sammi Brie (she/her · t · c) 05:42, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

@Sammie Brie Thank you for your feedback! I fixed the clippings. EaglesFan37 (talk) 14:16, 13 June 2026 (UTC)