Thomas Edward Dohring (born May 24, 1968) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

from 1987 to 1990 and professional football for the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

in 1992.

Early years

A native of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, Dohring attended

Divine Child High School Divine Child High School, commonly known as Divine Child (DC), is a private, Roman Catholic, college-preparatory, parish high school in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. Divine Child is ranked among the top 15 percent of private high schools i ...

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. Dearborn is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States pe ...

University of Michigan

Dohring played

as an

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

at the

from 1987 to 1990.(Enter Dohring as the last name on the search page, and press enter) Dohring started 34 consecutive games for Michigan during those years. He helped lead the

1990 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1990 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1990 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team's head coach was Gary Moeller. The Wolverines played their home games at Michigan Stadium. The team won ...

to a

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

championship and a victory over Ole Miss in the 1991 Gator Bowl. First-year head coach

Gary Moeller Gary Oscar Moeller (; January 26, 1941 – July 11, 2022) was an American football coach best known for being head coach at the University of Michigan from 1990 to 1994. During his five seasons at Michigan, he won 44 games, lost 13 and tied 3 f ...

praised the work of Dorhing and the other offensive linemen for the 1990 team: "It's nice to have the running backs we do, but when you're running behind Tom Dohring,

Joe Cocozzo Joe Cocozzo (born August 7, 1970) is a former American football player. He played professional football as an offensive guard in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Diego Chargers from 1993 to 1997. He also played college football as ...

, Matt Elliott and

Greg Skrepenak Gregory Andrew Skrepenak (born January 31, 1970) is an American former county commissioner in Pennsylvania and retired professional football player. He was an offensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles/Oakland R ...

, it's a big help." Dohring was selected by the conference coaches as a member of the first-team All-Big Ten offensive unit at the end of November 1990.

Kansas City Chiefs

Dohring was drafted by the

in the eighth round (218th overall pick) in the

1991 NFL Draft The 1991 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 21–22, 1991, at the Marriott Mar ...

. After suffering a sprained ankle in August 1991, Dohring spent the

1991 NFL season The 1991 NFL season was the 72nd regular season of the National Football League. It was the final season for coach Chuck Noll. The season ended with Super Bowl XXVI when the Washington Redskins defeated the Buffalo Bills, 37–24, at the Metrod ...

on the injured reserve list. He sustained another ankle injury in August 1992 and spent most of the

1992 NFL season The 1992 NFL season was the 73rd regular season of the National Football League. Due to the damage caused by Hurricane Andrew, the New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins game that was scheduled for September 6 at Joe Robbie Stadium was resched ...

on the Chiefs' practice squad. He was activated in late November 1992 to replace running back Bill Jones who was released. He made his NFL debut as the Chiefs' right tackle on December 6, 1992, in a loss to the

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...

. Dohring was deactivated in early January 1993 to make room on the roster for Albert Lewis. He was released by the Chiefs in late August 1993.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dohring, Tom 1968 births Living people Michigan Wolverines football players Kansas City Chiefs players Players of American football from Detroit