CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Joe Thomas is getting the superhero treatment this weekend.
The Browns limited edition game poster for the home opener features Thomas, in a Superman pose flying high above FirstEnergy Stadium.
At halftime Sunday, he’ll be inducted into the Browns Legends program along with the late Darrel “Pete” Brewster.
“It does make me feel a little bit old,” Thomas said with a laugh.
It’s just another step taken by the team to honor Thomas, whom many expect to be headed to Canton next year. His No. 73 might even be retired some day and his name undoubtably will be placed next to his streak in the Ring of Honor.
“This is a really special step for me to be recognized by the organization and put my name amongst the greats of whoever wore a Cleveland Browns uniform, which when you look at all the Ring of Honors and the Legends clubs throughout the NFL, the Browns are almost incomparable,” Thomas said. “Maybe one or two of the other founding franchises have as many players that are in the Hall of Fame or are among the greatest players the game has ever seen, but it is hard to argue with the group of Legends that the Browns have. Putting my name in there is really special.”
Thomas set the bar pretty high for himself as a rookie in 2007.
He’s now a year away from reaching it.
“I said that I would like to become the starter and make the Pro Bowl and then make the Hall of Fame,” Thomas recalled this week of an interview he did his rookie year with Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer. “I did not really think anything of it, but it kind of was a little bit of a newsworthy item for this rookie to say that he wanted to go into the Hall of Fame.”
Before he gets a gold jacket, likely next year, he’ll get a brown one this weekend.
“It has gotten real because you do have to talk about it,” Thomas said. “People ask you questions about it. It is fun to think about it. It is fun to talk about coming back to FirstEnergy Stadium and becoming forever one of the Legends, getting the brown jacket and seeing old teammates and old friends.”
After 11 seasons with the Browns, Thomas retired following the 2017 season beginning the countdown to Canton.
“I don’t think there’s even one shred of doubt that he’s a Hall of Famer and I think he’ll be a first ballot Hall of Famer,” former Browns general manager Phil Savage, who drafted Thomas, told 92.3 The Fan in 2018. “The resume is just so strong.”
It didn’t take Savage long to realize he found a once in a generation player and person.
“It never seemed too big for him, not for one instant,” Savage said. “He just seamlessly made the transition from college to the NFL. At the end of that first year, we had won 10 games, there was a lot of excitement, he makes the Pro Bowl. When these guys make one Pro Bowl, you think they could make three or four, or five or six and seven or eight because it almost becomes a formality, especially at that position. He definitely surpassed any of our wildest imaginations from when we picked him back in ’07.”
Seven months after his retirement announcement the Browns put 10,363 in the Ring of Honor, commemorating his consecutive snaps streak.
For Thomas, that streak will forever be a sense of personal pride.
“It is meaningful for me in a number of different ways,” Thomas said. “Obviously, it is special because it had not been done before as far as we know – or as far as I am willing to look. I think it is kind of a historic, difficult record. As an offensive lineman, we do not really get a lot of records except for bad ones: holdings, penalties, so on and so forth. I think more than that, it kind of typifies what I try to be as a teammate, which was I tried to be reliable, I tried to be consistent, and I tried to be always there for the guys around me and to help them do their jobs as well as they possibly could.
“That was what drove me to play through pain and play through injuries and show up every Sunday. Seeing that number, it kind of makes me reflect back on all of the faces and the names that I played with.”
A 10-time Pro Bowler and eight-time All Pro, Thomas played in 167 consecutive games before tearing his left triceps tendon against Tennessee in October 2017, ending the snap streak, his season, and ultimately his career.
Joel Bitonio, drafted in the second round in 2014 and played with Thomas to his left, is looking forward to the ceremony Sunday.
“It’s a great honor for Joe,” Bitonio said. “He deserves every honor coming his way, but it does age you a little a bit.
“Week in and week out, I think that’s the trait of a great O-lineman is can you be the same guy pretty much week in and week out. Everybody has a couple bad plays here and there, but he was just so consistent in what he did.”
Thomas’ intelligence in addition to being physically dominant made him elite.
Bitonio not only remembers Thomas’ consistency as a player, but he also recalled Thomas setting him straight early in his career.
“My rookie year, I think we were playing the Colts and he had made a call but something on the back side, there was another call so I had said ‘Oh no we gotta change it to this,’” Bitonio said. “Obviously, he was right but I tried to like correct it mid play and I just remember after the play I remember he let me have it a little bit. And I was like, ‘alright I won’t question Joe Thomas anymore on what call to make.’”
Amid over a decade of losing, quarterback and coaching changes, Thomas was the one person the Browns could count on being there for them. Every Sunday, rain, snow or shine, regardless of what ailment kept him from the practice field or what quarterback was set to start that week, No. 73 lined up at left tackle.
“A lot of people like to play the fun, ‘Hey, can you name all the quarterbacks you started with’ game, and I can’t,” Thomas said. “I am not real good names, and I am certainly not good at remembering all of the quarterbacks. I feel very fortunate when I see that number to think back on how many great people I played with.”
He can’t, but we can.
Thomas blocked for 19 starting quarterbacks – Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, Ken Dorsey, Brady Quinn, Bruce Gradkowski, Jake Delhomme, Seneca Wallace, Colt McCoy, Brandon Weeden, Thaddeus Lewis, Brian Hoyer, Jason Campbell, Johnny Manziel, Conner Shaw, Josh McCown, Austin Davis, Robert Griffin III, Cody Kessler, Kevin Hogan and Deshaun Kizer.
Throw in Josh Cribbs, Josh Johnson, Charlie Whitehurst and Terrelle Pryor and that’s 24 players who lined up behind center. A total of 29 different players threw a pass.
You’re welcome for the cheat sheet, Joe.
Thomas also played for six head coaches, seven GMs and two owners.
“He was consistent. That’s one of the best things about Joe that I appreciated,” his first head coach Romeo Crennel told 92.3 The Fan during a 2018 interview. "He was a very consistent guy. He had confidence in his ability and in himself, but the consistency was the thing. He came to work every day, he put it on the field on game day. I think that has been shown through his career, being able to go to all those Pro Bowls, and being able to play as many plays in-a-row as he’s played. Both of those things are tremendous accomplishments.”
Over Thomas’ 11-year career, the Browns didn’t win much – 48 games to be exact – and they lost a ton – 119 of them with 113 coming after his rookie campaign.
“The specialness of Joe Thomas comes from the reliability and the consistency that he brought to the table,” Savage said. “To be able to do that…look a lot of fans have given up on the Browns, the media has given up on the Browns, I promise you there’s been coaches and scouts that gave up on the Browns during these last two decades, and he never did, and if he did, he never let it show.”
Unfortunately, Thomas never got to play in a playoff game, but he doesn’t complain or feel sorry for himself. His gratitude remains as strong as his love for the Browns and the city that embraced him.
“Not a lot of success, but a lot of great people in those 11 seasons that I played,” Thomas said. “I did have a chance to play with some really, really good football players, as well.”
In between snaps, Thomas raised his family in Cleveland too.
He and his wife, Annie, are the proud parents of four children aged 9, 8, 6 and 4 years old, and of course they’re being raised as Browns fans even though they don’t remember much about their dad playing down by the lake.
“They do not even remember me wearing a Browns jersey,” Thomas said. “I think they have no memories of me playing football, which is a little sad, but it is also kind of cool now for me to be able to come back and be recognized, be on the field and for them to wear my jerseys and start to make some of those memories now, and the team is a little bit better.”
Drafted third overall in 2007, it didn’t take long for fans to fall in love with the standout from Wisconsin.
“It feels amazing to get the love from the fans. It feels incredible,” Thomas said. “I oftentimes feel like I am maybe not worthy of that type of love from a fanbase. One, I played an unlovable position of offensive line. Like nobody should really know who we are. It is a little bit different in Cleveland.”
Thomas skipped the trip to New York for the Draft and went fishing with his dad instead. Fans loved the move, which remains legendary to them today.
Through his charitable work and premier play on the field, Thomas seamlessly wove himself into the fabric of the community, and he remains a fan favorite.
“I think that was one of the things that got me so excited when I got drafted in Cleveland was because I knew about the fanbase,” Thomas said. “How knowledgeable they were about the game and how much love they had for the down and dirty guys in the trenches along the offensive and defensive line and the blue-collar nature of the city and the fanbase that I think would embrace an offensive lineman. It was true and then some.
“I feel like I need to be grateful at every moment of every second of every day to the fanbase for accepting me and remembering me, even though we went through some really, really hard times together. As I say a lot, maybe that is part of the reason that I connect with the fans still so much is because we did go through some tough times together, and I think sometimes tough times breeds a unique bond. I definitely feel that to the fans. When you get a chance to come home and have moments like this weekend at FirstEnergy Stadium and feel the love from the fans, I think it makes it even more special.”
Thomas was named the Browns’ Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2010, 2012 and 2016. He was a finalist for the league award in 2012.
The local chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America named the Player of the Year award in Thomas’ honor at his retirement ceremony. He won that award as a player twice in 2014 and 2016. He was named the Dino Lucarelli Good Guy award winner twice as well – in 2010 and 2013.
In retirement, Thomas has found fulfillment spending time with his family while remaining around the game he loves through a booming media career.
“When I was playing, it was priorities in my life: football and then everything else,” Thomas said. “I knew in retirement I wanted to flip that. I wanted to make sure that I was spending the time where it was most important to me, which was family, friends and then football. That did not mean that I did not want football in my life.”
Thomas works in the Browns TV booth as a color analyst in the preseason, serves as an analyst for NFL Network year-round along with hosting podcasts and other broadcast-related ventures.
“For me to find something like media, where I can still get my football fix and I can still use some of my brain that has been trained on the game of football for so long, still get that fulfillment and that satisfaction of using your brain for something, I think it really gives you a reason to wake up in the morning,” Thomas said. “It has been awesome. I feel really lucky because there are just not that many seats in the NFL media world as it is – certainly not enough to fill all the former players that want to be doing something like this. I feel really lucky about that, and the great thing about doing media for me is that it fits really well with sort of my current life where my kids and my family are my priority, but I still have enough time on the side to be able to dive into the NFL and dive into my work in football media. I feel really lucky to have found that balance shortly after my career.”
Even with his playing days far behind him, Thomas continues to find ways to contribute to the Browns on the field. It hasn’t gone unnoticed either by head coach Kevin Stefanski, who never coached Thomas but welcomes him with open arms.
“I am a huge fan of Joe the person. Unbelievable player. Future Hall of Famer. For us not to use someone like that, we would be crazy,” Stefanski said. “I have told him I will put an office in here for him when he is ready. The guys enjoy being around him. He has the cred obviously just from being a great player, but he knows the game and he knows the position, so I think he is ultra-helpful to those guys.”
During training camp, Thomas put on his coaching flip flops and spent time working with young tackles Jedrick Wills Jr. and James Hudson teaching them footwork and technique.
“I feel so fortunate to be able to come back and share some wisdom from time to time and try to mentor and help in any way that I can,” Thomas said. “I am not sure of many other people that are given such an amazing chance to still be around the team even though I am not coaching, I am not playing and I am not really doing anything, but I still get that inside access. It feels really special.
“I definitely feel lucky, and I try to make sure that it is not a one-way street that it is not just me eating their free pancakes in the morning and that I am hopefully giving something to the boys out there and that they can use and take with them that can help the team on Sundays.”
No one has worn 73 since Thomas hung up his cleats. And no one probably should again.
“Not only was he such a productive player on the field but he became a real ambassador for the Browns, for the city of Cleveland, and really, for the NFL because he’s just handled himself in such a positive way. Just first class all the way around," Savage said.
Almost Thomas’ entire family will be in attendance Sunday, including his parents and in-laws. Unfortunately, his sister, who had twins a few weeks ago, will have to watch from afar.
“It is going to be really special for everybody,” Thomas said.
Next year the belief is we’ll get to do it all again down I-71.
And that will be special too.
Just like Joe.