CANTON, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Joe Thomas is a Hall of Famer but the road to Canton was hardly smooth.
Saturday afternoon marked the culmination of an incredible career that spanned from Wisconsin, through Cleveland and on to Canton, Ohio.
Thomas’ induction speech was vintage Thomas – filled with humor and gratitude. He chose his wife, Annie, and four children to present him instead of one of his many teammates or friends.
Following the ceremony a few of Thomas’ old teammates and the general manager that drafted him in 2007 reflected in exclusive interviews with 92.3 The Fan on what made the Wisconsin native special.
“Just his dedication to the team, the city, his teammates, everybody that lined up next to him, coached with him, sat in a meeting room with him,” John Greco, who was the Browns’ right tackle between 2011-2016, said. “We obviously knew he was a special individual, talent and player, but the teammate that he was, and when I got to Cleveland, I found that out right away.
“His dedication, everything that I saw him do, no matter the ups and downs, no matter what we were going through as a team, he individually was able to kind of be the anchor to help us be, in my opinion, some of the better offensive lines that I was ever a part of and a heck of a lot of fun. So I'm proud of him. I'm happy for him.”
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When former Browns general manager Phil Savage drafted Thomas third overall, even he couldn’t have imagined the steady, dominant force Thomas would become anchoring the left side of the offensive line in Cleveland.
“Well, honestly, I think at the time we were just hoping for a real solid starter, and I think he certainly surpassed any expectation we could have had,” Savage said. “But we knew early on in training camp, and then those first few games in 2007, he and Eric Steinbach together, Jamal Lewis running behind him. You knew that he was going to be a special player and he proved it play after play, year after year.”
Savage was torn between Thomas and Brady Quinn at three. When the day ended, the Browns had both players, but it would be Thomas that stood the test of time and achieved greatness not seen in the post 1999 expansion era for the franchise.
“I remember draft day vividly in 2007 and while Joe and his father were on the boat, my dad was actually in the draft room for the one and only time he ever attended the draft,” Savage said. “I was talking to him this morning and just talking about how this journey and watching Joe develop and become the rare player to do what he did. I mean, 10,363 snaps over 11 seasons and not be in a winning situation is incredible.”
Thomas played in 167 games. The Browns won just 48 of them and 10 of those victories came his rookie season.
Six head coaches, nine offensive coordinators, 20 different starting quarterbacks, two owners and every reason to mail it in, take time off to rest injuries or jump off the ship to Denver when Peyton Manning tried recruiting him, Thomas showed up every Sunday and dominated.
He weathered the storms to play 10,363 consecutive snaps before a torn triceps ended his career, and he retired a Brown.
“It means everything, man. I mean, for someone like Joe who is so selfless, no ego, no entitlement, has spent his entire career being the person we could count on and someone who prides himself in sharing the spotlight with everyone around him,” Andrew Hawkins, a former Browns receiver from 2014-2016, said. “It's awesome to see him honored because it's so deserving. He was one of those guys, the only player for most of us that in the middle of our careers, we knew this is where he would end up because he was that much better than everyone. He never let outside circumstances dictate his standard. And that's the thing that made him special. Even amongst the best athletes and the best football players in the world, he's one of the best of all time, and now it's cemented forever here in Canton.”
Hawkins and Thomas struck up a kinship in their three seasons as teammates and the duo teamed up to launch the popular ‘Thomahawk’ podcast. Hawkins knew Thomas was special before he returned to Cleveland and signed with the Browns as a free agent.
“When I played with the Bengals and when we played Cleveland, typically you think of quarterbacks, you talk about receivers, you talk about maybe a playmaking safety,” Hawkins said. “When we played the Browns, we would talk about Joe Thomas and how the team, their success was predicated on what he was able to do. And nine times out of 10, 99 times out of a hundred, he was going to have success. And we just had to be okay with that and figure out ways to beat them elsewhere.
“That's special for an offensive lineman. Right. And again, just a very special player. And then when I got on the Browns, you realize how special of a person and a teammate he was.”
Jason Wright, now president of the Washington Commanders, lined up in the backfield from 2005-2008 in Cleveland.
Although Wright only spent two years with Thomas, it didn’t take long for him to realize Thomas was destined for greatness.
“I think Joe, from the moment he set foot in the building, he had a humility that didn't match up with his talent,” Wright said. “Most guys in the NFL who are immensely talented, 1% talented like him, they got to measure of hubris and feeling themselves, and Joe came in willing to do everything every other rookie did, willing to go out of his way to learn the extra stuff he didn't need to learn. At that stage, when you're trying to simplify the game plan for folks, and he took the ribbing from folks, he did the rookie duties and it spoke a lot to who he was, and it's no surprise to me that he had a career that was marked by high level of excellence and consistency. He did that from jump.”
It wasn’t just Thomas’ physical skills that caught Wright’s eye either.
“He was brilliant,” Wright said. “Joe was in there alongside the coaches. As smart as any offensive mind there is to come with creative pass protection scheme. He's just the full person and so that's why you see so many of us here because his talent matched up with his character, matched up with his intellect, and there's just not a lot of people like that.”