CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Joe Thomas is headed to Canton.
Selected by the Browns third overall in the 2007 NFL Draft out of Wisconsin, Thomas put together an historic career that saw him quickly become one of the most dominant and durable offensive lineman of his era and Thursday night he became a first ballot Hall of Famer.
As if there was any doubt, Pro Bowl Joe is now Hall of Fame Joe.
Thomas will become the 18th Cleveland Brown to be inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the first player in the post 1999 expansion era of the franchise.
Thomas joins Jim Brown and Paul Warfield as the only Hall of Famers in Browns history to be elected on the first ballot.
Thomas is Hall of Famer No. 369, which will be stitched into his gold jacket and featured on his Hall of Fame ring.
The Wisconsin native was the first offensive lineman in NFL history to be selected to the Pro Bowl in each of his first ten seasons, joining just five other players in NFL history – all Hall of Famers – to achieve the feat.
Thomas was also the Browns’ and the NFL’s Iron Man.
He played 167 consecutive games without missing a snap – 10,363 of them. Rain or shine, win or lose, healthy or hurt, No. 73 anchored the left side of the Browns offensive line until a torn biceps tendon ended his career in the middle of his 11th season.
“The one theme that has been, probably, the thing I hold most closely to my heart when people ask about ‘What are you most proud of during your career,’ it’s that snap streak because of what it represents to me,” Thomas said. “‘Count on me.’ That was always the motto I had in my head. It was ‘Count on me.’ When times get tough, and you want to know who to look at, count on me. You know you can slide to my side. ‘Count on me’ was something that was ingrained in my brain, ingrained in my character from when I was a little boy. It’s always just been part of my identity, and I think that’s why that snap streak is the most special thing I think about when I think about my career.”
The Browns placed Thomas’ snap streak in the Ring of Honor at FirstEnergy Stadium in 2018, and now Thomas’ name will undoubtably will be headed there too. The team already inducted Thomas into its Legends Club this past season.
Throughout Thomas’ 11-year career, he was reliable, exceptional, and resilient.
According to Pro Football Focus, Thomas pass-blocked 6,680 times in his career and he allowed just 30 sacks.
Thomas was named an All-Pro by the Associated Press eight times – six of those first team.
The Cleveland chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America renamed the ‘Player of the Year’ award in Thomas’ honor upon his retirement in 2018. Thomas twice earned that award as well as the ‘Dino Lucarelli Good Guy’ award.
Off the field, Thomas contributed philanthropically with his time and financial support to multiple organizations and causes – locally in Cleveland as well as back home in Wisconsin – earning him the Browns’ nomination for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award three times and he was a finalist for the league award in 2012.
“We are so proud Joe Thomas will be recognized, appropriately, as a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” Dee and Jimmy Haslam said in a statement released by the team. “Joe epitomized the standard of excellence in everything he did for the Cleveland Browns organization and for our community. He was the essence of all you want in a player, as a teammate and representing the Browns organization. His extraordinary accomplishments and endurance playing 10-plus years without missing a single snap is unparalleled. How he went about his work each day was equally inspiring, the model of consistency, resiliency, and class.
“Beyond being one of the best in NFL history, he was just as exceptional off the field. Joe and his wife, Annie have made an impact on so many people in Cleveland and have done so in a humble, unassuming way. He is just a tremendous human being. We are so happy that Joe will take his rightful place among our game’s greatest in Canton.”
Amid his greatness, Thomas endured a lot over 11 seasons.
The incompetence, failure and dysfunction that surrounded the Browns annually was staggering, yet Thomas never wavered in his belief – and hope – that someday, somehow the powers that be would finally get it right and build a contender in Cleveland.
It never happened.
Thomas played for six head coaches and six offensive coordinators under two owners and six general managers. He blocked for an NFL-record 20 different starting quarterbacks as a member of a single team and a total of 28 players attempted a pass with Thomas protecting their blind side.
Unsurprisingly, the Browns failed spectacularly on the field.
The franchise went 48-119 in Thomas’ 167 career games with 10 of those wins coming during his rookie season in 2007. The Browns finished last in their division nine times.
Thomas had opportunities to leave and go play for a winner, but he stayed.
In 2015, with yet another lost season circling the drain in Cleveland, Peyton Manning begged Thomas to approve a trade to Denver to help him and the Broncos win a Super Bowl. The Browns reportedly would’ve gotten first and second round picks for the 2016 Draft in return.
Thomas said no.
After that, the Browns went on to win just two more games, losing 29 more before Thomas succumbed to injury in October 2017.
Thomas, who played through a multitude of sprains, tears and knee injuries without missing a beat on the field, gave the Browns and their fans everything he had. Despite Thomas having every reason and opportunity to take time off to rest and allow his mind and body to heal during or at the end of a season, he never did.
Amid the losing, constant change as well as the Browns spending the bulk of his career as the laughingstock of the league, Thomas was proud to be a Cleveland Brown.
The tragedy is that it has taken 17 years for Thomas to be able to hold his head high and celebrate representing Cleveland and the Browns.
He dreamed he would be able to do it on Super Sunday but never got the opportunity to play beyond 16 games in a season.
Canton, Ohio will have to do, and what a celebration it will be of a great man and player on Saturday, August 5, at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.