superman7515
December 7th, 2016, 10:30 AM
Not one to feel bad for a guy who's making $100 million+ over his career, but this article does make me hope the guy can find some success...
The 106th loss of Joe Thomas' NFL career was, predictably, melancholic. It came on an unseasonably warm November day in Cleveland, in a stadium overrun by acres of silver-and-blue Dallas Cowboys gear. A woman in Browns apparel fell asleep in her seat. There was a fight on the field at the beginning and a spirited first-quarter Cleveland drive, but inevitably, cold reality settled in like winters on Lake Erie.
Did anyone notice what Thomas did? Down there in that mess, he played his 9,500th straight snap. He's never sat out one single play, according to the Browns. It's a stunning stat, especially when you consider that Thomas, arguably the NFL's best left tackle, has spent his entire career in Cleveland, a place in which there is generally nothing to play for by December. The things Thomas has seen in 10 seasons would make your chinstrap curl: Johnny Manziel's off-the-wagon spiral, the Rob Chudzinski experiment (all 12 months of it), the winter wearing-of-the-paper-bags ritual. Through it all, the one true thing that has endured is Thomas, whose streak (now at 9,684) has survived six head coaches and 18 starting quarterbacks.
Soon, Thomas could be playing through the saddest footnote of all: 0-16.
The Browns have 12 losses and zero victories, and could become just the fifth team since the end of World War II and the second since the 2008 Detroit Lions to go winless during an NFL season. Big, tough men have cried, including first-year Browns coach Hue Jackson, but Thomas exhibits the no-nonsense demeanor of a factory worker.
Take, for example, that 35-10 loss to the Cowboys on Nov. 6. Thomas trudged off the field, past the painted letters in the hallway that say, "Expect to Win" and broke the tension of the locker room by contemplating how his 312-pound body would look in the uniform for the next game.
"It's going to be rough next week," Thomas told a teammate. "All-whites.
"I'm going to be on low-carb diet."
Laughter is his coping mechanism, a way to get through this. Joe Thomas won't lose it, because the whole team is watching. But when he gets home, his wife, Annie, says she can "see the pain and sadness after every game."
It doesn't seem fair. Thomas has been named to nine Pro Bowls, and likely will get to the Hall of Fame some day, but he can't get a whiff of the playoffs.
The closest he came was last season. The trade deadline approached in early November, and Denver was interested. But the deal fell through -- his agent, Peter Schaffer, says the negotiations "ran out of time" -- and the Broncos won a Super Bowl and Thomas wound up at home, saddled with the anxiety of another coaching change, a new front office and a whole batch of new teammates.
"He's given a lot of himself, physically, emotionally and spiritually to that team and organization," former teammate Scott Fujita said. "I'd be lying if I didn't say that when I hear trade rumors about Joe, sometimes I hope they're true."
But Thomas isn't going anywhere. He believes, even in these difficult days, that Cleveland is exactly where he needs to be.
THERE IS SOMETHING romantic, or maybe maniacal, about a man who comes to work every day, pours his heart and soul into preparing for a game and does so well that he grades off the charts, but loses that game nearly every week and still comes back every Monday for more.
In Greek mythology, a guy named Sisyphus was punished by being forced to roll a gigantic boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back repeatedly, for eternity. That's Joe Thomas, seemingly. But Thomas didn't do anything wrong to warrant his boulder.
He is so genuine, so real, that when he sits at his locker and explains why he's glad that he wasn't traded, why he wants to be in Cleveland, you wind up believing him, even though he's about to get crushed again...
The 106th loss of Joe Thomas' NFL career was, predictably, melancholic. It came on an unseasonably warm November day in Cleveland, in a stadium overrun by acres of silver-and-blue Dallas Cowboys gear. A woman in Browns apparel fell asleep in her seat. There was a fight on the field at the beginning and a spirited first-quarter Cleveland drive, but inevitably, cold reality settled in like winters on Lake Erie.
Did anyone notice what Thomas did? Down there in that mess, he played his 9,500th straight snap. He's never sat out one single play, according to the Browns. It's a stunning stat, especially when you consider that Thomas, arguably the NFL's best left tackle, has spent his entire career in Cleveland, a place in which there is generally nothing to play for by December. The things Thomas has seen in 10 seasons would make your chinstrap curl: Johnny Manziel's off-the-wagon spiral, the Rob Chudzinski experiment (all 12 months of it), the winter wearing-of-the-paper-bags ritual. Through it all, the one true thing that has endured is Thomas, whose streak (now at 9,684) has survived six head coaches and 18 starting quarterbacks.
Soon, Thomas could be playing through the saddest footnote of all: 0-16.
The Browns have 12 losses and zero victories, and could become just the fifth team since the end of World War II and the second since the 2008 Detroit Lions to go winless during an NFL season. Big, tough men have cried, including first-year Browns coach Hue Jackson, but Thomas exhibits the no-nonsense demeanor of a factory worker.
Take, for example, that 35-10 loss to the Cowboys on Nov. 6. Thomas trudged off the field, past the painted letters in the hallway that say, "Expect to Win" and broke the tension of the locker room by contemplating how his 312-pound body would look in the uniform for the next game.
"It's going to be rough next week," Thomas told a teammate. "All-whites.
"I'm going to be on low-carb diet."
Laughter is his coping mechanism, a way to get through this. Joe Thomas won't lose it, because the whole team is watching. But when he gets home, his wife, Annie, says she can "see the pain and sadness after every game."
It doesn't seem fair. Thomas has been named to nine Pro Bowls, and likely will get to the Hall of Fame some day, but he can't get a whiff of the playoffs.
The closest he came was last season. The trade deadline approached in early November, and Denver was interested. But the deal fell through -- his agent, Peter Schaffer, says the negotiations "ran out of time" -- and the Broncos won a Super Bowl and Thomas wound up at home, saddled with the anxiety of another coaching change, a new front office and a whole batch of new teammates.
"He's given a lot of himself, physically, emotionally and spiritually to that team and organization," former teammate Scott Fujita said. "I'd be lying if I didn't say that when I hear trade rumors about Joe, sometimes I hope they're true."
But Thomas isn't going anywhere. He believes, even in these difficult days, that Cleveland is exactly where he needs to be.
THERE IS SOMETHING romantic, or maybe maniacal, about a man who comes to work every day, pours his heart and soul into preparing for a game and does so well that he grades off the charts, but loses that game nearly every week and still comes back every Monday for more.
In Greek mythology, a guy named Sisyphus was punished by being forced to roll a gigantic boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back repeatedly, for eternity. That's Joe Thomas, seemingly. But Thomas didn't do anything wrong to warrant his boulder.
He is so genuine, so real, that when he sits at his locker and explains why he's glad that he wasn't traded, why he wants to be in Cleveland, you wind up believing him, even though he's about to get crushed again...