How Joe Thomas helped carry the Browns and played his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
For 11 seasons, Joe Thomas helped carry a Browns franchise that lost far more than it won. Now, those who saw him work firsthand explain the brilliance and tenacity that led him to the Hall of Fame.
Joe Thomas' pro football career began on a fishing boat.
While many of the other future members of the 2007 NFL Draft class donned flashy suits and filled the green room at Radio City Music Hall in New York, Thomas chose to ditch the event and head for the waters of Lake Michigan. The consensus All-American out of the University of Wisconsin didn't seek the glitz of the draft. All he needed was the phone call informing him of his NFL destination.
It didn't take long: The Cleveland Browns selected Thomas with the third overall pick. He answered the call on the boat, celebrating with those onboard before returning to shore to begin the next chapter of his journey.
The moment perfectly captured Thomas as a person while simultaneously predicting his future. The left tackle put together an illustrious career filled with first-team All-Pro selections (six) and Pro Bowl nods (10), making headlines with his reliability and occupying a spot among the NFL's top talents until a triceps injury cut his final season short. The only detail missing: the kind of significant team success that typically paves a player's path to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
As it turned out, Thomas didn't need that team success -- or New York City, a draft-day suit or a stroll across the Radio City Music Hall stage -- to reach Canton. The Browns didn't win much of anything during Thomas' time with the team, but he's being enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame this Saturday as one of the best of his generation.
How did this Wisconsin kid cement his place in
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