[lawrence-newsletter]
The post-draft football lull continues as we continue the “where are they now” series with a look at the college, professional and post-football career of legendary offensive tackle Joe Thomas.
Thomas was born in Brookfield, Wisconsin and committed to play for the Badgers after shining as a four-star recruit and the No. 18 offensive line prospect in his class coming out of high school.
He didn’t only play offensive line in high school, though, as he was also ranked by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as a first-team all-state defensive lineman and by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association as the 2002 Defensive Player of the Year.
Thomas then arrived in Madison in 2003 and began his career as a tight end while he added weight and transitioned to the college level.
During the remainder of his college career, 2004-2006, Thomas started for the Badgers at left tackle during a total of 38 contests and finished his time in Madison having been named as a first-team All-American twice, to the first-team All-Big Ten twice and won the Outland Trophy awarded to the nation’s best interior lineman as a senior in 2006.
His college production and NFL Combine results were enough for the Cleveland Browns to draft Thomas No. 3 overall in the 2007 NFL Draft.
Despite the fact that it’s challenging for offensive linemen to enter the public eye as they never touch the football and aren’t drafted in fantasy leagues, especially so for one on a bad team for his whole career, Thomas became widely known as one of the greatest left tackles to ever play the game.
He did this through, over the course of 10.5 years, playing in an NFL record 10,363 consecutive snaps before a tricep tear in 2017 eventually ended his season and his career. That’s playing every snap from when he entered the league, playing his first game in September of 2007 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, to when he got injured on October 22, 2017 against the Tennessee Titans. Ten full seasons and seven weeks of never missing an offensive snap.
There’s a saying that the best ability is availability. Thomas was a perfect embodiment of that statement, impressively doing it at a position where players face contact on every play and often miss time with leg injuries and concussions.
As icing on an impressive cake, Thomas’ 11-year NFL career finished with six All-Pro nominations and ten Pro Bowl appearances, the only offensive lineman ever to do so. During that 11-year career he also allowed only 30 sacks in over 6,600 pass-blocking snaps and was recently named to NFL.com’s 2010’s All-Decade Team along with fellow Badger J.J. Watt.
Though he isn’t eligible for the Hall of Fame until 2023, he will be a sure-fire first ballot nominee as he puts a wrap on one of the greatest careers at his position in the history of the league.
In the two years since his retirement Thomas has lost 50 pounds and has transitioned to work in the NFL media both for Uninterrupted.com, for whom he hosts a podcast with his former teammate Andrew Hawkins, and for NFL Network for whom he’s an NFL analyst and regular contributor to their Thursday Night Football broadcasts.
The embodiment of Wisconsin football, Thomas will soon become only the third Wisconsin representative in the Pro Football Hall of Fame joining Elroy Hirsch and Mike Webster as he continues to work as a member of the NFL media and in close relation to everything football.