BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Maybe he had thought about the potential of it happening someday. Maybe he had even thought about how he might feel. But there was no knowing for sure until a couple of weeks ago when he received the letter from the College Football Hall of Fame — along with a personalized football bearing his name and HOF class — that he began to understand and appreciate the magnitude of it all.
"I was kind of blown away," said 34-year-old Joe Thomas, Hall of Fame Class of 2019. "There are so many greats over so much time. Being that you only have four years in college to make your mark, you really don't know how you stack up against those other great players.
"You look at the Pro Football Hall of Fame and you have a much better idea where you stack up because you can put together a 10-to-11-year career. With college you never know. So, for me, it's incredibly humbling and a very wonderful surprise to be inducted this quickly. I'm feeling blessed and the family is super excited."
In becoming the first modern era offensive lineman from the University of Wisconsin to be inducted — and only the 11th player overall from the school, joining four head coaches, to be so honored by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame (founded in 1951) — Thomas couldn't wait to share the news. But he was instructed to not say anything until the class was announced Jan. 7.
"I told my wife," he said, "and then we told our kids."
Annie Thomas (née Nelson) is a former UW basketball player.
They have young children; the oldest is 5.
"I don't think they know what it's all about," he said with a chuckle.
In time, they will learn from their dad.
Like when he first knew that he was good.
"I knew I was good compared to high school kids when I was playing on the varsity as a freshman," said Thomas, a four-year letterwinner in football, basketball and track and field at Brookfield Central High School. "When you make all-conference and stuff like that, you know that you're a good high school player.
"But there are thousands of good high school players across the country. I never really expected to get a scholarship. And, then, the college coaches started calling. That's when I realized, 'Hey, maybe I'm good enough to get a scholarship.' I never looked too far ahead. I always tried to enjoy the moment and do as well as I could where I was.
"I feel like I was always the last to know that I was pretty decent at football."
Growing up in Brookfield (70 miles from Madison), he had his role models.
"I did from a football perspective," said Thomas, who also excelled in the shot put and discus as a prep. "I grew up in the '90s in Wisconsin, so Brett Favre and Reggie White were guys that I loved. And I loved watching Ron Dayne and the run the Badgers had with Brent Moss and Terrell Fletcher and Darrell Bevell and Joe Panos — some of those great names from Rose Bowl teams in the '90s.
"But it wasn't until I got to college that I cemented myself as an offensive lineman and then I started looking up to guys like (UW All-Americans) Chris McIntosh and Aaron Gibson."
During those formative years, Thomas admitted to having a certain reverence of others.
"When I was a freshman at Wisconsin, I was in awe of guys like (left guard) Dan Buenning and (center) Donovan Raiola — guys who had made all-conference," he said. "Chris McIntosh would come back and work us out in the summers a little bit. And I was in awe of things that he did and the career that he had. At every stage, I felt that I was in awe of the guys who had come before me and paved the way for me and all the other great linemen that came through Wisconsin."
As a true frosh, he was often cast as a "jumbo" tight end. He wore No. 82.
"Some other schools recruited me as a defensive lineman," said Thomas, who picked the Badgers over Notre Dame. "Wisconsin was very clear from the beginning that they thought being an offensive tackle was the best long-term position for me."
But what if …
What if Thomas had started from Day One on the D-line with the Badgers?
"I don't think I would have had the same success," he said, "because I'm not fast enough, in my opinion, to be a Hall of Fame defensive end at the college or pro level. But my skill sets translated to offensive tackle. I was fast for an offensive lineman. I probably would have been just average for a defensive lineman."
Temporarily moving Thomas to defense in a Capital One Bowl win over Auburn had consequences. He tore his ACL.
"There were plenty of doubts, especially early on," Thomas said of how the injury might affect the rest of his career at Wisconsin and beyond. "I had no idea what blowing out your knee meant. I didn't understand modern medicine and technology. I was kind of living in the '80s and '90s where a lot of times players would blow their knees out and it would be the end of their careers.
"It really motivated me to rehab as hard as I could and put everything into it knowing that potentially if I didn't, it might be the end of my career and I might never be the same player again."
So why is Joe Thomas a Hall of Famer? What separated him at left tackle?
"Personally, I was really lucky," he said. "I was blessed with great athleticism — being a guy that played mostly basketball growing up — I had good feet and good genes that give you strength and power even though I'm not a huge guy compared to a lot of offensive linemen. But I had a combination of God-given athleticism, power and strength. And a calmness of mind is important.
"As an offensive lineman, you have to always be in control of your mind and body. You're not measured by the number of great blocks that you have but by the number of bad blocks. You can't be out there like a wild man playing with your hair on fire. You need that control, balance and stability. My mindset in life is also like that, and that also helped me at the position."
Thomas has just one regret from his Wisconsin career.
"I wish that I could have played in a Rose Bowl," he said. "That was the dream when I was a kid watching the 1994 Rose Bowl. I remember watching on my TV at home in Brookfield with my family. From that moment on, my dream was playing in a Rose Bowl. How cool would that have been?"
That aside, the Outland Trophy was a nice consolation prize and parting gift.
"I'm very proud of being the first Outland Trophy winner in school history," Thomas stressed.
While in the NFL, the trophy was in the possession of his mom and dad, Sally and Eric.
First and foremost, he said, they raised him the right way. They were his ultimate role models.
"They tried to give me the good values of hard work, dedication and focusing on the things that you can control — living in the moment," said Thomas, who credited all of his mentors, from Brookfield Central head coach Rick Synold to UW offensive line coach Jim Hueber, for shaping him as a left tackle and "for teaching me not only the X's and O's and techniques, but the mentality that it takes to succeed at that position."
When Thomas is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton — when, not if — he will be required to designate a presenter for the enshrinement ceremony. The College Football Hall of Fame doesn't have that protocol. Nonetheless, just for grins, Thomas was asked if there was someone that he might select from Wisconsin to be his presenter, if one was required.
Before addressing the question, he laughed and said, "If I make the Hall of Fame in the pro game, whoever my presenter is going to be, I'm going to make sure it's short and sweet."
As far as the hypothetical, he pointed out, "I would say I was the closest with Paul Chryst. He recruited me out of high school and then he went to Oregon State during my freshman and sophomore season and then he came back for my junior and senior years.
"We had a great relationship when he was my offensive coordinator. And we've remained close through my NFL career. We're still really close. He probably had the biggest influence and impact on me as a college player outside of Jim Hueber being my position coach."
After Joe, Annie and the kids moved back to Madison following his retirement from the Cleveland Browns, they sorted through the memorabilia that they had been collecting over the years.
"Annie said we should get the Outland Trophy and put it somewhere," he noted. "I have it in my office. But I'm not exactly positive where it is. I'm a little bit of a pack rat. When we moved, we put a bunch of stuff on the wall. When I look at it, I'm thinking, 'This is too much. I've got too many jerseys and pictures of myself. I need to take some stuff down.'"
But there are many special keepsakes that hold sentimental value.
"More than anything, more than the Outland Trophy, it's the photos of me and my teammates after games, in the locker room, on weekends," he said. "Those are truly my most prized possessions from college. Looking back at them brings back the emotions and feelings I had going to Wisconsin and the experience I had playing football there, which were the best four years of my life."
Thomas will soon have another reminder of those halcyon days hanging from his office wall.
A Hall of Fame plaque.
