The 2019 class of the UW Athletic Hall of Fame has been selected and one new member will be announced each day from June 25 - July 6.
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — When his autobiography is published, a certainty given his Hall of Fame career, Joe Thomas will have to choose an appropriate book title that encapsulates his narrative.
Has he begun to even ponder such a thing?
"I've actually never thought about that," Thomas said with a big sigh. "Aw, man, I wouldn't know where to start on that one. Any suggestions?"
Obviously, the cliché answer would be, "No Ordinary Joe."
"How cliché should you go when you do a book? That's the question," Thomas replied. "But certainly, that would be a good title. It's one they've used in plenty of newspaper clippings for sure."
It has been used before on book covers, too.
There was "No Ordinary Joe: The Autobiography of the Greatest British Boxer of All Time."
That would be Joe Calzaghe.
There also was "No Ordinary Joe: The Biography of Joe Paterno."
That was in memory of the late Penn State football coach.
As a three-time Super Bowl MVP, Joe Montana was certainly no average or Ordinary Joe.
But his publisher went in a different direction: "Montana, the Biography of Football's Joe Cool."
Maybe Joe Thomas could spin out of "No Ordinary Joe" to "No Doubting this Thomas."
Especially considering that Thomas is on the brink of a hat trick, a Hall of Fame hat trick.
In January, he was named to the College Football Hall of Fame.
In September, he will be inducted into the University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame.
In the not so distant future, he will go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The latter has a mandatory waiting period of five years following retirement. In March of 2018, Thomas retired from the Cleveland Browns. He will thus be eligible for the HOF ballot in 2023.
All of this is pretty mind-boggling for the 34-year-old Brookfield, Wisconsin native.
"Being a kid who grew up just an hour down the road (from Madison), it's definitely beyond my wildest dreams of finally being one of those members of the Hall of Fame and having my own plaque up there among the greats," Thomas said of his inclusion among state-bred UW icons.
"I remember when I was in high school and looking at all the plaques of all the other Hall of Famers — the legendary names — and, at the time, I never dreamed of having the opportunity or the good fortune of being one of them. I definitely looked up to those people like they were idols."
Young players, in turn, have been looking up to and idolizing Thomas. Since 2009, the Joe Thomas Award has been presented to the state's top senior offensive lineman (On the current UW roster, center/guard Kayden Lyles was the 2016 recipient).
The Joe Thomas Award is not limited to Wisconsin. After an epic NFL career, accented by 10 Pro Bowls in his first 10 seasons, the Cleveland chapter of the Pro Football Writers Association renamed the team's Player of the Year award in his honor. Baker Mayfield was the first winner.
Last October, Thomas had his number — 10,363 consecutive snaps — enshrined into the Browns Ring of Honor at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland. Because of that record, his No. 73 jersey, the one that he wore when he reached the 10,000-snap plateau, is already in Canton, Ohio, and the Pro Football Hall.
In the meantime, one of the final chapters documenting his Badgers journey will be written when he enters the school's Hall of Fame, an achievement that has not been lost on Thomas.
"It's incredibly special to me," he said.
• • • •
To be the best … Thomas learned from the best.
On both sides of the ball.
Defensive end Erasmus James and offensive guard Dan Buenning accelerated his learning curve.
In 2004, James and Buenning were first-team All-Americans at Wisconsin.
"As a young player, especially when you're just coming out of high school, you don't really know a whole lot," Thomas said. "But you learn fast or you don't make it.
"It was good to watch Erasmus James and see the battles that he had with Mike Lorenz and Morgan Davis and some of the other guys on the starting crew when I got there as a freshman."
Thomas filed away notes on James, a first-round draft choice of the Minnesota Vikings in 2005. There weren't many better at pressuring the quarterback and disrupting an offense.
In this context, he'd study how his linemates "would try to take on" James during practices. Thomas got most of his playing time that first year as a tight end in a Jumbo blocking formation.
When he moved into the starting lineup at left tackle ('04), Thomas relied heavily on the experience of his left guard, Buenning, a battle-tested four-year starter.
"I learned from his approach to the game, his practice habits and techniques — especially in the run game — even though he was a guard and I was a tackle," he said. "I learned from the toughness that he played with. And I give him a lot of credit for my growth early on in my career."
As a first-time starter on the O-line, Thomas played alongside of Buenning, center Donovan Raiola, right guard Jonathan Clinkscale and right tackle Morgan Davis.
They opened holes for tailback Anthony Davis, then a senior and the fourth-leading rusher in Wisconsin history (4,676). The following season, Brian Calhoun was the featured runner and receiver with 348 carries for 1,636 yards and 22 touchdowns. He also caught 53 passes.
"Both were tremendous running backs — some of the best that the school has ever seen," Thomas said. "That was pretty awesome for me to see that up close and personal. It just felt really good when you did your job because you knew that you could count on them to make a play."
Trust is a vital word in a player's vocabulary. Quarterback John Stocco trusted Thomas to protect his backside and Thomas had the utmost trust in Stocco, a three-year starter, executing the offense.
"If we were a team that wasn't as good running the ball, he probably would have been first-team All-Big Ten because he could throw the football," Thomas said. "He was very accurate and super smart. He understood how good we were at running and how much that was our identity.
"For him to take a little bit of a backseat in the offense that says a lot about his character and his desire to be the ultimate team player who's willing to sacrifice his own personal glory for team success."
Thomas could pen a whole chapter in his autobiography on the value of intangibles.
He has always been an open book on this topic.
Speaking of which, how about this for a book title, "Gone Fishin' (for Fame)."
Thomas, an avid outdoorsman, acknowledged, "There's that famous story on me fishing on draft day that people still come up to me and talk about."
On April 28, 2007, the National Football League held its draft at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Over the years, it has become a showcase event for the NFL. To almost everyone.
Miles away from the Big Apple and midtown Manhattan, Thomas and his dad, Eric, were sitting in a charter boat ("The Foxy Lady") and fishing on Lake Michigan off Port Washington.
"We went out at 5 in the morning and fished for maybe four or five hours — or right until I got drafted," said Thomas, who was taken by the Cleveland Browns with the No. 3 overall pick behind quarterback JaMarcus Russell (Oakland) and wide receiver Calvin Johnson (Detroit).
"Unfortunately, we had to cut the fishing trip short because there were a lot of interviews to do and we had to fly to Cleveland. We didn't slam 'em. It was a little early in the season. Caught two or three. One was a really nice brown trout which is funny since I got picked by the Browns."
Should make for an interesting chapter in the book. Maybe even the first chapter, to which Thomas conceded of his storyline, "It would probably start outside of football. We'd talk about growing up and how I loved fishing and how my dad took me fishing and how I was so passionate about that.
"That kind of leads into the competitive nature of sports."
Gallery: (6/25/2019) Hall of Fame 2019: Joe Thomas
First things first. Who might write the forward to his autobiography?
Thomas sounded stumped.
"They asked me to write a little blurb for the Hall of Fame," he said. "And I sat down and started writing it and I was having a hard time keeping it under 100 words because there are so many people who have had an enormous impact on my career."
In Cleveland alone, he pointed out, "I had six head coaches and nine offensive coordinators and all sorts of offensive line coaches. There were just so many people that touched my career in a short amount of time that I feel blessed … the diversity of coaching really makes you a better player overall."
That doesn't answer the question on who Thomas will ultimately tab for the forward.
From his Wisconsin playing days, Barry Alvarez would be an obvious candidate. Thomas was on the last Badgers team that Alvarez coached before turning over the program to Bret Bielema, who guided the team to a 12-1 record during Thomas' senior season. The only loss was to Michigan.
That was the same year that Thomas won the Outland Trophy, UW's first winner.
Sorting through all the options to write the forward, Thomas said, "The first person that comes to mind would be Paul Chryst being that he was the coach who recruited me out of high school and we developed a really close relationship. He's someone who's had a big influence on my career."
That speaks to his football career.
During the 2019 season, Thomas will begin a new chapter in his broadcasting career as a pregame, halftime and postgame analyst on NFL Network's telecast of Thursday Night Football.
"I'll be working with Michael Irvin, Steve Smith and occasionally Kurt Warner and it should be a lot of fun since it will be the only game that night in pro football," Thomas said. "I never really expected to be in the broadcasting world. I kind of stumbled upon and found I really have a passion for it.
"Right now, I feel really fortunate in that I have way more job opportunities in the media than I have time for. I'm finding myself turning down many good opportunities and I have to kind of pinch myself because a year ago I never expected to get even small regional job opportunities.
"Now, I'm getting these national opportunities that are beyond my wildest dreams."
Why not? You would expect no less out of "Extraordinary Joe."
Hmmm, that may have some possibilities.
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UW Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2019
