Photo by: Icon Sportswire
Lucas: Thomas gets call to the Hall
February 09, 2023 | Football, Mike Lucas
Elite left tackle just the third former Badger to be enshrined in Canton
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. – With his curiosity suitably piqued, Joe Thomas decided to dig a little deeper on the topic. Much to his surprise, he learned that only two former University of Wisconsin players had been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, the ultimate destination.
"I looked that up and it was almost hard for me to believe. I know we have a bunch of guys in the College Football Hall of Fame," said Thomas, one of 16 Badgers (players and/or coaches) recognized as collegiate Hall of Famers, including the most recent addition, Troy Vincent, Class of 2023.
"I was wondering, 'Who else from Wisconsin (is in Canton)?' I couldn't think of one person outside of Mike Webster. So, I looked it up and I saw that Crazylegs was. And that makes sense. But, at the same time, I'm like, 'That was a long time ago.'
"I was just talking with a friend, and he didn't even know Crazylegs was a real person."
Elroy (Crazylegs) Hirsch was the real deal – a 1968 NFL Hall of Fame inductee.
"He's such a legend with the race (Crazylegs Classic) and the university (as the former Badger athletic director) and his nickname," Thomas said. "And it's just so much more with him than just being a football player. And, oh yeah, he did have a really good professional career as well."
As did the aforementioned Mike Webster – a 1997 NFL Hall of Fame inductee.
"I know a lot about his career," Thomas said of Webster, a four-time Super Bowl champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers. "One of my coaches along the way had coached him, so I'd hear stories about the mindset and the toughness, that type of stuff, more than any specific X's and O's."
Thomas trained with the late Tunch Ilkin, one of Webster's O-line teammates in Pittsburgh. He also got to know Steelers radio analyst Craig Wolfley, another Webster linemate. "I remember them telling me stories," he said, "about how he was the toughest and most driven guy they've ever met."
Two other NFL Hall of Famers had a Badger connection. Arnie Herber was on the freshman team (1928) before leaving school. He played quarterback for his hometown Packers in the '30s. Milwaukee native Gil Brandt attended the UW, and had a long career as a personnel administrator in Dallas.
Given this backdrop, the more Thomas thought about it, the more he drew the same conclusion. "There's actually only two Wisconsin football players – Badgers – who are in the Hall of Fame," he said. "Which kind of blew my mind when you think back to all the greats who have played here."
On March 14, 2018, Thomas announced his retirement from the Cleveland Browns – "My mind is good, but my body is unwilling" – and went immediately on the five-year NFL clock to be eligible for the Hall of Fame. The wait ended Thursday when Thomas, 38, got his ticket punched to Canton.
Last weekend, he was "optimistic" and "excited" about being a first ballot selection.
"It's different than playing a game and having excitement or nerves around an event that is going to happen that you have influence and control over," said Thomas, the 2006 Outland Trophy winner at Wisconsin and the No. 3 overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft.
"Everything that is about to happen potentially in the next week is dependent on something I did more than five years ago. It's kind of like taking a test and waiting five years to get the results. I love the old farmer's saying that the hay is in the barn, and you can't do any more work on it right now."
That Thomas passed this test with flying colors on his first year eligible for enshrinement was a defining achievement. "That's the gold standard of the gold standard," he said.
In essence, the first ballot nomination is that tier within the Hall of Fame. "Obviously, it means a little bit more if you can do it on your first time eligible," Thomas acknowledged "But, in the end, when you get the gold jacket, you get it. That's the thing that is special to you and your family.
"Even Logan, my oldest, who's 9, about to be 10, she really doesn't remember watching me play," added Thomas, the co-host of a Varsity Collective podcast ("The Badgers Bigs") with his wife Annie, a former UW basketball player. Logan is the oldest of their four children, three girls and a boy.
"Logan's only memories of me when I was playing was eating peanuts and sitting on the floor of FirstEnergy Stadium (the home of the Cleveland Browns). Being on the doorstep of the Hall of Fame, this moment may be the first big memory they'll all carry with them in life of me being a football player."
        &&&
Barry Alvarez, Alan Ameche, Marty Below, Robert Butler, Ron Dayne, Pat Harder, Hirsch, Phil King, Tim Krumrie, George Little, Pat O'Dea, Pat Richter, Dave Schreiner, Harry Stuhldreher, Thomas and Vincent comprise the list of players and coaches from the Badger Family in the College Football Hall of Fame.
"That was really special to me and that was a surprise," said Thomas, a 2019 inductee. "I felt like I had a good college career but your ability to stand out from the crowd is much more difficult because you do only have those four years."
Offensive linemen, of course, have always tended to command attention at Wisconsin.
"There have been a lot of good ones," conceded Thomas, who was prodded into sharing his list of the best of the best in the Badger trenches. "Gabe Carimi – obviously another Outland winner. Chris McIntosh. Aaron Gibson. Al Johnson was a great center. The problem for me is recency bias.
"These are guys that I was watching while I was there or right before I got there," he said, mentioning Kevin Zeitler and Travis Frederick, among those who were here after him. "It's just so hard for me to put a list together because certainly you're going to leave people out that are deserving.
"Joe Panos is a guy who coached me in high school (Brookfield Central). He's a guy who always comes to mind. I'm not sure his career at Wisconsin stands up to the upper echelon from an Outland standpoint. But I'm certain – based on what he meant to the program – he's among the all-time greats."
In late December, J.J. Watt announced his retirement from the NFL. He's now on the HOF clock. "That will be first ballot," Thomas predicted. "You hear the guys who are in that selection room say, 'All you have to do is stand up, say the name and sit down. And he gets in.' That's J.J. Watt for sure."
Asked about T.J. Watt's status as a potential Hall of Famer, Thomas noted of the 49 people on the Selection Committee, "They really value longevity. So for him it's going to be a matter of staying healthy. But if he does and plays more than a decade at this pace that he's at, he can do it.
"I do get concerned on his behalf though because he has had some injuries. Knowing in my career, as those injuries pile up, they compound themselves."
Thomas dealt with two knee scopes, elbow surgery and numerous ligament and muscle tears with the Browns. "And it makes it tougher – not necessarily to play and be good," he said, "but to be the best of the best consistently as that wear and tear piles up. I know I felt that towards the end."
10,363.
That extraordinary number of consecutive snaps in the NFL will forever define Thomas. It's one of the things that has always driven him. "As a lineman, what can I do to help those guys around me?" he posed. "That gives me a lot of pride knowing that I was there answering the bell for my teammates."
At about the time in his career that he was going 10 for 10 – 10 Pro Bowls in his first 10 years in the league, a record for offensive linemen – it began to dawn on Thomas that he was on the road to Canton barring any unforeseen potholes. That was especially true after reaching 10,000 snaps.
"That's a big, even number and you start thinking, 'OK, I stack up against dudes that are already in the Hall of Fame,'" he said. "You know that's going to be the argument when those writers are in the room, 'All right, he's a lineman – he doesn't have passing stats; he doesn't have, rushing, receiving stats.
"What does he have that we can promote his resume against guys who are already in there?"
10 for 10. (Merlin Olsen, Mel Renfro, Barry Sanders and Lawrence Taylor also pulled it off.)
10,363. (In his 167th straight start, he left the game with a triceps injury, snapping the streak.)
"Those are things that get brought up. So that's when you start thinking about it in your career."
It being the thought of having your bust on display in Canton.
The NFL was founded in 1920 and only 12 offensive linemen had been inducted on the first ballot. Make that 13 with Thomas, one of just seven left tackles to be so honored. He joins Jackie Slater, Jim Parker, Forrest Gregg, Walter Jones, Anthony Munoz and Jonathan Ogden on that elite short list.
When Thomas was at Wisconsin, he studied Jones, who started 180 consecutive games and was voted to nine Pro Bowls with the Seattle Seahawks (1997-2009).Thomas' link to Jones was Bill Nayes, a UW director of football operations who had worked with the Seahawks and Mike Holmgren.
"I don't remember who brought it up but it was like, 'Hey, you should watch this Walter Jones guy,'" Thomas recalled. "Back in those days, there was no digital film. You had to get DVDs and it was not something that teams shared. So, if you wanted to get it from them, you had to know somebody.
"I asked him (Nayes) to get DVDs of their practice and because of his relationship with coach Holmgren and his time in Seattle, he got me a bunch of DVDs, one-on-one pass rush, along with game tape, and stuff like that I could watch.
"I had a little portable DVD player and I'd watch it on the plane on the way to games.
"He was always a guy I'd watch and take stuff from his technique and the way he played."
A new generation of O-linemen – at all levels of competition from high school to college to the NFL – now have the opportunity to do that with Joe Thomas video. Particularly in light of his latest wardrobe addition, a gold jacket. Size 50 chest. He has earned the right to puff his out today.
Â
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. – With his curiosity suitably piqued, Joe Thomas decided to dig a little deeper on the topic. Much to his surprise, he learned that only two former University of Wisconsin players had been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, the ultimate destination.
"I looked that up and it was almost hard for me to believe. I know we have a bunch of guys in the College Football Hall of Fame," said Thomas, one of 16 Badgers (players and/or coaches) recognized as collegiate Hall of Famers, including the most recent addition, Troy Vincent, Class of 2023.
"I was wondering, 'Who else from Wisconsin (is in Canton)?' I couldn't think of one person outside of Mike Webster. So, I looked it up and I saw that Crazylegs was. And that makes sense. But, at the same time, I'm like, 'That was a long time ago.'
"I was just talking with a friend, and he didn't even know Crazylegs was a real person."
Elroy (Crazylegs) Hirsch was the real deal – a 1968 NFL Hall of Fame inductee.
"He's such a legend with the race (Crazylegs Classic) and the university (as the former Badger athletic director) and his nickname," Thomas said. "And it's just so much more with him than just being a football player. And, oh yeah, he did have a really good professional career as well."
As did the aforementioned Mike Webster – a 1997 NFL Hall of Fame inductee.
"I know a lot about his career," Thomas said of Webster, a four-time Super Bowl champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers. "One of my coaches along the way had coached him, so I'd hear stories about the mindset and the toughness, that type of stuff, more than any specific X's and O's."
Thomas trained with the late Tunch Ilkin, one of Webster's O-line teammates in Pittsburgh. He also got to know Steelers radio analyst Craig Wolfley, another Webster linemate. "I remember them telling me stories," he said, "about how he was the toughest and most driven guy they've ever met."
Two other NFL Hall of Famers had a Badger connection. Arnie Herber was on the freshman team (1928) before leaving school. He played quarterback for his hometown Packers in the '30s. Milwaukee native Gil Brandt attended the UW, and had a long career as a personnel administrator in Dallas.
Given this backdrop, the more Thomas thought about it, the more he drew the same conclusion. "There's actually only two Wisconsin football players – Badgers – who are in the Hall of Fame," he said. "Which kind of blew my mind when you think back to all the greats who have played here."
On March 14, 2018, Thomas announced his retirement from the Cleveland Browns – "My mind is good, but my body is unwilling" – and went immediately on the five-year NFL clock to be eligible for the Hall of Fame. The wait ended Thursday when Thomas, 38, got his ticket punched to Canton.
Last weekend, he was "optimistic" and "excited" about being a first ballot selection.
"It's different than playing a game and having excitement or nerves around an event that is going to happen that you have influence and control over," said Thomas, the 2006 Outland Trophy winner at Wisconsin and the No. 3 overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft.
"Everything that is about to happen potentially in the next week is dependent on something I did more than five years ago. It's kind of like taking a test and waiting five years to get the results. I love the old farmer's saying that the hay is in the barn, and you can't do any more work on it right now."
That Thomas passed this test with flying colors on his first year eligible for enshrinement was a defining achievement. "That's the gold standard of the gold standard," he said.
In essence, the first ballot nomination is that tier within the Hall of Fame. "Obviously, it means a little bit more if you can do it on your first time eligible," Thomas acknowledged "But, in the end, when you get the gold jacket, you get it. That's the thing that is special to you and your family.
"Even Logan, my oldest, who's 9, about to be 10, she really doesn't remember watching me play," added Thomas, the co-host of a Varsity Collective podcast ("The Badgers Bigs") with his wife Annie, a former UW basketball player. Logan is the oldest of their four children, three girls and a boy.
"Logan's only memories of me when I was playing was eating peanuts and sitting on the floor of FirstEnergy Stadium (the home of the Cleveland Browns). Being on the doorstep of the Hall of Fame, this moment may be the first big memory they'll all carry with them in life of me being a football player."
        &&&
Barry Alvarez, Alan Ameche, Marty Below, Robert Butler, Ron Dayne, Pat Harder, Hirsch, Phil King, Tim Krumrie, George Little, Pat O'Dea, Pat Richter, Dave Schreiner, Harry Stuhldreher, Thomas and Vincent comprise the list of players and coaches from the Badger Family in the College Football Hall of Fame.
"That was really special to me and that was a surprise," said Thomas, a 2019 inductee. "I felt like I had a good college career but your ability to stand out from the crowd is much more difficult because you do only have those four years."
Offensive linemen, of course, have always tended to command attention at Wisconsin.
"There have been a lot of good ones," conceded Thomas, who was prodded into sharing his list of the best of the best in the Badger trenches. "Gabe Carimi – obviously another Outland winner. Chris McIntosh. Aaron Gibson. Al Johnson was a great center. The problem for me is recency bias.
"These are guys that I was watching while I was there or right before I got there," he said, mentioning Kevin Zeitler and Travis Frederick, among those who were here after him. "It's just so hard for me to put a list together because certainly you're going to leave people out that are deserving.
"Joe Panos is a guy who coached me in high school (Brookfield Central). He's a guy who always comes to mind. I'm not sure his career at Wisconsin stands up to the upper echelon from an Outland standpoint. But I'm certain – based on what he meant to the program – he's among the all-time greats."
In late December, J.J. Watt announced his retirement from the NFL. He's now on the HOF clock. "That will be first ballot," Thomas predicted. "You hear the guys who are in that selection room say, 'All you have to do is stand up, say the name and sit down. And he gets in.' That's J.J. Watt for sure."
Asked about T.J. Watt's status as a potential Hall of Famer, Thomas noted of the 49 people on the Selection Committee, "They really value longevity. So for him it's going to be a matter of staying healthy. But if he does and plays more than a decade at this pace that he's at, he can do it.
"I do get concerned on his behalf though because he has had some injuries. Knowing in my career, as those injuries pile up, they compound themselves."
Thomas dealt with two knee scopes, elbow surgery and numerous ligament and muscle tears with the Browns. "And it makes it tougher – not necessarily to play and be good," he said, "but to be the best of the best consistently as that wear and tear piles up. I know I felt that towards the end."
10,363.
That extraordinary number of consecutive snaps in the NFL will forever define Thomas. It's one of the things that has always driven him. "As a lineman, what can I do to help those guys around me?" he posed. "That gives me a lot of pride knowing that I was there answering the bell for my teammates."
At about the time in his career that he was going 10 for 10 – 10 Pro Bowls in his first 10 years in the league, a record for offensive linemen – it began to dawn on Thomas that he was on the road to Canton barring any unforeseen potholes. That was especially true after reaching 10,000 snaps.
"That's a big, even number and you start thinking, 'OK, I stack up against dudes that are already in the Hall of Fame,'" he said. "You know that's going to be the argument when those writers are in the room, 'All right, he's a lineman – he doesn't have passing stats; he doesn't have, rushing, receiving stats.
"What does he have that we can promote his resume against guys who are already in there?"
10 for 10. (Merlin Olsen, Mel Renfro, Barry Sanders and Lawrence Taylor also pulled it off.)
10,363. (In his 167th straight start, he left the game with a triceps injury, snapping the streak.)
"Those are things that get brought up. So that's when you start thinking about it in your career."
It being the thought of having your bust on display in Canton.
The NFL was founded in 1920 and only 12 offensive linemen had been inducted on the first ballot. Make that 13 with Thomas, one of just seven left tackles to be so honored. He joins Jackie Slater, Jim Parker, Forrest Gregg, Walter Jones, Anthony Munoz and Jonathan Ogden on that elite short list.
When Thomas was at Wisconsin, he studied Jones, who started 180 consecutive games and was voted to nine Pro Bowls with the Seattle Seahawks (1997-2009).Thomas' link to Jones was Bill Nayes, a UW director of football operations who had worked with the Seahawks and Mike Holmgren.
"I don't remember who brought it up but it was like, 'Hey, you should watch this Walter Jones guy,'" Thomas recalled. "Back in those days, there was no digital film. You had to get DVDs and it was not something that teams shared. So, if you wanted to get it from them, you had to know somebody.
"I asked him (Nayes) to get DVDs of their practice and because of his relationship with coach Holmgren and his time in Seattle, he got me a bunch of DVDs, one-on-one pass rush, along with game tape, and stuff like that I could watch.
"I had a little portable DVD player and I'd watch it on the plane on the way to games.
"He was always a guy I'd watch and take stuff from his technique and the way he played."
A new generation of O-linemen – at all levels of competition from high school to college to the NFL – now have the opportunity to do that with Joe Thomas video. Particularly in light of his latest wardrobe addition, a gold jacket. Size 50 chest. He has earned the right to puff his out today.
Â
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