Many NFL players' careers have gone to die on the Cleveland Browns, but no one's prime was wasted as a Brown in the 21st century quite like Pro Football Hall of Fame left tackle Joe Thomas'. After being selected third overall in the 2007 NFL Draft, Thomas lived up to the Browns' faith in him: he earned 10 Pro Bowl selections, six first-team All-Pro selections, two second-team All-Pro selections and a 2010 All-Decade team selection. The rest of Cleveland's roster didn't live up to his standards, going 48-112 in his first 10 seasons.
That was the second-worst record in the entire league in that span ahead of only the Rams at 46-113-1. Thomas would convince himself year after year that the Browns had what it took despite reality painting a different picture. "The way I entered every season was like, 'if I need to get the most out of myself, I've got to convince myself this is a Super Bowl roster.
That's the mentality I have to have when I'm training, when I'm practicing, when I'm going through film study,'" Thomas said on the "Bussin' With The Boys" podcast. "And so you trick yourself every year, but after a while, you're not that dumb anymore." Entering his 10th season of trying to gaslight himself into thinking the new season would be different, Thomas began to see the writing on the wall with players being traded away for draft picks. He still tried to trick himself in 2016, but the evidence in front of him became too great to ignore.
Getting blown out 33-13 at home against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Week 5 of the 2016 season demoralized Thomas, removing any illusion Cleveland was going to be relevant that year after the defeat dropped the Browns to 0-5. Brady shredded the Browns' defense to the tune of 406 yards passing on 28 of 40 passing for a 127.7 passer rating that day. "Then, about midway through that 10th season, we were playing the Patriots.
Tom Brady comes to town, and I f---ing hated Tom Brady, as everybody did in the league. I just wanted to smash him so bad," Thomas said. And I remember sitting in the car after the game, and I was just crying.
I had ice on both elbows and knees. My wife was driving, and I was just looking out the window. It was that moment when I realized I'd been kind of fooling myself for a while, and we were not going to win no matter what I did." His wife asking him if he didn't perform well cut him to his core because Thomas was on his way to his 10th consecutive Pro Bowl season in 2016, but it didn't matter at all.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
