Joe Thomas' life will never be the same after his election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Joe Thomas’ path to Canton will be one emotional step after another
You must have an active subscription to read this story.
Click Here to subscribe Now!
Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Takeaways from a Joe Thomas Zoom call …
Two honors that forever change an athlete’s life are the Heisman Trophy and the Hall of Fame. No matter where, he will always be introduced as “Heisman Trophy winner Joe Blow,” or, in Joe Thomas’ case, “Hall of Famer Joe Thomas.”
It’s only been a week since Thomas was announced as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2023, and he is learning his life will not be the same.
It’s not a burden, of course; there are so many worse things in life. But for a blue-collar athlete from the Midwest like Thomas, who never sought attention or fame, really, it’s going to be an adjustment.
“It has certainly been a little bit overwhelming emotionally at times,” Thomas said on Wednesday.
A whirlwind
The brilliantly-conceived “knock on the door” by Thomas’ idol, Hall of Fame tackle Walter Jones, informing Thomas that he made the Hall of Fame, came on January 27 – well in advance of the formal announcement of the Class of 2023 on February 9.
Logistically, this has to be done in advance for the Pro Football Hall of Fame to produce those emotional videos and also to have the inductees and their families prepare for their trips to the Super Bowl city. Inductees are then bound to confidentiality and had to conduct themselves over the next 10 days as if they didn’t know they made it.
The only ones who knew of Thomas’ fate earlier were those involved in the Hall of Fame selection meeting on January 17, and then, later, Joe’s wife Annie, who was needed to set up the surprise “knock on the door.”
Once the Class of 2023 was announced at the NFL Honors program on February 9 in Phoenix, Thomas has been in a whirlwind of activity.
There were countless interviews in Phoenix, more than 300 text and phone messages to respond to, and Hall of Fame functions such as the Merlin Olsen Luncheon the day after the announcement, and “Sizing Saturday” a day later to measure his ring finger, jacket size and make the first impressions of the everlasting bust sculpture that will be unveiled at induction ceremonies on August 5 in Canton.
Thomas said the luncheon was particularly emotional.
“Walking up on to the stage Friday afternoon for the Merlin Olsen Luncheon when they announce us as Hall of Famers and there are like 70 Hall of Famers who are back and they are all in their gold jackets and they announce your name, they show ‘The Knock’ video and all of a sudden you see 80 legends of the game and many of the faces who were guys that you cheered for and that you idolized as a kid, and they are standing up, they are clapping for you and have to walk this walk up onto the stage and you get asked a question,” Thomas said.
“I remember my knees just crumbling and going weak. I was just so overwhelmed with emotion in that moment that I lost like dexterity and the ability to think of what I was trying to say. I probably didn’t say anything that made any sense in that moment. It is one of many overwhelming emotional moments that I had in the last week.”
Sizing Saturday, which also occurred in Phoenix, was fascinating, Thomas said.
“I think the bust measurements was probably the moment … that made it the most real because you sit with a sculpturer who is a world famous sculptor who does a lot of the busts and he has been doing them for a while, and he measures like every little nose hair that you have and the giant ears I have,” Thomas said. “He is like, “Oh, man. I don’t think we have ever had a measurement that size before.’
“He is taking pictures and then you get a chance to look at some of the work that he has done. I was kind of like a little bit of a history nerd. He is the first master sculptor that I have ever met so I was really interested if he had studied the works of DaVinci and all the great sculptors from Europe. I was picking his brain like, ‘Hey, have you ever been to Florence? Have you been to Rome? What is the most amazing sculpture that you have ever seen? How did they give you perspective on your own work?’ He probably thought I was a pretty big nerd for asking all of these questions, but I was really fascinated.”
The sculpture of Thomas’ bust, which will ultimately be bronzed and enshrined in the most inspiring room of the Hall of Fame -- the room where the busts talk to each other at night, John Madden once said -- won’t be completed until Thomas visits the sculptor’s studio in Utah in April.
“You sit there for four or five hours and then he kind of finishes the details to make sure that you are happy with what he has done,” Thomas said.
It’s far from over
The overwhelming events in Phoenix are just the start of Thomas’ final lap to Canton. He ain’t seen nothing yet. The weekend of events in Canton in August will be something he and his family will never forget.
Until then, Thomas has to decide on the influential person in his life who will present him at the induction ceremonies. It used to be that the presenter gave a live speech on the stage prior to the inductee’s speech. Over time, the presenters’ speeches got too long and bogged down the ceremonies. So the Hall made a great move in pre-recording the presenters’ tribute to their inductees and producing it in a tight video shown before the live inductee speech.
Still, it is a special honor to “present” the inductee and Thomas said he will contemplate his choice after consulting with other inductees.
“I have had a lot of people who have touched my life and have been a huge part of this journey for me, so I think that makes it a little challenging to kind of narrow it down and figure out who is that one person who I want to make sure is presenting me and that I would be the most excited about having up on stage,” Thomas said.
I have no inside info on who Thomas will choose, but my guess is it will come down to a couple of the most important people in his life – either his wife Annie or his father Eric.
He couldn’t go wrong with either choice.
