By JOHN KEREZY
AUGUST 2 — Joe Thomas exemplified all that’s best in the Cleveland Browns during his 11 years with the team. A 10-time Pro Bowl selection at left tackle, he is the first of the “new” Browns to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame while playing his entire career with Cleveland.
As such, Thomas deserves a high-quality biography of his career. Fortunately, co-authors Marc Bona and Dan Murphy deliver that – and then some – with Joe Thomas: Not Your Average Joe debuting this week. Cleveland’s Gray & Company is the publisher of the 202-page work, timed to coincide with Thomas’ induction into the Hall of Fame this month.
The pair collaborate on a fast-paced, moving account of the best and most popular post-Modell member of the Browns in Thomas. They tell his story chronologically save for the book’s opening chapter, an account of something Thomas did which instantly endeared him to diehard Cleveland fans. Even though he knew he’d be a high first-round pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, Thomas chose to spend that day fishing in Lake Michigan rather than being 900 miles away near the draft’s center stage in New York City.
Love of fishing, interest in all athletics (he was a three-sport star at Brookfield Central High School in Wisconsin), and devotion to friends and family are all part of Joe Thomas’ DNA. And Bona and Murphy capture that excellently in this book. When perusing it, the reader gains a better understanding of Thomas’ athleticism, his perfection practice and preparation habits as both a college star at the University of Wisconsin and pro offensive lineman, and his instincts and high character.
There’s actually a third author in “Joe Thomas: Not Your Average Joe,” the subject himself. A 20-chapter story crafted in three portions, the final part about the Hall of Famer’s life in the National Football League is told in Thomas’ own words. We get his take on the 20 Browns starting quarterbacks he protected, some of the key games, and on his teammates in his 11-year, 10,363 consecutive offensive plays career.
Thomas shines a spotlight on a lot of his talented Browns teammates in his portion of the biography. He lists Joel Bitonio (left guard), Alex Mack (center) John Greco (right guard) and Mitchell Schwartz (right tackle) along with himself in 2014 as the No. 1 offensive line has was on during his career. “We knew we were the best offensive line in the NFL, but at that time no one outside of that room knew. You just don’t get recognition when you are on a bad team,” Thomas recalls.
For Bona, a journalist who writes features for Cleveland.com and wrote and edited for six newspapers before then, this is his fourth book. Winner of multiple Cleveland Press Club awards, Bona’s part in the Joe Thomas biography traces his upbringing and much of his college career.
“It was Joe who suggested the idea of teaming with Dan on the book, and I’m glad we did,” Bona said via email. “We wound up with a unique bio-auto bio approach. Joe was a willing subject, and we felt the first-person vantage worked well for his time with the Browns. I wrote in traditional third-person for the beginning part of life growing up in Wisconsin, competing in high school, playing in college and then being drafted.”
THEY DID THEIR HOMEWORK
Murphy and Bona tackled this writing task with thoroughness and zeal. They conducted personal interviews with nearly 30 different people who know Thomas well, from parents to teammates in high school and college, to fellow members of the Browns. Additionally, the two researched and read contemporary accounts of Thomas and his career from nearly two dozen different newspapers. Many of these papers were in Wisconsin, and Bona and Murphy spoke with some of the reporters to gain additional insight over and above what they filed in their stories.
“Dan is really organized and stayed in touch with a lot of Joe’s teammates with the Browns over the years,” Bona added. “I read stories from Joe’s high school and college days, then researched and contacted some of his teammates and competitors. I also spent the better part of a week in Brookfield, where he grew up, going to his old high school and interviewing his parents at his family home.”
Thanks to their efforts, the readers get unparalleled insight into Joe Thomas. We’re taken onto the field at the 2006 Capital One Bowl in Orlando, where Thomas tears the ACL in his right knee while playing defense in the Badgers’ 24-10 win over Auburn. Then we see how he rehabilitates from this setback to help lead Wisconsin to a 10-1 season in 2007.
We are also taken inside the Browns’ locker room, through training camps, and onto the field during many games of Thomas’ illustrious career. We learn that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, former Wisconsin teammate J.J. Watt, and LeBron James are among those who tweeted out congratulations to Thomas after his consecutive snap streak reached 10,000 in 2017. Sports followers have compared what Thomas accomplished to Cal Ripken’s 2,632 consecutive game streak in Major League Baseball, but we learn that a new and unaware Browns coaching staff almost inadvertently ended the streak in a game in 2014.
Readers also get inside visit to the Thomas home, and learn how Joe’s wife Annie held a family meeting in February and insisted that Joe put on his pants beforehand. Good thing he listened too, because soon Hall of NFL Famer Walter Jones was make a loud knock on the door to announce that Thomas had been a first-ballot selection to enter the Hall of Fame. More than a dozen reporters and videographers, carrying cameras and microphones were right behind Jones.
HOW TO GET YOUR COPY
The public debut of Joe Thomas: Not Your Average Joe is Thursday, August 3, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Centennial Plaza in Canton. Bona will be there to autograph the book for purchasers. The address is: 330 Court Ave NW, Canton, OH 44702. Click just below for details:
David Lee Morgan, author of Breaking through the Lines: The Marion Motley Story will be present at Centennial Plaza as well.
Bona and Murphy’s book is also available through the Gray & Company website, Again, click just below:
Kerezy is Associate Professor of Media & Journalism Studies at Cuyahoga Community College, and founding editor of eyeoncleveland.com
eyeoncleveland 