Browns’ Joe Thomas relishes Walter Jones giving Hall of Fame news
Although Joe Thomas has idolized Walter Jones for years, the two legendary left tackles hadn’t spent quality time together until Thomas’ “man crush” arrived at his doorstep a few weeks ago.
“I never really had a chance to get to meet him other than just saying hi briefly on the field until he came to the house,” Thomas said Wednesday during a Zoom session with reporters who cover the Browns. “And then pretty soon my 4-year-old daughter [Reese] is like reading him bedtime stories and wanting to give him some of her stuffed animals.”
It’s amazing the doors the Pro Football Hall of Fame can open.
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A 10-time Pro Bowl selection who retired in 2018, Thomas was voted a first-ballot member of the Hall of Fame, with the results revealed Feb. 9 during the “NFL Honors” awards show. He and others from the nine-man Class of 2023 will be enshrined Aug. 5 in Canton.
Thomas learned the once-in-a-lifetime news Jan. 27 through a special visitor and had to conceal it from the general public for weeks. Clad in his gold jacket, Jones knocked on the door of the Thomas household in Wisconsin to welcome Thomas to the Hall of Fame.
As a young player, Thomas thoroughly studied Jones, a former Seattle Seahawks nine-time Pro Bowler. When Thomas’ son, Jack, saw Jones, a member of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2014, and realized why the massive man had arrived at the front door, he began yelling, “We made it, Dad! You made it!”
Recalling the scene caused Thomas, 38, to become choked up again Wednesday.
“Instantly, it just knocked me off my feet emotionally to know that my wildest dreams of playing football and getting into the NFL were never this great,” Thomas said. “And the fact that my idol told my son who told me the great news just made it even better than I could have ever scripted.”