Music City posted:MichiganPacker2 posted:Amazingly enough, Joe Thomas, the best OL in Badger history and one of the top 5 left tackles in NFL history never had a great RB running behind him.
I’ll bet Brian Calhoun sends him a Christmas card every year, though... dude got picked in the second round and I don’t think he started 15 games in his career.
Peyton Hillis made the cover of Madden 2012 because of him.
Joe Thomas is definitely on the short list of the best NFL players to never play in a playoff game, certainly after the 1970 merger if not all time. Didn't miss a snap in something like 10 years. First team All-Pro 9 years in a row (2nd team as a rookie). The team was 10-6 but didn't make the playoffs his rookie year, then they never went 500 again. He got hurt in his 11th year after 7 games and the team went 0-16. His last full year they were 1-15. The year before that 3-13. The Browns lost 41 of the last 43 games he was on their roster.
I can't think of any player in any sport who was as much of a class act as Thomas was for the Browns. Literally the best player at one of the most important positions in the NFL, but he didn't try to get himself traded, he played 10,363 consecutive snaps (the longest streak in NFL history) for a team with terrible coaches, terrible QBs, terrible RBs, etc. He never complained, never threw anyone under the bus.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/...after-triceps-injury
If anybody ever deserved to get traded to a winner at the end of his career it was him.