Hall of Fame - Joe Thomas
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Have asked this question before, never gotten an real response… When Joe came out of college, what was the buzz? Was he as highly a rated no brainer as Orlando Pace or Anthony Munoz when they came into the league. I’m not really a college football fan, he was an unknown entity to me.
Have asked this question before, never gotten an real response… When Joe came out of college, what was the buzz? Was he as highly a rated no brainer as Orlando Pace or Anthony Munoz when they came into the league. I’m not really a college football fan, he was an unknown entity to me.
Al, The best I can tell you is the widespread thought process about Joe Thomas coming out of college is that he was so good - that even the Cleveland Browns drafting him at #3 overall couldn't stop him from being an elite Left Tackle throughout the length of his career. He did just that making the Pro Bowl all 10 years he played...
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Have asked this question before, never gotten an real response… When Joe came out of college, what was the buzz? Was he as highly a rated no brainer as Orlando Pace or Anthony Munoz when they came into the league. I’m not really a college football fan, he was an unknown entity to me.
Al, The best I can tell you is the widespread thought process about Joe Thomas coming out of college is that he was so good - that even the Cleveland Browns drafting him at #3 overall couldn't stop him from being an elite Left Tackle throughout the length of his career. He did just that making the Pro Bowl all 10 years he played...
Al, The best I can tell you is the widespread thought process about Joe Thomas coming out of college is that he was so good - that even the Cleveland Browns drafting him at #3 overall couldn't stop him from being an elite Left Tackle throughout the length of his career. He did just that making the Pro Bowl all 10 years he played...
I will admit that I was a bigger fan of Robert Gallery coming out of college than I was of Thomas...
A big swing and a miss by me on that one... ?
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Was he as highly a rated no brainer as Orlando Pace or Anthony Munoz when they came into the league.
Yes.
...and we squandered the entire career of this Hall Of Famer...
Yes.
...and we squandered the entire career of this Hall Of Famer...
I know. That really sucked. At least he'll get a happier ending than Cleveland Browns longtime OG Gene Hickerson got.
Poor Gene didn't even know who he was any more when they finally wheeled him up on stage to be honored and inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2007. Here's a guy that retired at age 38 in 1973 after being one of the best of Offensive Guards that had ever played for the Browns. He blocked for Jimmy Brown, Bobby Mitchell and Leroy Kelly; while he was also a very reliable pass protector for Frank Ryan the last year the Browns won the NFL Championship Title in 1964. Why did they make the poor guy wait 34 years to be honored? I almost had to re-watch the end of Old Yeller to feel better about that...
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Al, The best I can tell you is the widespread thought process about Joe Thomas coming out of college is that he was so good - that even the Cleveland Browns drafting him at #3 overall couldn't stop him from being an elite Left Tackle throughout the length of his career. He did just that making the Pro Bowl all 10 years he played...
I will admit that I was a bigger fan of Robert Gallery coming out of college than I was of Thomas...
A big swing and a miss by me on that one... ?
I will admit that I was a bigger fan of Robert Gallery coming out of college than I was of Thomas...
A big swing and a miss by me on that one... ?
If you saw how many guys I swung and missed on you'd probably be signing me back up for summer school...
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I will end up buying a Joe Thomas jersey. I wonder if I can trade in my two Tim Couch jerseys when I do....
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I will end up buying a Joe Thomas jersey. I wonder if I can trade in my two Tim Couch jerseys when I do....
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This may be sacrilege to some. I believe Joe Thomas to be the greatest Cleveland Brown.
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This may be sacrilege to some. I believe Joe Thomas to be the greatest Cleveland Brown.
He's certainly one of them.
I think the most underrated player of all time is Otto Graham. No professional football QB in any era has ever led their team to 10 consecutive Championship Games and won 7 of them in the first/only 10 years of his career. The last 6 of those were in the NFL where they won 3 of the 6 Championships Otto led them to. It was a different era where QBs weren't babied in the rules so ideal completion percentages weren't as easy to achieve. The Browns only won 1 more NFL Championship in 1964 after Otto retired. That's a pretty freakin awesome impact as the leader of this team.
Jim Brown often gets more attention for obvious reasons. To this day - there's still a lot of fans left that think he's the best NFL player of all time.
There's a few GREAT men that I wouldn't have any problem with hearing they are the greatest Cleveland Brown.
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This may be sacrilege to some. I believe Joe Thomas to be the greatest Cleveland Brown.
He's certainly one of them.
I think the most underrated player of all time is Otto Graham. No professional football QB in any era has ever led their team to 10 consecutive Championship Games and won 7 of them in the first/only 10 years of his career. The last 6 of those were in the NFL where they won 3 of the 6 Championships Otto led them to. It was a different era where QBs weren't babied in the rules so ideal completion percentages weren't as easy to achieve. The Browns only won 1 more NFL Championship in 1964 after Otto retired. That's a pretty freakin awesome impact as the leader of this team.
Jim Brown often gets more attention for obvious reasons. To this day - there's still a lot of fans left that think he's the best NFL player of all time.
There's a few GREAT men that I wouldn't have any problem with hearing they are the greatest Cleveland Brown.
He's certainly one of them.
I think the most underrated player of all time is Otto Graham. No professional football QB in any era has ever led their team to 10 consecutive Championship Games and won 7 of them in the first/only 10 years of his career. The last 6 of those were in the NFL where they won 3 of the 6 Championships Otto led them to. It was a different era where QBs weren't babied in the rules so ideal completion percentages weren't as easy to achieve. The Browns only won 1 more NFL Championship in 1964 after Otto retired. That's a pretty freakin awesome impact as the leader of this team.
Jim Brown often gets more attention for obvious reasons. To this day - there's still a lot of fans left that think he's the best NFL player of all time.
There's a few GREAT men that I wouldn't have any problem with hearing they are the greatest Cleveland Brown.
I don't remember watching Graham play - he retired when I was about 5 yrs old, I think. But yes, he was considered the greatest qb ever to play the game by many. He is truly a great legend in the sport. Graham was the G.O.A.T.
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He's certainly one of them.
I think the most underrated player of all time is Otto Graham. No professional football QB in any era has ever led their team to 10 consecutive Championship Games and won 7 of them in the first/only 10 years of his career. The last 6 of those were in the NFL where they won 3 of the 6 Championships Otto led them to. It was a different era where QBs weren't babied in the rules so ideal completion percentages weren't as easy to achieve. The Browns only won 1 more NFL Championship in 1964 after Otto retired. That's a pretty freakin awesome impact as the leader of this team.
Jim Brown often gets more attention for obvious reasons. To this day - there's still a lot of fans left that think he's the best NFL player of all time.
There's a few GREAT men that I wouldn't have any problem with hearing they are the greatest Cleveland Brown.
I don't remember watching Graham play - he retired when I was about 5 yrs old, I think. But yes, he was considered the greatest qb ever to play the game by many. He is truly a great legend in the sport. Graham was the G.O.A.T.
I don't remember watching Graham play - he retired when I was about 5 yrs old, I think. But yes, he was considered the greatest qb ever to play the game by many. He is truly a great legend in the sport. Graham was the G.O.A.T.
The odd thing about Graham was he was a Running Back in College..... It just amazes me that PB had the vision to make him the trigger man...
Nickers...."There are no old running QB's in the NFL "~Sam Rutigliano~ -
Who was the last Cleveland Brown player to be inducted?
Without a Google search I think Ozzie Newsome was the most recent player to make it into the HOF.
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I don't remember watching Graham play - he retired when I was about 5 yrs old, I think. But yes, he was considered the greatest qb ever to play the game by many. He is truly a great legend in the sport. Graham was the G.O.A.T.
The odd thing about Graham was he was a Running Back in College..... It just amazes me that PB had the vision to make him the trigger man...
The odd thing about Graham was he was a Running Back in College..... It just amazes me that PB had the vision to make him the trigger man...
I hear that a lot but when I look him up Nicks - it's always showing him mostly as a QB. Early on in college he had a 90 yard yard punt return for a TD. He set the Big 10 Conference record for completions with 89 one season. He also threw 2 TD passes and ran for a score in Northwestern's victory over Paul Brown's Ohio State Buckeyes. He did rush for quite a few TDs so that could be why people think he played RB at Northwestern.
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This may be sacrilege to some. I believe Joe Thomas to be the greatest Cleveland Brown.
Joe is in the top 5, but I have to rank Otto Graham and certainly Jim Brown ahead of him.
JB racked up his 12,312 rushing yards in nine seasons when they were only playing 12 and 14 games FWIW. When he retired there wasn't another running back within 5,000 yards of him, that's how dominant he was. I strongly believe if Jim had gone the Jerry Rice route, and played until he couldn't play anymore, he'd still hold the all time rushing record.
But Hollywood called... Back then, the NFL didn't pay all that well. JB was the first player to break the $100,000 salary barrier. In case you're wondering, that's less than a million in 2022 dollars. (As an aside to that, the 46 retired jersey number I use belonged to DB Don Fleming- who was making so little NFL money he had to take a summer job with Cleveland Electric, and managed to get himself electrocuted.) Back then, a lot of other players had to do the same.
BTW I'm old enough that I can say I was able to see Jim Brown play in person. Ah, those were the days when the Browns could beat up on the expansion Cowboys 45-7.
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This may be sacrilege to some. I believe Joe Thomas to be the greatest Cleveland Brown.
Joe is in the top 5, but I have to rank Otto Graham and certainly Jim Brown ahead of him.
JB racked up his 12,312 rushing yards in nine seasons when they were only playing 12 and 14 games FWIW. When he retired there wasn't another running back within 5,000 yards of him, that's how dominant he was. I strongly believe if Jim had gone the Jerry Rice route, and played until he couldn't play anymore, he'd still hold the all time rushing record.
But Hollywood called... Back then, the NFL didn't pay all that well. JB was the first player to break the $100,000 salary barrier. In case you're wondering, that's less than a million in 2022 dollars. (As an aside to that, the 46 retired jersey number I use belonged to DB Don Fleming- who was making so little NFL money he had to take a summer job with Cleveland Electric, and managed to get himself electrocuted.) Back then, a lot of other players had to do the same.
BTW I'm old enough that I can say I was able to see Jim Brown play in person. Ah, those were the days when the Browns could beat up on the expansion Cowboys 45-7.
Ah, those were the days when the Browns could beat up on the expansion Cowboys 45-7.
...and beat the Steelers EVERY time.
No matter what you think of Jim Brown, it's awfully hard to argue against him as the best Cleveland Brown ever. He is the reason this little boy watching football on TV in Rhode Island became a Browns fan.
BEING A BROWNS FAN IS A TEST TO SEE HOW MUCH YOU CAN TAKE -
When the subject of the best Browns players is brought up, the discussion is almost exclusively offensive players.
Some might say Otto Graham, more will say Jim Brown, a few might mention Joe Thomas or Paul Warfield.
I think an argument can be made that the most underrated Browns player is Bill Willis.
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Ah, those were the days when the Browns could beat up on the expansion Cowboys 45-7.
...and beat the Steelers EVERY time.
No matter what you think of Jim Brown, it's awfully hard to argue against him as the best Cleveland Brown ever. He is the reason this little boy watching football on TV in Rhode Island became a Browns fan.
...and beat the Steelers EVERY time.
No matter what you think of Jim Brown, it's awfully hard to argue against him as the best Cleveland Brown ever. He is the reason this little boy watching football on TV in Rhode Island became a Browns fan.
Of course you know... Just ask any Steelers fan- the history of the NFL started in 1970....
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When the subject of the best Browns players is brought up, the discussion is almost exclusively offensive players.
Some might say Otto Graham, more will say Jim Brown, a few might mention Joe Thomas or Paul Warfield.
I think an argument can be made that the most underrated Browns player is Bill Willis.
When the subject of the best Browns players is brought up, the discussion is almost exclusively offensive players.
Some might say Otto Graham, more will say Jim Brown, a few might mention Joe Thomas or Paul Warfield.
I think an argument can be made that the most underrated Browns player is Bill Willis.
Regarding defensive players... MHO... Clay Matthews would have been in the HOF LONG ago if he had played for the Steelers instead. Myron Cope would have guaranteed that... I'm surprised Frenchie Fuqua isn't in yet either...
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I won't get in to the rating thing, but they did name it Lou Groza Blvd. for a reason. There is also a Lou Groza award .
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