Former Cleveland Browns LT Joe Thomas Talks About Losing in his Career, Opens up on Mental Health

Future Hall of Fame left tackle Joe Thomas opened up about the losing he did his career with the Cleveland Browns and much more.

Brandon Little | Dec 16, 2022

Cleveland Browns left tackle Joe Thomas will be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame before long. Thomas was as good as it gets at left tackle throughout his career, all of the losses he endured throughout his career has close to nothing to do with him.

Thomas opened up about that losing, and how it affected his mental health on The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima show recently.

"It's just like being a fan when you build yourself up, every single week to that Sunday, where you're going in, and you've convinced yourself, Ken, just like I'm going right now, 'I think we're gonna win this game!'... that's the mindset that you have to get into as a professional athlete to get the most out of yourself," Thomas said on his preparation.

Thomas finished his career with a record of 48 wins and 128 losses. He was an iron man out left, playing 10,363 straight snaps until he was injured late in his career. The injury eventually was the last straw, as Thomas retried and went into broadcasting. In the broadcasting world, he's become well-liked ever since.

"Because as soon as you start thinking, 'eh, we're probably not gonna win...' that's when you start subconsciously making those decisions in a sport that's built on violence and big, tough, strong people giving every bit of effort they have for 69 individual reps every single Sunday," said Thomas.

And so, you build yourself up and you create this narrative in your mind that, 'yeah, we have a chance, we're gonna win...' and then when it comes crashing down every week, I think everybody kind of has that breaking point, and for me it was that last season or two of my career."

Thomas was named to 10 Pro Bowl appearances, as well as a six-time All-Pro. He's easily the best player the team has seen in the modern day. It's not close

"You have that 'come to Jesus' moment in your brain, where you're like, 'I can't fool myself anymore,' and it's kind of a breakdown moment as an athlete that's played sports my entire life. That was, I feel like, the first time where I felt like I was out of control..."

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Brandon Little is a writer for Sports Illustrated’s Browns Digest website and you can follow him on Twitter @BrandonLittleFB here. You can follow Browns Digest on Twitter here.

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