Browns greats reunite, reflect and rejoice as Joe Thomas enters Pro Football Hall of Fame

CANTON — The general reaction of former Browns players who attended the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement of Joe Thomas on Saturday afternoon amounted to something like, “That's so Joe!”

With the spotlight on Thomas, his wife, Annie, and their four children at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, the legendary left tackle clad in a crisp gold jacket gave a speech emphasizing his top priorities have always been family, faith and football.

“Joe Thomas is family. He epitomizes that,” former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar told the Beacon Journal. “Seeing him with his family and his kids and wife up there, and then seeing the Browns family that's out there [in the crowd] makes this more than an emotional day.”

“He was always a family-first guy,” former Browns left tackle Doug Dieken added. “The first year he was here, I remember walking out to the parking lot, and he's drinking water in the parking lot with his family. I'm thinking, 'Boy, that's a change of beverage for me!'”

Dieken laughed as he delivered the punchline to his tale about Thomas, a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Both of the iron men who wore No. 73 for the Browns are known for their sense of humor.

“Even on days that maybe the team was down, you always looked at Joe, he was smiling, always cracked jokes,” said former punter Dave Zastudil, who spent three seasons with Thomas. “But what I liked about Joe was whether it was the guy making eggs, the guy cleaning up the field afterwards, he always treated everybody the exact same.

“Football never got to his head. He was always the most humble successful person I think I’ve ever met. For me, we’d be on plane rides coming home from games and you’re like, 'Where’s Joe?' You look back, and he’s mingling with all the stewards, stewardesses, talking, laughing all the time.”

Thomas used part of his speech to jokingly apologize to his Browns backup left tackles because his iconic streak of 10,363 consecutive offensive snaps kept them on the sidelines.

“But I did make you take all my practice reps, so that the trainers could tape me together, looking like Mr. Potato Head, and they could wheel me out on Sundays and somehow get through 69 plays, only to try to do it again the next week,” Thomas quipped.

Many of the former NFL offensive linemen who played with Thomas were in attendance along with All-Pro left guard Joel Bitonio, who will soon begin his 10th season with the Browns. Thomas played his final down during his 11th season.

“Joe, he would always invite everyone over,” said former star center Alex Mack, who spent seven seasons with Thomas. “What makes football so special and what everyone misses when they finish playing is the community that it brings. And for him to recreate that and to recognize that, that's so important. He was out there all those consecutive snaps for his teammates. That wasn't for himself. That's because he cared about other people.

“Joe is such a great teammate, a great person. I'm just so excited for this moment for him, for all the hard work he put in, and it's really exciting. He's such a good dude. He's brought all his old teammates and everyone — whoever he touched. There's just tons of people out here just really soaking it in for Joe, excited for him. So as a friend of Joe, it's really rewarding to see all the people he's touched and just what he means to everybody. [This is] a huge reunion.”

Former Browns guard John Greco said he attended the Gold Jacket Dinner on Friday night and looked forward to parties Saturday night.

“Seeing teammates, coaches, media, guys from the Browns that are still on staff and friends, it’s so awesome, and I’m so proud of him,” said Greco, who spent six seasons with Thomas. “I’m excited we’re here celebrating.”

Thomas, 38, thanked not only his old teammates, but also Browns fans. He said he's been honored to represent them, and they reciprocated by showing him love throughout a weekend of festivities in Northeast Ohio.

“[What stands out about Thomas] is consistency, his toughness, his resiliency and then his commitment, not just on the football field that got him here at the footsteps of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and how he takes that into his life,” Kosar said. “He's just not that.

“He's just not a great teammate — he's a great person off the field, just the same great guy he is in the huddle, the same great guy he is in the locker room. You can get goosebumps as I say it. He's a great guy off field, and that epitomizes what I think we all like to stand for.”

Joe Thomas has fitting HOF enshrinement: Cleveland Browns legend turns Hall of Fame speech into tribute to family and fans

Although Thomas never advanced to the playoffs and experienced just one winning season with the Browns — they went 10-6 his rookie year in 2007 — he repeatedly earned respect throughout the NFL en route to 10 Pro Bowl and six first-team All-Pro nods. In 2016, he joined fellow Hall of Famers Merlin Olsen, Mel Renfro, Barry Sanders and Lawrence Taylor as the only players in league history to make the Pro Bowl in each of their first 10 seasons.

“Playing that [left tackle] position is the second toughest on the offensive side other than quarterback, and my philosophy always was it was a boxing match,” Dieken said. “If you started to lose, you turned it into a street fight. Joe never had to turn it into a street fight. He never lost.”

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Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns greats react to Joe Thomas' Hall of Fame enshrinement