Joe Thomas has fond memories of his rookie year, as written in the new book, 'Joe Thomas: Not Your Average Joe,' written by our own Marc Bona and Dan Murphy of the Cleveland Browns.
CLEVELAND, Ohio – The season opener was at home and I was pumped. FirstEnergy Stadium was one of the best stadiums in the league. It’s right on the water and on the edge of downtown. They have real grass, which I always loved playing on. But the fans are what make the stadium so unique.
There were nerves. Not quite as bad as my first college game, but it was nerve-racking. There’s also a lot of pressure because you are the first-round pick. You want to try to prove those people right who believed in you. This is your job now. It’s not just for fun like it was in college. This is your profession. There’s a new level of pressure. It’s a man’s game.
As a rookie, I’m thinking, “OK, second half, we are going to come back and win this thing.” Then we find out that Charlie had been benched and that Derek Anderson would be the starter. Derek came in and played pretty well, but we got our butts whipped. It showed me there were no loyalties, no feelings — it’s a cold-blooded business. Teams will make rash decisions if it will help them win games and save their jobs. I learned the NFL was a business real fast.
It wasn’t until that next day — the day Charlie got traded — when we sat down and reviewed the film with our coaches and there was plenty for me to improve on, but they kind of gave me an “Attaboy. That’s a nice start for a rookie.” Officially, Harrison only had half of a sack. I had thought I got my ass kicked. I couldn’t believe they thought that I played decently.
It was like the opposite feeling of our opener against the Steelers. We just felt like we were going to score a touchdown every time we had the ball, and we basically did. We won 51-45.
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