Let’s give credit where credit is due.
Phil Savage, then the third-year general manager of the Browns, had the foresight to pick Joe Thomas in the first round, at No. 3 overall, in the 2007 NFL Draft. As bad as this expansion era has been for the Browns, especially since 2008, Thomas’s second year, when they began their still-active streak of nine consecutive losing seasons, by far a club record, it would have been a whole heckuva worse – if you can imagine that – without arguably the best left tackle in Browns history, and one of the best of the best in NFL history. He’ll be rewarded someday by getting inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame down the road in Canton.
Not only a great player, Thomas is also an extremely sturdy one – an ironman, to be sure. Sometime early in Sunday’s game against the host Baltimore Ravens, he will play his 10,000 consecutive offensive snap, which is every snap since he’s joined the Browns. He is at 9,996 right now.
That’s just off-the-charts incredible. It is believed to be an NFL record, and if so, it won’t be broken anytime soon, or perhaps ever.
So hats off to Savage, who is now the color analyst on the Alabama Football Radio Network, calling the action of a team coached by his former coaching cohort with the Browns in the early 1990s, Nick Saban. Perhaps you’ve heard of the former Kent State defensive back and University of Toledo head coach.
Anyway, while we acknowledge that it was Savage who brought Thomas to Cleveland, we must also point out that it was Doug Dieken, the longtime color analyst on the Browns Radio Network and before that part – Part III, actually — of the great lineage of left tackles in team history, who gave the Wisconsin product his first legitimate post-draft stamp of approval.
Those of us the media who cover, or have covered, the NFL think we know a lot about football. And we do. But that’s no big deal. We should be well-versed in it. After all, that’s what we’re paid to know. The guy who fixed your refrigerator two weeks ago in a genius when it comes to refrigeration. So there.
But what we know about football and what Dieken knows are two different things. He has forgotten more football, and especially offensive line play, in the last 10 minutes that all of us in the media will know in 10 lifetimes – combined.
Yes, really.
When it comes to football, we media members look at something at practice or in a game and see a blank canvas, whereas Dieken sees a finished painting, right down to the finest details.
That has happened on many occasions since I’ve known Dieken, one of which occurred in early spring 2007, just a week after the Browns had drafted Thomas, during the club’s rookie mini camp.
We’re all standing about 10 yards off the practice field at the extreme northeast corner of Browns Headquarters watching the young players work, concentrating almost exclusively on Thomas because of his draft status.
I watched Dieken watching Thomas. While us media people were concentrating on the area from Thomas’s head to his waist, Dieken’s gaze was focused elsewhere. He appeared to be looking at the ground.
“So, what do you think of Thomas?” I finally asked Dieken about a half-hour into the regular portion of practice (after the warm-up period).
“I like his feet,” Dieken replied. “He has good, quick feet. He moves well.”
He paused a moment and added,” I think he has a real chance to make it.”
Saying that was a big deal considering the other Browns top draft choices of the expansion era to that point included the likes of Tim Couch, Courtney Brown, Gerard Warren and so on and so forth. All of them will have to pay admission if they want to go into the Hall of Fame.
Yes, Doug Dieken, Thomas has a real chance to make it. You were the first one to see it and say it.
So as with Phil Savage, let’s also give credit where credit is due to a player who first wore No. 73 and played left tackle in Cleveland 36 years before Joe Thomas did, and was an ironman as well in his day with a club-record 194 consecutive starts.
