The rise and fall of Earl Thomas

Earl Thomas wanted to show an old friend how far he had come.

It was 2013, and Thomas, then 24, patrolled the Seattle Seahawks’ Legion of Boom secondary. The franchise was only weeks away from its first Super Bowl championship, and Thomas had robbed his high school coach, the Texas State Hall of Famer, Dan Hooks, and his wife to attend the finals. of the Seahawks’ regular season against the St. Louis Rams.

After the Seahawks passed the Rams, Hooks met up at Thomas’ house for dinner, surrounded by luxury. He neglected the waters of the lake while Nina Thomas, Earl’s future wife, cooked a tender steak. After dinner, Thomas drove Hooks to his garage to check out the Lamborghini Murcielago. The hooks don’t remember whether the car was blue or white, but he certainly remembers the scissor doors and hand-stitched leather seats, a rare glimpse of a player he always considered a bit of an introvert. .

Thomas pointed out that he had never driven it in the rain or mud.

Seven years later, Hooks wonders how Thomas – a once proud playmaker now unemployed after a tough season with the Baltimore Ravens and well-publicized issues off the field – is navigating these same conditions in his life.

“I was really surprised when he pulled off the track like that,” said Hooks, who coached Thomas at Orange-Stark High School. “Over time the image he portrayed has become a little different. I don’t know what happened. But he’s a great kid and I wish him success.”

After nearly $ 90 million in career earnings, seven Pro Bowls and three All-Pro selections, Thomas has played it safe on a likely road to the Hall of Fame. But a series of bizarre events on and off the pitch at the end of his career raised questions about a legacy that is crumbling at the tailoring, including:

• He ended his Seattle career by showing Pete Carroll a middle finger on September 30, 2018, after a leg injury and an acrimonious contract dispute.

• He ended his career in Baltimore with a punch, his teammates had had enough of his act long before he battled safety Chuck Clark at a training camp on August 21, 2020. Two days later, the Ravens cut him off for conduct detrimental to the team.

• Between the two, a well-publicized issue with his wife, Nina – who was arrested on April 13, 2020 for allegedly pointing a gun at Thomas for cheating on suspicions, court records show – has diverted attention from football.

Now Thomas is 31 and is hoping to have one last chance to anchor a high school. All season, the free agent worked five to six days a week with Jeremy Hills, a former University of Texas teammate who coaches many NFL athletes in Austin.

“He feels like he has so much more to prove,” Hills said. “He will show up ready every time he gets the call.”

Blake Gideon, a former University of Texas security who shared the defensive backfield with Thomas, confirms this claim, saying Thomas has conveyed in recent text messages that he “understands the position he is in and that he is anxious “to correct it with another chance.

Many former teammates and coaches have said that reports of Thomas, who did not respond to ESPN’s multiple attempts to reach him, do not match the person they know: a calm but loyal individual who does not easily trust others but cares deeply. once the walls are broken, with a rare football accent that some confuse with ice.

This last part complicated Thomas’ status in several locker rooms. His relentless pursuit of greatness could create a chasm that several former teammates did not want to officially discuss out of respect for Thomas’ career.

As one longtime Seahawk put it, Thomas was “a lot like Kobe” in his competitive riding. Kobe Bryant evolved and was loved when he retired in 2016. Will Thomas have his farewell, or did the game say it for him?

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Faith and Family in Orange, Texas

Just about anything a young Thomas did felt orderly.

His interest in music became not only a hobby, but a vessel for an entire church body, playing drums and organ in the Sunday Orchestra in Orange, Texas.

A calm boy with a matching tie and waistcoat helped raise the congregation from Sixth Street Community Church. Sixth Street, located on the east side of Orange – which the church’s Facebook page calls “devil’s territory” because of crime and drugs in the area – spread joy from a brown brick building . Thomas’ grandfather, Earl V. Thomas Sr., was the founding pastor, and Uncle Anthony D. Thomas took over.

Raymond Richard, Thomas’ teammate at Orange-Stark, said the boys were at church three evenings a week, plus weekends. The services were “filled with the Holy Ghost – with cries and moving spirits,” he said, and although Thomas was not the lively type, he was proud to help others celebrate God through life. music.

“Every instrument he could play. He was just good like that,” Richard said. “I think he just learned to play by being around her.”

Growing up in Orange – nicknamed “Fruit City,” sitting on the Texas-Louisiana border with a population of around 11,000 – Thomas cut the grass with his father on the weekends. Locals knew Thomas as Debbie Thomas’ “miracle baby” because doctors told her, a cancer survivor, that she couldn’t have children. Instead, “God blessed her with a millionaire,” Richard said.

Thomas has arguably become Orange’s best player since former Dallas Cowboy All-Pro cornerback Kevin Smith in the ’80s. Thomas was a hybrid cornerback who hated going off the field. No test, on the ground or standardized, would stop its rise.

His high school teammate Depauldrick Garrett remembers Thomas struggling with his SAT scores to qualify for the University of Texas. Before his last qualifying attempt, Thomas told him on the spot: “If I pass this score, I will go to the league”.

“His level of focus was just different,” Garrett said. “He wanted to make a name for Orange and he learned the value of his family’s hard work.