NFL history is filled with many great players who weren’t able to go all the way. There are legends of the game who played at a high level for many years but still didn’t walk away with a Super Bowl ring.
In a new piece for Bleacher Report, David Kenyon listed the best NFL players without a Super Bowl ring. For the Cleveland Browns, Kenyon chose Joe Thomas, the team’s offensive tackle, who played for the Browns from 2007 to 2017.
Kenyon noted Thomas’s numerous Pro Bowl selections but lamented that the Browns were in a bad spot during his tenure. The team had 10 victories during Thomas’s rookie season, but didn’t top five again throughout his career.
Plus, they didn’t once make the playoffs while Thomas was on the team.
“Football is unfair, and Joe Thomas is a prime example. One of the most dominant left tackles in NFL history, he played 11 years with the Cleveland Browns. Thomas received AP All-Pro recognition in eight seasons and made the Pro Bowl in each of his first 10. Not once, however—not a single time—did the Browns make the playoffs. Cleveland won 10 games in his rookie year and only topped five victories once more in Thomas’ career. And the Browns finished 7-9 that year. The exhausting trend of losing does not diminish the excellence that Thomas displayed during his career in Cleveland,” Kenyon wrote.
It wasn’t as if Thomas wasn’t keen and ready to play at all times. After being selected as the third pick in the 2007 NFL draft, he didn’t miss a single play until his final campaign ten years later. In fact, he has over 10,000 consecutive snaps, the longest streak since the league started recording snap counts in 1999.
Thomas is a Hall of Famer and still celebrated as one of the best offensive linemen in Browns history, but the team wasn’t able to fix itself, right its wrongs, and provide him more support during his career.
This is something that Browns fans have grown used to, sadly. There are other stars from the team’s history who had great talent and were ready to do more, but the team just couldn’t meet them halfway.
Even though he wasn’t able to win a championship with them, Thomas is still a big fan of the Browns. Thomas remains active on social media and appears on television, giving his two cents about the team and the rest of the league. He has also dipped his toes into coaching, too.
Thomas isn’t a Super Bowl champion, but he is still a vital part of the Browns’ history.
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