Last week, the Browns gave injured offensive tackle Joe Thomas a pay bump for both this year and next year. The gesture was appreciated by the veteran, but he tells Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal that he is still undecided about his future. Here’s a look at some of the highlights from Thomas’ Q&A with Ulrich:
On whether his declaration that he doesn’t “want to go out like this” means that he’ll play in 2018:
I’ve told everybody that I’m going to sit down kind of after the season and take my time and make a decision when you’re in a little bit better mental state. Because right after you get hurt, your emotions are up and down, and during the season is a hard time to kind of make serious decisions on your career. So the offseason will be a time when I make a decision on that, but I think that [feeling] will certainly play into it. 
But on the other hand, you don’t get to choose how things end. Everybody wants the Jerome Bettis — what I mentioned in that column — where you go to your hometown, you win the Super Bowl and you ride off into the sunset. That’s the dream, but 1 in 100,000 players get to realize that. Even Brett Favre, you look at how he ended his career, losing the NFC Championship Game and getting hurt. What a great career, and he wanted to have that moment where you win the Super Bowl and you ride off into the sunset, but in the NFL, you don’t get to pick your exit strategy for the most part.
So if you do decide to come back and you say, “I don’t want to go out getting injured,” well, there’s no guarantee you’re not going to get injured again. So you have to be realistic about the possible outcomes of everything.
On the pay raise:
It’s just the way that the team shows their love and appreciation for you…The conversation came up about two years ago actually. So they’ve been talking about giving me a market adjustment for my contract since I did sign it so long ago [in 2011] and since I’ve tried to go about my business as well as I possibly can, representing the organization, playing as well as I can, trying to be a team player, and they felt a market adjustment was not only good for me, of course, but good for them, good for their business, because when you reward players when you don’t have to, that sends a message to the locker room that says, “If you do the right things and you put yourself on the line for this team, we’ll reward you, even if you’re under contract.”
Because in the NFL, it’s a one-sided contract. When the team is ready to get rid of you, they just cut you if you’re not playing up to your contract. If you’re outplaying your contract, your only possibility of getting your raise or a market value adjustment is to either make a huge stink, demand a trade or hold out. I told them that’s not the type of person I am. So I think they realized it’s the right thing to do, and it sends a good message going forward to the rest of the players in the locker room.
On whether the Browns can turn things around after the failed A.J. McCarron trade:
In the NFL, winning cures all, and when you lose, it makes everything worse, and it magnifies all the little things that go on in every building. But you only make a big deal about it when the losing is attached to it. For us, it’s just a matter of turning things around and start getting some W’s. I don’t think it’s necessarily any big issue or any different than any other NFL front office. It’s just a matter of getting those wins.
“Because in the NFL, it’s a one-sided contract. When the team is ready to get rid of you, they just cut you if you’re not playing up to your contract.”
Wait a minute…. don’t forget your injured and won’t play the rest of the year. And your still getting paid!!! Lol
In fairness to the non guaranteed contract thing … most people out in the real world who sign contracts don’t continue to get paid the full value of the contract if they don’t fulfill their end of it. I’m not sure why people think they should always be fully guaranteed regardless of poor performance or injury. I understand that it could be more fair for the players but sometimes I think we need a reality check.
1) It’s “don’t forget you’re* injured..”
2) The team isn’t ready to get rid of him, and would be foolish in doing so. This man was playing at a Pro Bowl level the last 10 years. This injury isn’t a Patellar tendon, or torn Achilles (Much more difficult to come back from, and often career threatening) It’s a left Triceps injury.
3)Cleveland hoards so much cap space, they don’t know what to do with it, and it makes no difference in the long run (his contract expires next year, anyway)
4)Where have you been for the last 10 years? This is why I weep, this man’s career has been wasted in Cleveland.
“In the NFL, winning cures all, and when you lose, it makes everything worse, and it magnifies all the little things that go on in every building. But you only make a big deal about it when the losing is attached to it. For us, it’s just a matter of turning things around and start getting some W’s.”
Get some W’s?
Joe, you’ve been here long enough to know…
This team is cursed. In fact, You’ve been the only consistent bright spot on this team, the last 10 years.
Looking forward to seeing you in HOF, Mr. Thomas!