Story by
'As good a Joe as he can be': Joe Thomas rewards those staying for entire Enshrinement
- Story by
- 'As good a Joe as he can be': Joe Thomas rewards those staying for entire Enshrinement
CANTON― The same thing happens every year.
The exception this time is that it happened to Joe Thomas , who promptly made it un-happen.
Every year, it begins with the innocent and understandable intent of saving the most dramatic presence among the new Pro Football Hall of Famers for last at the Enshrinement.
Advertisement
Then the program goes long. And then longer. And it's just getting started.
Joe Thomas speaks during the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, in Canton.
Even the Hall of Fame makes fun of itself. Late in Saturday's enshrinement, the big screen showed a clip of Peyton Manning starting his long 2021 speech by saying Ray Lewis just then finished his speech that began in 2018.
Invariably, two hours into the show, streams of spectators leave Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium because they have heard the new enshrinee they came to hear.
It was three-plus hours into Saturday's enshrinement when Rondé Barber was sharing every NFL memory he had, short of intercepting Jake Delhomme in a 2010 opener against the Browns.
Rondé Barber delivers his speech during the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, in Canton.
Delhomme suffered a nasty ankle sprain on the play, but he stayed in, played gimpy, and then went on injured reserve. Left tackle Thomas was three years into his arduous run of 10,363 consecutive snaps that lasted into 2017 .
Advertisement
Nothing against Barber. He gave a fun speech during which he called Joe Jurevicius and John Lynch "my favorites." Jurevicius, who had a prime seat just off the stage Saturday, was a key Browns teammate in 2007 when Thomas was a rookie starting from Snap 1.
The 2007 Browns went 10-6. It didn't stay like that.
A fan holds a sign honoring a NFL record held by former NFL player Joe Thomas during the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, in Canton.
As master of ceremonies Chris Berman noted in saying it was amazing Thomas made the Hall of Fame in his first year eligible, "Browns wins were few and far between and sometimes never."
Barber spoke in the eighth position out of nine Class of 2023 members.
By then a lot of the crowd had left ― 7,000 in a 23,000-seat stadium can look sparse, in that many more expensive seats on the field don't get bought. Fans tend to buy the cheaper seats well back from the stage, in the south grandstand. That's where a majority of the Browns crowd was Saturday.
Joe Thomas delivers his speech during the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, in Canton.
Sometimes at the end of recent enshrinements, a Manning or a Favre goes last and finds it necessary to say, "Thank you to those of you who have stayed."
Advertisement
Thomas, as is his custom in so much of what he has done since his life became tied to Ohio, turned a negative into a positive.
He addressed the thousands who stayed , disregarding the many who had left.
Joe Thomas delivers his speech during the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, in Canton.
With his unique blend of seriousness, wisdom, dry humor, spontaneity, poise and cheer, he closed the show very nicely.
He apologized to former Browns owner Randy Lerner for having fish guts on his hands when he climbed into Lerner's private jet to fly to Cleveland the day he became a No. 3 overall draft pick ― he had been out on a lake with his dad.
Thomas lauded his father for setting an example of always showing up for work, even if it meant getting there on cross-country skis in a Wisconsin winter.
A Joe Thomas fan cheers during the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, in Canton.
He thanked his mom for grounding him for a month for getting a lousy C-plus in algebra.
Advertisement
He shared advice that seems too generally unimportant in the 21st century:
"Be on time. Pay attention. Work hard."
He gave a shout to the general manager who drafted him, Phil Savage, whose mantra was about the same as that of Thomas: "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."
Joe Thomas' Hall of Fame speech: Browns icon Joe Thomas turns Hall of Fame enshrinement speech into tribute to family, fans
Darrelle Revis delivers his speech during the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, in Canton.
Joining Barber and Thomas in the Class of 2023 were Don Coryell and Ken Riley , both enshrined posthumously, Chuck Howley , ill and unable to attend, and four others who spoke: Joe Klecko , Darrelle Revis , Zach Thomas and DeMarcus Ware .
Advertisement
Berman was back for his umpteenth turn as master of ceremonies.
Chris Berman talks during the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, in Canton.
Canton radio men Jim Muzzy and later Jim Johnson brought a rich community feel to their work in that role, back when the enshrinements were on the top step of the Hall of Fame museum, and the crowds spilled all the way to the safety rails of Interstate 77.
It created a memorable atmosphere organically. One of the annoyances of this era showed up during Saturday morning's parade when clusters of people who waited hours to see Thomas got blocked by video crews preparing programs for some other time. Joe's convertible would speed away to catch up with the rest of the parade.
Advertisement
Had the enshrinement been outside the Hall, as in the old days, the crowd would have been far too large to fit. Presenting it in the stadium makes even the larger crowds seem spread out.
DeMarcus Ware delivers his speech Saturday during the Enshrinement.
This was the 60th anniversary of the first enshrinement.
Berman began it with a Marv Levy quote: "Where else would you rather be?"
The crowd grew quiet when the nine enshrinees who have died in the last 12 months were acknowledged.
The nine, with their ages at the time of their passing, are Bobby Beathhard, 86; Bob Brown, 81; Jim Brown, 87; Len Dawson, 87, Bud Grant, 95; Ray Guy, 72; Art McNally, 97; Charlie Trippi, 100, and Dave Wilcox, 80.
Advertisement
Marv Levy sat on the stage with returning enshrinees, welcoming the new ones, at a spry 98.
Nobody ever counted the words spoken at an enshrinement, but it can seem like millions. Listen in, though, and you always learn something.
One nugget from Saturday: The late Ken Riley , his presenter/son Ken Riley II said, never played defense until Paul Brown brought him to the Bengals. His dad is in the Hall of Fame as a cornerback.
Ken Riley's bust is unveiled by his son Ken II and widow Barbara during the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, in Canton.
Riley II learned this: Paul Brown coached Massillon against McKinley on the ground where the enshrinement was conducted. It was Fawcett Stadium then, one year old when Brown's team beat the Cantononians 20-6.
Advertisement
A year earlier, Marion Motley was a senior at McKinley, which broke in Fawcett Stadium but finished the year with a game at Massillon. Motley died in 1999 but remains one of the greatest Hall of Famers.
A Motley statue , unveiled last year, is a few golf shots away from Saturday's enshrinement, if one was permitted to hit golf balls across I-77.
Marion Motley's statue is shown after being unveiled in Canton on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022.
The guess from asking around is that there will be a Joe Thomas statue at the stadium in Cleveland, down the road.
There will be no statue in Canton of Steve Connell, the creative artist who did ranting tributes as a prelude to each new enshrinee "going in."
Advertisement
Asking around, Connell's act was not well liked. Yet, in keeping with Joe Thomas, an all-time captain of turning negatives into positives, Connell's bit extolling Thomas' perseverance was spot on.
At one point amid his weird communication, Connell told a story about Joe coming home to his wife Annie after a loss to the Patriots.
"I can't play much better, and we couldn't do much worse."
And then Thomas would go back to work, sometimes reassembled by the medical staff to the point of looking like, he said in his acceptance speech, "like Mr. Potato Head."
The Hall of Fame is supposed to be for the greatest of the great.
Advertisement
Thomas made it sound as if his next move is just to get on with life being as good a Joe as he can be.
Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Joe Thomas closes Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement in style
