How Tom Brady made Joe Thomas cry and why Browns legend turned down chance to play with Peyton Manning

The Hall of Fame left tackle relished his football home in Cleveland, but he eventually realized his impact couldn't save the Browns

Sep 16, 2026 at 1:08 pm ET • 5 min read

Many NFL players' careers have gone to die on the Cleveland Browns, but no one's prime was wasted as a Brown in the 21st century quite like Pro Football Hall of Fame left tackle Joe Thomas'.

After being selected third overall in the 2007 NFL Draft, Thomas lived up to the Browns' faith in him: he earned 10 Pro Bowl selections, six first-team All-Pro selections, two second-team All-Pro selections and a 2010 All-Decade team selection. The rest of Cleveland's roster didn't live up to his standards, going 48-112 in his first 10 seasons. That was the second-worst record in the entire league in that span ahead of only the Rams at 46-113-1. Thomas would convince himself year after year that the Browns had what it took despite reality painting a different picture. 

"The way I entered every season was like, 'if I need to get the most out of myself, I've got to convince myself this is a Super Bowl roster. That's the mentality I have to have when I'm training, when I'm practicing, when I'm going through film study,'" Thomas said on the "Bussin' With The Boys" podcast. "And so you trick yourself every year, but after a while, you're not that dumb anymore." 

Entering his 10th season of trying to gaslight himself into thinking the new season would be different, Thomas began to see the writing on the wall with players being traded away for draft picks. He still tried to trick himself in 2016, but the evidence in front of him became too great to ignore. Getting blown out 33-13 at home against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Week 5 of the 2016 season demoralized Thomas, removing any illusion Cleveland was going to be relevant that year after the defeat dropped the Browns to 0-5. Brady shredded the Browns' defense to the tune of 406 yards passing on 28 of 40 passing for a 127.7 passer rating that day.   

"Then, about midway through that 10th season, we were playing the Patriots. Tom Brady comes to town, and I f---ing hated Tom Brady, as everybody did in the league. I hated the Patriots. I just wanted to smash him so bad," Thomas said. "We lost like 30 to 0. And I remember sitting in the car after the game, and I was just crying. I had ice on both elbows and knees. I was in pain. My wife was driving, and I was just looking out the window. It was that moment when I realized I'd been kind of fooling myself for a while, and we were not going to win no matter what I did."

His wife asking him if he didn't perform well cut him to his core because Thomas was on his way to his 10th consecutive Pro Bowl season in 2016, but it didn't matter at all. That's why he sought help from a mental professional, meeting with the team psychologist. 

She finally said, 'Are you okay? Did you have a bad game?' Then the tears really came because I said 'I played a perfect game, and we lost by 30,'" Thomas said. "It really sunk in at that moment that you don't control the situation anymore. That feeling of loss of control is really hard. No matter what situation you're in in life, it just feels like everything I'm working for, I have no control over the outcome. That's a bad feeling. I ended up meeting with the team psychologist and talking to somebody about it because it had been almost 10 years built up to that moment when you come to the realization that I'm kind of fooling myself. 'We're not that team and we really don't have a chance. And I don't impact this game the way I'd hoped.'"  

Turning down a way out

Thomas could have avoided that painful realization in 2016 if he had just taken up Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning's offer to come be his left tackle on the Denver Broncos a year earlier in 2015. That year, Broncos All-Pro left tackle Ryan Clady tore his ACL. That's when Thomas got a call from an unknown number with a Denver area code.

"It's Peyton. 'Hey buddy, this is your drinking buddy from the Pro Bowl.' You know his voice immediately. ... He said 'well, hey listen. We lost our left tackle. I really want you to block for me, but the Browns are worried you're kind of their franchise," Manning told Thomas. "'They love you over there. We got a fair deal on the table, but [John] Elway is telling me it's not going to get done unless you go up in your GM's office and tell them you want to be traded.'"

Thomas turned Manning's offer down because of his undying love for the team that drafted him third overall years ago.

"Well, that's a pretty difficult thing to turn down, but I said 'I am happy here in Cleveland. If the deal gets done on its own merit, great. If not, I'm not willing to try and force a trade,'" Thomas replied.

Then, Manning got desperate, so he tried to goad Thomas into getting comfortable being traded with humor. That didn't work either.

"'Alright, how about this? Go up into [general manger] Ray Farmer's office, when he's not there of course, pull your pants down and take a shit on his desk. That way, you don't have to say anything about it, but he has to trade you at that point,'" Manning told Thomas. "I got a good laugh out of that one, and I said 'I'll consider it Peyton, I appreciate that.'" 

That loyalty ended up being a one-way street in terms of an investment to winning between Thomas and the Browns, and he unknowingly turned down a Super Bowl 50 championship ring by doing so. Manning went out on top, even though he was a shell of his five-time NFL MVP self, because he had prime Von Miller and one of the best defenses in football giving him the help he needed. Instead, all Thomas can do now is shake his head and laugh at the insanity of his 11-year case of Stockholm syndrome in Cleveland.