Jump to content

WOS and Texas Safety Earl Thomas

kicker

By kicker
in SETXsports Archived Threads

 Share

Recommended Posts

kicker

kicker

Posted
Posted
Thomas enjoying his holiday crowd
Texas safety reaches cusp of glory after tragic and near-tragic events
By MIKE FINGER
Houston Chronicle
Dec. 24, 2009, 9:01PM


The red carpet as a finalist for the Thorpe Award was a long way from living in a Motel 6 for Earl Thomas.

Before the storm, Debbie Thomas did not question the unexplained. Once, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and given six months to live. But the day she arrived at the hospital for a hysterectomy she didn't want to have, the doctors ran some last-minute tests and furrowed their brows.

The cancer was gone.

A year later, she gave birth to a son.

When that son turned 4, Thomas received a call from a music store in Nederland, a half-hour drive from her home in Orange. The man on the phone said her boy had won a drawing for a new set of drums. Those drums coaxed the performer out of her child, and his performances would eventually delight not only his grandfather's church crowd but also a burnt orange-clad congregation 100,000-strong.

Strangely, though, no one in Thomas' family had been to that music store before. And none remembered entering any drawing.

So Thomas knew good things came from the unexplained, but on Christmas four years ago, she could not see what good could come from this. Hurricane Rita had devastated her home, wiped out her father-in-law's church, and made her what would turn out to be a yearlong resident of a Motel 6.

She and her husband shared one bed. Her two sons shared the one next to it. The Waffle House was across the street. There was a Christmas tree in the lobby, but her pictures and decorations had been destroyed, and there was no place to cook her traditional holiday meal.

“I cried when I wasn't around my kids,” she said. “You want them to be home, especially on Christmas. You want them to have better.”

Almost without explanation, better would come.

Still a solo artist
Years after the storm, Earl Thomas III still likes his space. His fellow members of the No. 2 Texas Longhorns football team roll in packs to the movies, clubs or parties, but often Thomas will go out alone.

The kid Debbie Thomas calls her “miracle baby” is famous now, not only at the places of worship where he plays piano and organ and saxophone but also to thousands of college football fans. So when he goes to UT basketball games by himself, they flash his image on the JumboTron. Kids line up in the aisles for an autograph of the All-America safety who intercepted a school-record eight passes this season, and he signs them all.

Then he goes back to his solitude.

“I like to get away,” Earl Thomas said. “I just like to chill by myself sometimes.”

Back at the Motel 6, that was all but impossible. Occasionally a classmate from West Orange Stark would invite him to spend the night, or some of his parents' friends would invite the family over for dinner. But he ate more waffles than he cares to remember, and for the majority of more than a year after Rita hit in September 2005, the four of them were stuck in that one room, with his grandparents a couple of doors down.

“You get cramped up in there,” Thomas said.

NFL may be on hold
He seldom experiences that feeling on a football field, though. At 5-10, 197 pounds with flowing braids and rippling muscles, Thomas is the most dynamic force in UT's lauded defensive backfield. After sitting his first season, he started all 13 games last year as a redshirt freshman and was even better in 2009. Thomas made 71 tackles, broke up 16 passes and returned two of his eight interceptions for touchdowns this season.

He studies more film than he used to, and the more he watches, the more he understands how to make use of his physical attributes.

“He's realized he has a lot of ability,” said fellow UT safety Blake Gideon.

“He is an absolute dream to coach,” defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said.

Barring the unforeseen, someday an NFL coach will have that privilege. Thomas was a finalist for the Thorpe Award — honoring the nation's top defensive back — and he will have the option to turn pro after this season. He said last month he intends to return to UT for a fourth season, and this week his mother said he won't think about the NFL until after the Bowl Championship Series title game against Alabama on Jan. 7.

Regardless of where he goes next, he's already gone farther than he once imagined.

“Not too many people from Orange make it out of Orange,” Thomas said.

But two days before another Christmas, he took pride in going back.

Home for the holidays
Wednesday night, Earl Thomas III, his brother (Seth, a defensive back at McNeese State) and his father surprised Debbie Thomas with a holiday dinner.

Their home is still not repaired, but they're living with Earl's grandfather, whose Sixth Street Community Church is up and running again. After the meal, “Little Earl” stood up and said a few words about all his mother had done for him.

Then, in front of her kids, she allowed herself to do what she did in secret four Christmases ago.

She cried.

“It was a tearjerker,” Debbie Thomas said. “It was just so wonderful to have my boys home again.”

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kicker

kicker

Posted
  • Author
Posted
[quote name="API steve" post="736378" timestamp="1262174604"]
That young man sounds like a great person, I hope he stays that way. It sounds like he has the solid foundation................
[/quote]

He is, and he comes from a great family. His work ethic is second to none.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Member Statistics

    46,206
    Total Members
    1,837
    Most Online
    Ceb2000
    Newest Member
    Ceb2000
    Joined


×
×
  • Create New...