Browns icon Joe Thomas is first-ballot Hall of Famer. How shot put, swimming aided journey

Joel Bitonio recently stumbled upon an old, grainy video of former Browns teammate Joe Thomas throwing the shot put.

When Bitonio watched the footage on social media, the All-Pro left guard had an epiphany.

“I was like, 'Oh, my God. That looks like his kick set.' It was like clear as day,” Bitonio told the Beacon Journal by phone.

With Thomas voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a first-ballot candidate, an outcome revealed Thursday night during the "NFL Honors" awards show, references to the former Browns left tackle making 10 consecutive Pro Bowls and playing 10,363 consecutive snaps will be at the forefront of discussions about his legendary career on the offensive line.

“I don't see anybody, unless Superman comes back from Krypton or wherever the f*** he lived, doing that,” former Browns offensive line coach Bob Wylie said of Thomas' historic snap streak.

What's not nearly as well known as the popular milestones is the extent to which Thomas credits throwing the shot put for helping him become one of the best pass protectors of a generation.

“I kind of started to develop my own technique sort of by accident, just because of my track and field background, and it worked,” said Thomas, who will be enshrined Aug. 5 in Canton.

This isn't common knowledge, either: Thomas, 38, would not have been able to get himself into shape to play the last season and a half of his career if it weren't for swimming.

“He does what true professionals do,” Wylie said. “He finds a way to prepare himself to get it done.”

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Before Thomas ever played offensive line, he became a shot-putter in the seventh grade. He also played football then, though his position was fullback.

He transitioned to the O-line during his later years at Brookfield Central High School in Wisconsin. Even then, he considered himself more of a tight end than a tackle who had been schooled on the finer points of pass blocking. As a senior in 2003, he won state titles in the shot put and discus.

He moved on to the University of Wisconsin, where he became a star left tackle and a College Football Hall of Fame inductee (class of 2019). In 2005, he broke the UW indoor record in the shot put (62 feet, ¼ inch).

“It was like I was really a shot-putter playing left tackle,” Thomas said.

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Shot-putters either glide or rotate a split second prior to throwing. Thomas used the glide method, meaning he would kick his left leg back, turn and throw.

The way Thomas took a huge, explosive step backward while gliding influenced the kick set he employed as a pass blocker. It enabled him to maintain good posture while moving from point A to point B quickly enough to combat star defenders, like Dwight Freeney, Terrell Suggs, James Harrison and fellow 2023 Hall of Fame inductee DeMarcus Ware, rushing off the edge.

“It was everything for my success,” Thomas said. “If I beat you on the set, you can't win. I don't care how slow I am because I'm going to beat you to the spot, and I'm going to get big, I'm going to get heavy and then I don't have to move my feet quickly. [Edge rushers are] not strong enough typically to just run you over. We called it winning the set. Beating them to the spot, beating them out of their stance — that's everything.”

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Why can't all NFL offensive linemen just do what former Browns left tackle Joe Thomas did?

Drafted third overall by the Browns in 2007, Thomas started all 167 games of his career and played every one of the offense's snaps until Oct. 22, 2017, when he suffered a torn left triceps against the Tennessee Titans. He never suited up for the Browns again.

Thomas earned All-Pro honors eight times, including six first-team selections (2009-11 and 2013-15). He allowed just 30 sacks in 6,680 career pass-block snaps, according to ProFootballFocus.com.

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At some point, other offensive tackles began trying to copy him.

Bitonio simply laughs and wishes them luck.

“Even to this day, I haven't really seen anybody like him, like the way he gets down in his stance and the way he really fires back and stays square for so long,” Bitonio said. “It was very unique, and I think that's a credit to his shot put background.

“Guys would always come into the league in the O-line room with the Browns and be like, 'Oh, I'm going to try to emulate what Joe Thomas does.' But he's the only one that can do it that way.”

Being a 6-foot-6 athletic freak with a basketball background certainly played a role in Thomas possessing elite movement skills. Still, his intellect and ability to think outside the box shouldn't be discounted as vital factors.

“I took my analytic approach, my film study approach, my biomechanical approach from track and field and applied it to the left tackle position,” he said. “I used much more of a big stagger in my set where my left leg was a lot farther back than my right leg, which looked a lot more like what a shot-putter would look like before they throw.

“Most players, you would see them with more of an even stance … but I thought it was more difficult to move back because the very first thing you had to do was move your left leg back a long way before you could even get your body going. … Reducing the amount of things you have to do after the snap makes you quicker and faster, and that's the No. 1 thing where you win or lose on pass rush is how quick you get back.”

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Thomas last threw the shot put as a sophomore in college. He credits former Wisconsin O-line coach Jim Hueber with allowing him to explore his track-and-field-flavored blocking motion, which complemented the vertical set Hueber taught.

“He was the king of the vertical kick set,” Bitonio said of Thomas.

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Through obsessive film breakdown and trial and error, Thomas was able to refine his technique throughout his NFL tenure. Yet the roots from shot put remained evident.

“I don't see any other tackles set like that in the league,” Wylie said.

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Swimming helped, too.

When Thomas retired after the 2017 season, he disclosed his left knee had given him serious trouble, even after an arthroscopic surgery late in his career. It led to his decision to stop playing at the age of 33.

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The problematic knee, along with other physical issues caused by wear and tear on the body, forced Thomas to become a rare practice participant the last few years of his career.

“We kind of realized that I only had so many plays legitimately in my knee for a season,” he said.

Swimming in the lap pool at Browns headquarters in Berea became his go-to conditioning in the buildup to the 2016 season.

“I have really dense bones. I just sink like an anchor,” Thomas said. “But that's why it's a good workout, right? It's really hard for me to stay afloat — like me versus drowning on every lap.

“When I first started swimming as a way to get in shape, I swam five laps, not consecutively, mind you. One time down and then a rest, and I almost passed out. I was so tired, and it was so exhausting. But that's also what allowed me to use it to get myself in shape for the season.”

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Thomas said his knee wouldn't cooperate with a stationary bike. His knee and back weren't compatible with a rowing machine. Jogging was out of the question. He has admitted in the past to playing through a torn lateral collateral ligament, three torn medial collateral ligaments, a four-week back spasm and two high-ankle sprains.

“Swimming was the option,” Thomas said, “but it was a good option because it was so challenging.

“I have no idea how else I would've been able to get in shape because it's kind of hard to be in shape for a 70-play game without doing anything.”

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In typical Thomas fashion, he had fun with his situation. It became common for him to challenge other O-linemen to races in the pool. Only one competitor left him in the dust.

“The surprise of the world — Spencer Drango was this great swimmer who was a lifeguard when he was a kid,” Bitonio said, “and he ended up beating Joe Thomas.”

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It's much harder to surpass Thomas' individual excellence on the football field. He was the main bright spot for the Browns while they went 48-119 in games in which he appeared. He never experienced the playoffs and had just one winning season — 10-6 his rookie year.

Thomas joined Hall of Famers Merlin Olsen, Mel Renfro, Barry Sanders and Lawrence Taylor in 2016 as the only players in NFL history to make the Pro Bowl in each of their first 10 seasons. He's the 18th Hall of Famer in Browns history and the first from their expansion era, which began in 1999. He's the third Browns player to become a first-ballot Hall of Famer, joining Jim Brown and Paul Warfield.

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“He deserves to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” Bitonio said. “If you look at his career and what he did just off accolades alone, Pro Bowls, All Pros, things of that nature, captain, snap streak, just that alone I think gets him in the Hall of Fame.

"But then you look at his situation. When you play left tackle for a guy like Peyton Manning or a guy like Tom Brady in your career, he makes life a lot easier for a lineman. So for Joe to go through however many number of quarterbacks he went through, changing it up week to week and being able to be that consistently good for that long and having that longevity is pretty dang impressive.”

Thomas blocked for 20 starting quarterbacks, tied for the most among all NFL offensive linemen since 1970.

“He really has a passion to play the game,” Wylie said. “He helps the other players. It's just not about Joe. It's about all the people in the [O-line] room. In the room, he'd sometimes lean over and he'd tell one of the young tackles something. I would stop the meeting.

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“I said, 'Joe, I don't mind you doing that. But what I want you to do is I want you to tell everybody in the room what you just told him because that information is important to somebody else in this room.' Joe did that. Joe would take the younger guys after practice and help them.”

Thomas still gladly shares advice with Browns players. The wisdom is invaluable.

“He did it all,” Bitonio said, “and now he can call himself a Hall of Famer.”

Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com.

On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Joe Thomas, Browns legend, elected to Hall of Fame