Rating: (0 votes - average)

Saints Receiver Michael Thomas Is Here to Make History, Not to Be Famous



TYLER DUNNE
SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

NEW ORLEANS — His voice quivers and his words crawl. He rubs his chin. He pauses six...seven...eight seconds at a time, thinking of the perfect words to use. Once those words float into the air, they're vague and overly sanitized.

The last thing Michael Thomas wants to talk about is Michael Thomas.

There will be no digging deep into his upbringing, no reliving childhood trauma that molded him into who he is. "I'll write that story," Thomas says, sternly, only briefly touching on the back-to-back deaths of a grandmother and great aunt. When asked what traits those two sisters passed on to him, Thomas fidgets in his chair and refuses to go there.

Yet this is also a blooming star in the midst of what he's dubbed the #NoRecordIsSafeTourVol3. The 6'3", 212-pound wide receiver pulls off one show-stopping stunt at a time, flexes both biceps and snarls into the distance catch after catch after catch. And still, there's little we know about him. Such blistering dominance must be rooted in something, right?

Eventually, Thomas' eyes double-take, then triple-take a recorder that's resting on the desk in front of him.

He can't see the shining red dot. He thinks it's turned off.

"You're getting this, right?"

Then, he cuts loose.

"When I show up to play and the numbers [come] back," he says, "I'm the guy that [will be] at the top. And we're talking about NFL history. Not your franchise. We're talking NFL history. We're talking about every guy that's played the position—for any organization—who had a chance to be in my position and write his name in history but didn't.

"And I feel like I did.

"That's how the story has to be told."

In style and substance, he's unlike any of his peers. Thomas, in his third season with the Saints, relishes one-on-one combat. Seeks it. His sports idol as a kid? Allen Iverson, and he's dead set on bringing AI-like tenacity to a position forever occupied by attention-starved egotists. Take this to the bank, too, he says: He will not drop the ball. Thomas can count on both hands how many passes he's dropped in his life. All the way back to Pop Warner.

Read the rest here ...

AsylumGuido

An excellent article on Michael Thomas from Bleacher Report.

Very long interview, but very good!

joker-saint

He won't drop the pass, but he sure will fumble. I wonder how many fingers he needs to count his fumbles? Hope he doesn't ever do that again. I like this kid. He's got heart.

AsylumGuido

He's got four fumbles out of his 234 career receptions. If I'm not mistaken they all took place when he was fighting for extra yards. That is a fine line to walk between just taking the gain and trying to stretch it out for a few more yards. Sometimes it results in a fumble and other times it can result in a big gain. Tough one there.

Rugby Saint II

He is the best receiver in the NFL hands down......or in the air catching a ball between defenders.

RailBoss

He will learn to protect the ball, the great ones always do...