For Casey Wiegmann, the reminders of his football past — and of his football mentor — are everywhere.
Ed Thomas’ name is on the red band Wiegmann wears on his wrist, and Thomas’ picture is hanging in Wiegmann’s locker in Dove Valley and all over the walls of Wiegmann’s home.
Thomas was the man who told Wiegmann he was going to play center, back when Wiegmann was in fourth grade in Parkersburg, Iowa. Thomas was his high school coach, and remained Wiegmann’s mentor throughout college and his first 13 years in the NFL.
Wiegmann helped the Broncos raise $50,000 in 2008 to help Thomas rebuild Aplington-Parkersburg High School after the school and its stadium were destroyed by a tornado.
And last June, Wiegmann was a pallbearer at Thomas’ funeral, after Thomas was murdered by a former player.
More than anything, Wiegmann said he has tried to remember Thomas’ words: “Good things happen to good people.”
Q: How did Ed Thomas affect your life beyond football?
A: Going into my senior year, I worked for the local lumberyard, and I’m not really a hands-on guy, but it was a job and I was going to make some extra money. Two weeks in, I hated it and I wanted to quit. I went and approached Coach Thomas and I asked him what he thought I should do, and he goes, “Well, if you quit on this one thing in life, you’re going to quit on a lot of other things in life.” I take that with me everywhere I go.
Q: What was that day like for you, when you found out he had been shot?
A: Going fast, driving through these backcountry roads in Iowa and I get about halfway there and I get a phone call from John Wiegmann, who is one of the co-coaches, from his wife, who said that he had passed. The last half-hour of my drive, I probably shouldn’t have been driving, but I knew I wanted to get back, just to be there. It was hard.
Q: What did it mean to you to be a pallbearer at his funeral?
A: It felt good and bad all at once, of course. I don’t know if Coach knew something was coming, but when I went back after the tornado, I talked to him when he was down there cleaning up the football field. I was doing an interview there and he was talking to my parents, who were sitting in the car, and he said to my parents, ‘He’ll be one of my pallbearers.’ “
Q: Did Coach Thomas get to meet your son (Bo, who turned 2 years old this week)?
A: Every former player that he’s had, he would always send out a certificate, and it says, “Future Falcon” and the year (their kid) would graduate from Aplington-Parkersburg. Right away, when he sent that to Bo, I got it framed, and it is hanging on Bo’s wall in Kansas City.
Q: How has becoming a father changed you?
A: I leave here and I want to get home as fast as I can because I know he’s most likely just waking up from his nap, and the few hours that I can spend with him at night before he goes back down are key. . . . There’s just so much that he’s starting to pick up on, and how much he’s talking. I mean, that’s the stuff you miss, and I don’t want to miss any of it.
Q: How much did Bo factor into your decision to play in 2009?
A: I wanted him to be around it. He went over with us to Hawaii, and he loved being at the game there. He went to the preseason game against Chicago and watched the entire game. I guess when he was back home last week, with my mom and dad, they had the game on and he was eating a snack, and just out of the blue goes “Daddy football” and went up and tried to feed me some food on the TV. He’s understanding what it’s all about.
Q: What do you think you’ll do after football?
A: I don’t know. Probably relax a little bit. Try to lose a little bit of weight and see where it goes from there. I hope to do that; I hope to go that way and not the other way.
About Wiegmann
Position: Center
Height: 6-feet-2
Weight: 285 pounds
Age: 36
Hometown: Parkersburg, Iowa
College: Iowa
Career: Wiegmann, who made his first Pro Bowl last season, has started 131 consecutive games and taken 8,296 consecutive snaps, both the longest streaks among active NFL centers. Wiegmann considered retiring after 2008, but attended offseason workouts this spring and received a new two-year contract in June.
