Julius Thomas runs in a touchdown against the Cowboys during a preseason game. (Seth McConnell, The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Back up to Week 6, when the Broncos defeated the Jets in New Jersey and the only play many () wanted to home in on was Julius Thomas’ touchdown in the third quarter. As he leaped to catch Peyton Manning’s throw in the middle of the end zone, he shouted “It’s so easy!” (among a few other things).
The mics on the field picked it up. The blogs picked it up. Everyone picked it up. And for yet another week, Thomas’ was all about his antics and not his play.
Thomas later tried to clarify his comments or, what seemed to some, . But in , in which Thomas was named a contributing editor, he explained fully why it really hasn’t been so easy for him over the years.
“I’m the guy who ‘came out of nowhere,'” he wrote. “I’m the guy who everybody ‘slept on.’ But I’ll be the first to tell you that there was a good reason people were sleeping on me. Not that long ago, I was a joke.
“When I first started playing college football in 2010, the last word I would use to describe the sport for me was ‘easy.'”
Thomas, who played football as a freshman in high school, decided to focus on basketball and played all four years at Portland State. It wasn’t until his senior year that he chose to put his pads back on.
And after many years of not playing, returning to the field was, well, not easy, especially when he had played wide receiver and the Portland State coach put him with the tight ends.
“After that first week, I remember calling my dad,” he wrote. “I was pretty close to taking my talents back to the basketball court. By all measures, I sucked. But I decided to give it one more week.”
Thomas admitted that after a year of being back on the field, he “wasn’t a good football player.” But his athleticism and potential earned him a spot in the NFL Combine, something he never expected but also something he knew would be yet another challenge.
“As you can imagine, it’s pretty humbling to admit that you don’t know very much about football while interviewing for a position on a professional football team,” Thomas wrote. “I knew I couldn’t sell teams on my resume, so I had to sell them on my desire to improve.”
He must have sold the Broncos. They selected him in the fourth round (129th overall) in the 2011 draft and, after a slow start because of injuries, has quickly turned into one of the top tight ends in the game. He was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2013 and already has nine receiving touchdowns this season, tied for the most in the NFL this season and first all-time by a tight end through the first five games of the season.
His piece, he says, is to tell fans and readers that he doesn’t believe life or football “is so easy,” and, though it’s often been overlooked or masked by some of his actions this season, he is known for putting in countless hours to hone his craft. He watches film every week of the other top tight ends in the NFL to learn from them, and even Manning has spoken of the hours he Thomas .
“Give me a little time, I’ll get better,” Thomas wrote. “But I assure you, it’s only easy when you’re determined to make it so.”
