As we get closer to Super Bowl 59, there are a bevy of athletes doing interviews and I was lucky enough to catch up with Buffalo Bills legend, Thurman Thomas. The Hall of Famer was a great runner but his pass-catching doesn’t get mentioned enough.
“Coming out of the Big 8, what it was back then, not the Big 12, all we did was run the football. They didn’t care if you can catch the ball or not,” Thomas reminisced. “They wanted to know if you can carry the ball 30-40 times a game and that would be straight up the middle.
“When I was in college at Oklahoma State my receivers coach was Houston Nutt. I got to work with him after practice. I worked really hard on catching the ball out of the backfield. It got me to the NFL until we started to run the K-gun offense.”
Supporting Gridiron Greats is something near and dear to his heart.
“Just having an opportunity to help former players and former greats of the game who played in the 50s and 60s and financially are going through some things it’s been a great morning so far,” said Thomas. “I’ve been hearing about what coach Ditka has been doing the past 15 years and never really had an opportunity to help the cause. I got an email last year and I wanted to be a part of it.”
The role of running backs in today’s game is still vital, yet some teams don’t want to pay big money for one. The Eagles have Saquon Barkley, and he’s worth every penny. Thomas had his thoughts on this subject.
“I think some coaches are going back to the basics of football. Running the ball, focusing on tackling, those things. Not have your quarterback do everything you ask for. That’s kind of the problem we were having in Buffalo,” said Thomas. “They would have Josh Allen do everything. When you have a guy like James Cook, who can catch the ball out of the backfield, and he’s a great runner. He showed that at the University of Georgia.
“We have Ray Davis and Ty Johnson who go about it a little differently. Let’s utilize these guys on the football field and not have Josh Allen do everything. Patrick Mahomes doesn’t do everything…We’ve seen Mahomes run more the past few weeks than he did all season because he knows the importance of the game and he’s taking over. There’s a time and a place for that for Josh, Lamar, or anybody to take over. Having that extra weapon you can lean on, especially the offensive line.”
Then he mentioned what he loves about the Philadelphia Eagles.
“Philadelphia has a good chance in this game if their offensive line blocks the way they can and with an all-star running back in Saquon back there, it makes things easier for Jalen Hurts.”
When I mentioned that I thought New York Jets running back, Breece Hall could be a Top 3 player at that position, he replied with, “Yup”.
Thomas has played in four Super Bowls and I asked him about the pressure playing in that game.
“It comes with some pressure. No doubt. For instance, in my career, I think you get to that fourth one and there is pressure because you’ve lost three in a row, and the last two you didn’t play well. There was no pressure in our first one. There was no pressure in our second one. As it went on it became a lot of pressure. I wouldn’t say we didn’t handle the pressure. We just didn’t play well. That’s what it was. It wasn’t like we didn’t look like a professional football team. Things just didn’t go our way.”
Thomas had a team he liked in the big game.
“I go for the AFC, no matter the odds. Philly has a chance if Saquon and the offensive line can get the running game going early….You can never count out Mahomes. I would never bet against him. It’s one game. I can’t come back Tuesday night and score 50 when I scored 15 in the first game. I don’t have that luxury. It’s one game. You play well or you don’t,” Thomas stated.
Thomas was there to celebrate the Southern Recipe Small Batch pork rinds with pork rinds day coming up on Sunday.
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I will air the full audio interview at a later date.
