Joe Thomas

“My family, friends and community members rarely spoke about race relations, or how people from different races have different experiences growing up in America. Race was a taboo topic.”

“No, but I remember going out to Las Vegas while playing AAU for a team from Wisconsin. I'd heard about this LeBron James guy. We went to the gym to watch his team, and I was very impressed at how big and athletic he was even at that age.”

“You don't need to over-dramatise life, you can just reflect it. It's more interesting, in a way, if it appears to ring true.”

“At university, I said to a girl, 'Before I met you all I could think about was history; now, all I can think about is you'. I thought that was the sort of thing you had to say.”

“It's just a matter of sometimes the CTE in your brain affects what happens in your life... and sometimes... it does not.”

“I love Cleveland. I really do. I love the Browns, I love being a part of this organization, and it's been kind of my career's mission to help turn this team around into a consistent winner.”

“Behavior is individual and projecting an individual behavior upon an entire race is a version of racism. Put yourself in someone else's shoes: imagine what it would be like going thru life having this type of projection on you.”

“I can hardly think of any players that have really walked out of their own volition while there were still teams that really wanted them at a fair price.”

“I didn't want to miss that opportunity to be able to enjoy an afternoon fishing with my dad which is something we had done growing up a ton of times on Lake Michigan and it was funny that it kind of turned into an attention thing than I expected and even more than if I would have gone to the draft.”

“Men and women have different ideas of what constitutes tidiness. I tend to think it's about things being clean, but my mum and girlfriend are more about how things look.”

“Coming in, you're so concerned about learning your job and the things you need to do to be successful individually. Once that's good, you can start to focus on learning guys around you and learning defenses and what they're trying to do to you.”

“Who cares if they throw a football that has no air pressure? What does it matter? Why don't we let the quarterbacks do whatever they want to the football? I don't understand why there's any rules.”

“The Browns have unbelievable medical resources. I'm always seeking the best help and advice possible. I'll continue to do that even when my career is over.”

“For me, I would say that the overarching reason that it's important for me to stay in Cleveland... when I was drafted here I really kind of embraced being a Clevelander.”

“And I could always count on that day because, those who love good Jet's Pizza understand that one slice of Jet's Pizza is like 400 calories. So I knew if I ate 8-10 slices, I would be able to maintain my weight for that week and basically kind of boost it for our weigh-in on Friday.”

“When I was drafted in Cleveland, I wanted to turn this team back into a perennial playoff contender and to win the Super Bowl.”

“So, there's no guarantee in the NFL that if you've got the No. 1 pick or you've got a top-five pick, that you're going to be able to draft a franchise quarterback.”

“Towards the end of my career, I had a lot of wear and tear, a lot of arthritis that was building up. Being 300 pounds for over 15 years was starting to take its toll. I was constantly on all sorts of anti-inflammatories and medicines to deal with the pain.”

“I can say confidently that I don't think Austin Corbett is going to play tackle in the NFL.”

“My mentality from the day I started playing sports was that you get up, you dust yourself off and you do it again.”