NFL Legend Joe Thomas Talks Training With Military Dogs Ahead of Hall of Fame Induction (Exclusive)

NFL Legend Joe Thomas Talks Training With Military Dogs Ahead of Hall of Fame Induction (Exclusive),Joe Thomas got tackled by dogs before entering the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

NFL Legend Joe Thomas Talks Training With Military Dogs Ahead of Hall of Fame Induction (Exclusive)

Joe Thomas is getting ready for one of the biggest days of his football career as he will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame next week. But before that happens, the legendary Cleveland Browns offensive lineman got the opportunity to work with military dogs at the Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio for USAA, the NFL’s Salute to Service partner. PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to Thomas, who talked about his experience of being taken down by military dogs.

“It was a lot of fun if you like getting your arm bit off, and you like getting tackled by 90-pound dogs,” Thomas exclusively told PopCulture. “USAA, they’re the official NFL Salute to Service partner, and it provided me, as a former NFL player, and Whitney Mercilus, another former NFL player that I used to wrestle with on Sundays, a cool opportunity to go down to Air Force Base Randolph in San Antonio, and just kind of see what it’s like being in the military working dog unit. And I think it gives you an amazing appreciation for how hard those guys work, and what they do to keep our country safe. But also, I think I walked away with an incredible impression of how smart these dogs were, how good their noses were, but also the fact that they’re 80 or 90 pounds, and they’re twice as fast as us, but also they’re easily strong enough to take out me and Whitney a couple of times. So it was all in all an incredible experience.”

#ad Thanks to @USAA for bringing @merci380 & I out to run the ‘K-9 40’ at JBSA-Randolph. It was awesome to see both these military working dogs & their handlers, who help protect our country. Thank you for your service! #USAApartner #SalutetoService pic.twitter.com/mlWuFLBd0P

— Joe Thomas (@joethomas73) July 27, 2023

With the NFL being a major sports league, the players have a platform to give back to those who give so much to the country. During his NFL career, Thomas had the opportunity to visit military members and bases to show his appreciation for what they do.

“I always really enjoyed the platform that we got as pro athletes to be able to give back, to be able to go and visit military members and say thank you,” Thomas said. “That’s such an important thing for everybody in this country to be able to do, and just thank those men and women in the military for all that they do, and the sacrifices that they make helping keep us safe. Being at the Pro Bowl almost every year, we got an opportunity to go visit the military bases when we were in Hawaii, there’s a bunch of bases out there.”

“But I think the coolest thing that I did during my NFL years was, I got to go on an NFL USO trip, where we actually went over to Afghanistan, we flew around in Black Hawks, they gave us bulletproof vests and helmets, and we got to go to the front lines of the war in Afghanistan and go thank these guys that really hadn’t seen any visitors in six months, eight months, nine months, and they were coming back from daily contact with the enemy every single day. So that was easily the coolest experience and the most gratifying and rewarding experience that I had during my NFL career.”

Thomas played for the Browns from 2007 to 2017. He was selected to the Pro Bowl 10 times and is a member of the NFL 2010s All-Deacade Team. Thomas is also a member of the College Football Hall of Fame after being named a Unanimous All-American for the Wisconsin Badgers.

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