Today in Patriots History
Adalius Thomas
Happy 48th birthday to Adalius Thomas
Born August 18, 1977 in Equality, Alabama; hometown Rockford, AL
Patriot linebacker, 2007-2009; uniform #96
Signed as a veteran free agent on March 3, 2007
Pats résumé: three seasons, 39 games (35 starts), 14½ sacks; four playoff games, two sacks
Today's top birthday is eerily similar to the most recent post (Matt Judon). A highly coveted free agent linebacker who had played for the Baltimore Ravens is signed by the Patriots; plays magnificently initially; suffers an injury; and after some acrimony, departs after three seasons.
While Adalius Thomas is most remembered for how things ended poorly with him in Foxboro, it is worth pointing that it wasn't always that way. He was an incredibly athletic defender with Baltimore, capable of playing nearly every position on the field. That versatility is why Bill Belichick was willing to "back up the Brink's truck" to pay him when he hit free agency. Thomas was initially a beast with the Patriots, until he broke his arm against the Bills late in the 2008 season.
Things went south in 2009 for whatever reason. He was a healthy scratch for a game against Tennessee, then was one of three players who were sent home after arriving late to a morning meeting due to a snowstorm. One day after the 2010 draft the Patriots released Thomas. As far as I know no other teams offered him a workout or contract - and his NFL career was over.
“What do you do? It’s not ‘The Jetsons,’ I can’t jump up and just fly. What the heck am I supposed to do?”
Feb 4, 2010:
Adalius Thomas details falling out -- Mike Reiss, espn
“After the Buffalo game, the first game of the year, something happened and I was like ‘I really don’t understand this,’" Thomas said.
“I really don’t want to go into it, because I still don’t understand it. I had a meeting and I just really didn’t understand some of the stuff I was being told. So I knew at that point it was bigger than what was on the surface. It was something bigger than that. You guys watch the games. I was used totally differently this year than I was last year before I broke my arm. Even before I came back, I was told that I was going to be used differently.”
Asked more about the meeting after the Bills game, Thomas said it wasn’t about a specific play but more his overall performance and “whether or not it was sufficient.”
“It’s the first game back and the way some stuff went down, I just really didn’t understand it,” he said. “It was a confusing meeting to me. I understood some of it, but a lot of it was just confusing and it even got more confusing as the year went on.”
One theme that came up a few times in the interview -- and seemed to be at the root of Thomas' frustration -- was Thomas pointing out that the coaches critiquing his play weren’t on the field themselves. It sounded like Thomas felt that he was being overcoached.
“The way they coach things and do things may be totally different than how I see it,” he said. “There is a checks-and-balance system that really is not going to marry up because regardless of what you see as a player on that play, it really doesn’t matter if someone else sees it differently. Unless you’re on the field, there are a million things going on at one time. So when you see something and you go, you don’t have time to sit back and think or whatever.
“Monday through Saturday is for coaches. Sunday has to be for the player. You do adjustments and everything like that, which is great, but at the same time you can’t coach every single thing during the game. It’s just impossible to do because there are so many things going on. A player can’t tell you every single thing that happens in front of him because it happens so fast and there is the next play. You’re trying to go to the sidelines trying to recap everything and it’s kind of hard to do that.”
Apr 26, 2010:
Patriots release Adalius Thomas -- Patriots.com
Thomas, 6-2, 270 pounds, originally signed with New England as an unrestricted free agent on March 3, 2007. Last season, he played in 14 games with 11 starts and finished with 31 total tackles, three sacks and two passes defensed. Thomas has played in 135 NFL games and has accumulated 584 tackles, seven interceptions, 17 forced fumbles, six fumble recoveries and 79 special teams tackles.
Apr 26, 2010:
Jeff Howe with his thoughts:
After months of anticipation, the Patriots finally released Thomas on Monday morning, according to a report. Thomas had long since fallen out of favor with head coach Bill Belichick, and the linebacker’s performance in 2009 was uninspired and warranted two games on the bench. When asked in...
nesn.com
When asked in February about the tension between Thomas and Belichick, a Patriots source told NESN.com, “Yeah, everybody saw that. That was no secret.”
Thomas has thrown some passive-aggressive jabs at Belichick through the media — at least twice last season from the Pats’ locker room, and then again during separate interviews with 98.5 The Sports Hub and the Boston Globe — stoking a fire he obviously didn’t want to simmer.
It wasn’t solely Thomas’ fault, but his constant whining will leave him remembered as the bad guy. Plus, Belichick and the Patriots won three Super Bowls before Thomas arrived — as Thomas’ former Ravens teammate, Ray Lewis, pointed out in 2007 — so the head coach will usually earn the benefit of the doubt in such occasions.
Still, it just wasn’t the right fit. Thomas signed a $35 million, five-year contract prior to the 2007 season — the most money the Patriots have ever dished out to a free agent — and he played well at the start of his career in New England. He had a 17-game stretch from 2007-08 when he recorded 13 sacks, including his masterful two-sack performance in the Super Bowl.
But Thomas had only registered three sacks since that point. In that most recent stretch, he played in 17 games, missed seven due to injury and was benched twice. While Thomas has showed he can be a very strong pass rusher, he couldn’t excel with the other responsibilities Belichick levied to his outside linebackers. Credit Belichick with some blame in that regard, too, because he wasn’t always putting Thomas in a position to succeed.
When Thomas stopped playing at a high level on the field, he became testier behind the scenes, and it sounds like he was able to further act out his displeasure after the Patriots lost leaders Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel and Richard Seymour. This wasn’t Thomas’ first temperamental issue, either.
After leaving the Ravens, he got into a war of words with Lewis, the longtime Baltimore leader who called Thomas a “coward” and noted the Ravens needed to adjust their schemes to coddle Thomas. Sound familiar?
Apr 26, 2010:
The New England Patriots on Monday released former Pro Bowl linebacker Adalius Thomas, who joined the team as a high-profile free agent in 2007, but fell into disfavor with coach Bill Belichick last season.
www.espn.com
In the end, it was a pairing in which both sides didn't get what they felt was advertised.
Thomas had issues with his role, expecting to be used as more of a pure pass-rusher, while the Patriots were disappointed with Thomas' production and presence in the locker room.
Given the timing of the release, it appears the Patriots tried to trade Thomas during the draft and when nothing materialized, they went ahead with the release.
"After the draft, we talked about the personnel and looked at our roster and so forth, and we made that decision to move on with the players that we have," Belichick told Boston sports radio station WEEI. "He was a good football player, he came in and had a heck of a year for us in '07. Again, at this point in time, we felt like this was the direction we had to go on."
22:43 Audio from the Ravens' website:
The former Ravens linebacker talks about his fight for voting rights in Georgia, his frustration with the way his NFL career ended, and his many business dealings.
Former NFL linebacker, Adalius Thomas, spent 10 seasons between the Ravens and the Patriots. Adalius attended The University of Southern Mississippi and was drafted in the 6th round of the 2000 draft. He is a Super Bowl champion, a 2X Pro Bowler, and a 2006 First Team All-Pro selection. We...
nflpa.com
Former NFL linebacker, Adalius Thomas, spent 10 seasons between the Ravens and the Patriots. Adalius attended The University of Southern Mississippi and was drafted in the 6th round of the 2000 draft. He is a Super Bowl champion, a 2X Pro Bowler, and a 2006 First Team All-Pro selection.
How has your career been since transitioning out of the league?
I would say slow because I left the game unexpectedly and when you think you're going to play again and have to sit around and wait for a call, it's a little different than a planned exit. You find yourself working out and doing all the right things and trying to find who you are. You've been doing something since you were a kid and it’s tough trying to understand all the emotional roller coaster moments that you go through with your mental health. You don't understand it, and so the transition was a little tough for me to go through because I thought I could still play the game but was not given the opportunity to play for one more season. It was a tough adjustment for me, and I think that having patience with yourself is very important.
Thomas was raised by his mother, a seamstress for Russell Athletics, and his father, an electrician, in the tiny town of Rockford, Alabama in Coosa County. Although a talented athlete, the NFL wasn’t something Thomas focused on. For him, football started simply as a way to get a college education, which he knew he wanted as the foundation for his future. In fact he was initially interested in sports administration and chose that as his major at the University of Southern Mississippi. But, as it turned out, football became more than just a means to obtain a college degree.
Thomas was acutely aware that the end of his football days was always right around the corner. While he was playing, he dabbled in real estate, but upon retiring he knew he wanted something more.
A friend suggested the restaurant business and Thomas was immediately interested. He ultimately opened a restaurant in Raleigh, North Carolina, which then led to his opening two others, one in Durham, North Carolina and one in Ellicott City, Maryland. He loved the combination of the business and social aspects and the purpose it gave him every day. They all remain open and successful.
Nov 4, 2015:
One of your neighbors posted in Neighbor News. Click through to read what they have to say. (The views expressed in this post are the author’s own.)
patch.com
Thomas is now co-owner of several restaurants, including Bolt Bistro and Bar in Raleigh, N.C.
I didn't realize that Deion Sanders refers to
himself as "
Coach Prime" now.
And apparently most in the sports media do as well!
Gimme a break...
May 30, 2024:
Already loaded with NFL experience, the Colorado football staff has gained even more recently. During a video posted by Well Off Media on Tuesday, CU head coach Deion Sanders introduced a new membe…
www.dailycamera.com
Already loaded with NFL experience, the Colorado football staff has gained even more recently. During a video posted by Well Off Media on Tuesday, CU head coach Deion Sanders introduced a new member of the staff, as Adalius Thomas will be a…
www.buffzone.com
Adalius Thomas, a former NFL standout, has joined the Colorado Buffaloes as a defensive analyst under head coach Deion Sanders. Thomas, who played ten seasons in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots, brings a wealth of experience to the team. Sanders and Thomas were teammates with the Ravens in 2004 and 2005, and Sanders praised Thomas as "arguably the smartest football player" he's ever played with. “Played every position on the field and special teams was everything to him. So not only can he help with the defense, but special teams as well, because that’s what he did. That’s where he made his mark when he first got there.”
May 22, 2025:
Where is Adalius Thomas now? The former Patriots free-agent bust has jumped to the coaching ranks, where he's teamed up with Deion Sanders.
www.masslive.com
2009 Patriots Media Guide
Get Adalius Thomas Career game log for regular season and playoff games on Pro-football-reference.com.
www.pro-football-reference.com
Pro Football Archives -- Adalius Thomas
