Hard to hear about Earl Thomas
I don't know exactly what has happened to Earl Thomas in the three years since he left Seattle. I just know that the story makes me incredibly sad.
I was late getting into the Seahawks locker room after their game on Sept. 24, 2012.
You might not remember that date, but you’ll remember that game. It was the Monday night contest against Green Bay. “The Golden Fleece” was the nickname I tried to get to stick though “Fail Mary” is what won out. I was covering the game for The Seattle Times and was designated as the press representative who would interview the referee after the game should there be any questions. There were questions, if you’ll recall, which meant I was late getting over to Seattle’s locker room.
By the time I got there, Earl Thomas already must have conducted his post-game interview because when I came over to his locker he was alone, looking at his phone. He showed me a picture of his daughter, who had been born earlier that day. Earl has a huge personality, but he is not a loud person. In that locker room, joy radiated from him.
I wind up thinking back to this moment whenever I spend any significant amount of time thinking about Thomas’s current situation and it makes me really sad.
This newsletter will not include anything in the way of resolution. I don’t have any explanation for what has happened to Thomas nor a prescription for what he needs to do going forward. Also, the primary concern here is not Thomas but the safety of his children and wife, and mostly this story reflects the difficulty of watching someone you remember so fondly struggle so mightily when he’s still got so much life ahead of him.
Earl is an enormously talented person. Not just an instinctive and spontaneous football player, but a talented musician. He played piano at Fishbones, a jazz joint in Austin, back when he was in college. Early in high school, before he transferred to a bigger school, he’d play for the football team in the first and the second half and march with the band in between. I met his wife, whom he’s known since high school.
And now? Well now, there have been at least three times police were called to deal with an issue between Earl and his wife. On the first occasion, she tracked him down while he was with another woman and entered the house with his gun, which she thought was unloaded. It did in fact have a bullet. The most recent incident was his arrest last Friday on an outstanding warrant after someone called to report he was at a bar. The warrant was for violating the terms of a protective order Earl’s wife had taken out against him. Specifically, Earl threatened her via text. Thomas’s lawyer indicated they’re in the process of divorcing.