Wednesday, February 18, 2009

My bromance with Thomas Jones


Illegal in 50 states...

For those of you who don't know, I have a total man-crush on Thomas Jones. I followed him when he was drafted out of VA (ever since he had a feature in the 2000 NFL draft preview in ESPN magazine) and became completely obsessed when the Bears signed him in 04.

I love his work ethic, I love his attitude and he's an awesome football player.

Weird thing about him is that he keeps getting BETTER every year... normally running backs peak in their 2nd year and play at a high level for a year or two and then you never hear from them again. Check out TJ's numbers:

YearTeamRushYdsYds/GAvgTD





2000Arizona11237326.63.32






2001Arizona11238023.83.45






2002Arizona13851156.83.72





2003Tampa Bay13762739.24.63





2004Chicago24094867.74.07





2005Chicago314133589.04.39




2006Chicago296121075.64.16





2007New York310111969.93.61





2008New York290131282.04.513






I cannot emphasize how insane that is.  Dude had his best season when he turned 30 (when most backs typically break down) and has spent his entire career fighting off younger, more highly touted options (Pittman, Benson, now Washington).

He's a real leader, not afraid to call out anybody (including golden boy Brett Favre) and is always willing to lead by example - he clearly spends a lot of time in the gym.

I also just stumbled upon this ultra-gay music video from some chick named "Trina" and it looks like TJ makes a steamy cameo for you ladies out there:




I will always remember him best for his time with the Bears: trudging out yards against 9 in the box with Kyle Orton and Craig Krenzel under center. A real warrior.

P.S. Does this post make me gay?

-KEG

3 comments:

Gepetto said...

...yeah, I'm pretty sure it does.

Keggers said...

Damn.

NC said...

If the name of your blog didn't this definitely does...

It's pretty clear that TJ is peaking late because he didn't get the chance to be a full time back until recently.

He's like Tiki, another late bloomer for a RB.