Joe Thomas

I really had to train myself to eat like a maniac really four or five meals a day until I felt sick, just to keep the weight on.

Even though you wouldn't want to line a D-lineman and running back up across from each other to block, when you get help initially from the guard, and then the defensive tackle gets picked up by the running back, it's not as bad as a lot of people would think versus if you're just putting that matchup on paper.

The more space you have there, the better it is for the quarterback, because he's got room to move around there to avoid a rush. And also, after the point of contact, if the rusher does beat me, he still has to go another four yards before he makes a sack. Versus if you drop straight back, he only has to go two more yards.

If it's an outside zone play, you have the green light to cut-block.

I'm not a huge offensive lineman.

Playing in front of the greatest fans in the NFL is easily the greatest honor that I've had in my 11-year career. I hope I was able to make you guys proud in the way that I was always proud when I told people boldly that 'I am a Cleveland Brown.'

The passion, toughness and determination that you display on a daily basis is an inspiration for myself and for all of my teammates and all the people that wear 'Cleveland' across their chest.

Goodbye not because I'm retiring, but because I'm merely changing jobs. From being your left tackle to being the No. 1 fan of the Cleveland Browns.

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.

David Bakhtiari is a guy I like to watch. He's an exceptional left tackle.

I was always the 250 pound guy that I was when I was 18 years old coming out of high school.

So while most people dealt with the scale every Monday at the Berea training facility nervous about how high the number was going to be, I was the one that was nervous about how low the number was going to be.

Maybe down the line I think I would like to call a game, but right now, I recognize where my talents are and how much work and growth I would have to have in order to be able to step into that booth.

I'm not sure I really want to step into the booth.

The idea of going to New York for five days and kinda being paraded around by the NFL as they make money off your every step, and the whole purpose is just for publicity for me to stand there in a suit and go, 'Look at me everybody!'... That sounds horrible.

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.

Until they study the general population and find out what the likelihood of CTE in a soccer mom is versus an NFL brain, we really have no baseline to rate this study off of.

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.

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'd like to play as long as I still love the game, as long as I'm still feeling healthy and playing well so a team would want me to play for them.

If you look historically at the draft at quarterbacks in the top 10, about half of them flame out very quickly.

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.

Growing up in a predominantly white area of the predominantly white state of Wisconsin, it was, I'm sad to say, relatively easy for me to go through life without recognizing or reckoning with the obvious signs of racism.

I honestly thought that since I didn't associate myself with any people or groups who were outwardly racist, and I didn't act in a way that struck me as racist, that this meant that I myself was not a racist, and that racism wasn't a huge issue.

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.

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.

Imagine if you grew up in a place and the team was bad for a long time and there's almost like a pride in being able to stay here and stick it out, knowing that you're going to get to where you promised yourself and you've been promised at some point.

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

We cannot just be nonracist. We really do need to be antiracist.

Antiracism is direct opposition to any idea that supposes one race is better than any other in any respect.

In order to spur progress, we all need to be people who point out and shine a spotlight on racism wherever we see it. It doesn't always have to be confrontational, but it does need to become the societal norm that racism is identified and not tolerated in any form or fashion.

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.

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.

I want to learn more about the game as a whole and about the finer points of technique across the line of scrimmage. I want to learn more about coverages and blitzes so I can kind of see the game before it happens.

Even though you strive for perfection, you're never going to play the perfect game.

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.

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.

When the game gets eyeballs in newspapers and on TV, that's what in the end is the goal for everyone.

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.

I still spend my time feeling sorry for myself and making serious mistakes.

The last person to teach me how to act was my A-level Theatre Studies teacher at school, which I literally still draw on. Got an A!

I'm a Clevelander. I've spent the majority of my adult life here. Every day when I come to work, it's 'Let's turn this team into a consistent winner.' Because it would be such a special story.

I live in a flat in central London. I do like it there; there's always stuff going on. But I do crave a bit of peace and quiet.

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.

Most period drama is so earnest. A lot of it is about making yourself take seriously things you wouldn't normally.

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.

I did a history degree once.

I'm a Cleveland Brown, that's who I am and I'm not going to change allegiances just to get a Super Bowl title. I want to do it as a Cleveland Brown because that's who I am.

You just don't eat until you feel like you're gonna throw up at every meal and all of a sudden the weight falls right off.