Jeff Thomason's dream was just answered. He's going to play in the Super Bowl for the Eagles. What's so special about his story? Earlier this week, he was training to become a project manager for Toll Brothers construction company.
He enjoyed a 10-year NFL career as a tight end where he played for the Bengals, the Packers and finally the Eagles from 2000-2002. But the Eagles selected a tight end from Temple in the 2002 draft and Thomason was released. After one more tryout with the Panthers in 2003, he hung up his cleats and went home to NJ to look for a "real" job. He was nine months into the training program when current Eagles tight End Chad Lewis gave him a call on Monday morning.
Thomason and Lewis became good friends while they were teamates from '00-'02 and have remained friends since. Lewis injured his foot in the NFC title game and when the results of his tests came back, he was told he would need surgery. Lewis called Thomason to tell him the bad news, but then sprung some godo news too: he wanted Thomason to take his place in the Supr Bowl. A few calls and a few days later, Thomason passed his physical, learned the playbook and was on the practice field with the rest of the team.
He'll be playing in the Super Bowl next Sunday and he'll have the City of Philadelphia cheering him on, just like it was a few short years ago. Who knows if he'll play well enough to be offered a long-term contract from the Eagles or another team, but he'll always have the experience in playing in the Big Dance and who knows, he may even get a nice ring out of it.
This just made my day. Go Iggles!
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