Seahawks’ Earl Thomas: I Wanna Be the Best Athlete in Any Sport, Can’t Afford a Day Off
By Josh Davis
Seattle Seahawks free safety Earl Thomas says he hates speaking for everybody else, which means he speaks only for himself, and always what he has to say is impressive.
More from Seattle Seahawks News
- 4 prospects Seahawks could reach for at No. 20 in 2023 NFL Draft
- Seattle Seahawks Mock Draft: Post-first wave of free agency
- Seahawks podcast: A review of the first week of free agency
- 4 experiments the Seattle Seahawks could cut short in 2023
- 3 pros and cons of Seattle Seahawks drafting Anthony Richardson
In an exclusive interview with Mike Yam, Thomas spoke on how ready this Seattle Seahawks team is to handle the challenge of defending their World Championship. Interestingly, he didn’t talk about repeating.
"When you have success like that… we opened the door. But we haven’t opened that next door. I hate speaking for everybody else, but me personally, I took the challenge to become the best athlete, no matter what sport. So, me taking that challenge, I can’t afford to take a day off. I can’t afford to be complacent, because I know that untapped potential’s right around the corner, I just gotta keep going."
Wow. Just wow. That’s such an impressive and mature answer for any player, much less a young safety as Earl is entering just his fifth season in the NFL. I bet the NFL scouts who wrote this following statement about Thomas coming out of college didn’t know about his heart and drive. Just listen to this:
"WEAKNESSES Thomas is lean and not very tall and may not have the strength to make plays inside the box at the next level. Size will also limit effectiveness against larger inside receivers who can out muscle him for the ball."
If there’s one thing we know about Thomas, those are not weak points to his game. He doesn’t really have many, if any, anyhow. Apparently to arguably the best free safety in the game today, that’s not enough. He also mentioned that his teammates view themselves as “the best” and he thought that all four of them (not just three) deserved contract extensions because they were so good.
This team rallies behind their leader on the back-end and he rallies behind a Muhammad Ali-like attitude. That’s a special magnetism for the Seahawks that will take them far, again.