The sweat poured down the face of Joe Thomas as he trudged off the field Friday after practicing for about an hour in 70-degree temperatures and under bright, sunny skies, hardly the kind of weather you get much during football season in Berea, Ohio -- or Madison, Wis., for that matter.
And at 6-foot-6 and 310 pounds, you sweat a little more -- no, make that a lot more -- than the average person when the sun beats down on you and you're running around, working hard.
Coaches yelled at the left tackle. They were seemingly trying to change everything about the way he played.
You expected to hear them offer a critique on how he wore his helmet or socks, or the fact he needed a shave.
Geez! These were the same guys who, just six days earlier, were extolling the Wisconsin product's virtues in press conference after press conference after he had been selected at No. 3 overall in the NFL Draft by the Browns. What in the name of Lou Groza, Dick Schafrath and Doug Dieken had happened?
As tough as all that may have been to understand, it was the most enjoyable part of the afternoon for Thomas. He was, after all, playing football, what he loved.
Rather, what lurked ahead of him was the real excruciating part of his first practice in the NFL.
That is, meeting the media. This is a guy who chose to go fishing -- not figuratively, but iterally, with hooks, bait, rods and reels, the whole nine yards -- instead of going on draft day to NFL Draft headquarters at Radio City Music Hall in New York and sit just off stage with the other top-five prospects, all of whom showed up.
But he couldn't bail out to the boat this time. He was securely on dry land. A horde of writers, broadcasters, photographers and cameramen swarmed in toward him as he approached, almost like linebackers and rover backs coming at him from all different angles on a pass play in some sort of fire-zone blitz.
Let the interview begin!
"It was nice being out there today," Thomas said. "It was a lot more fun than being in the limelight.
"This is what I've been working for the entire offseason, to get ready for this minicamp, not being a celebrity out in the limelight."
So the criticism from the coaches didn't bother him?
"Every coach has his own certain way of wanting you to do things," Thomas said. "One way or another is not right or wrong. It just may be different than the way you're used to doing something.
"So you do one thing a certain way for four years, and now you've got to learn a new way. I expected that. I came in expecting to learn all kinds of new things this weekend."
Wait a minute, though. Bob Palcic, his position coach for his senior season in college, coached a long time in the NFL, in fact spending that 1999 expansion season as offensive line coach of the Browns. Thomas got pro-type coaching at Wisconsin, so why was everything so different right out of the gate for him Friday?
"Even NFL coaches do things differently from other NFL coaches," Thomas said without flinching.
The right answer. So things got off to a good start for the first offensive tackle ever drafted by the Browns with their first pick in the first round.
"It was a good first day," he said. "Everything was new. I was working with all new guys. You just have to ease yourself into the process."
