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Published on 05/11/2008 at Sun May 11 07:35.
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Marcus Thomas Wrap-up

Posted Sun May 11th by

As our readers have mentioned in the comment section of my last post, Bill Williamson is reporting on ESPN.com that the Florida state attorney’s office has officially dropped its case against DT Marcus Thomas.

Thomas, who has dealt with off-field issues in college, was arrested in March in Clay County Floriday for possession of cocaine and charged with a third-degree felony.

Mike Shanahan was supportive of Thomas as the details were revealed – although you’d have to think he wasn’t very pleased with the situation.

Thomas didn’t have anything to say prior to this weekend, but his agent made this statement:


“Marcus is so appreciative of Coach Shanahan’s support and he is happy this thing is over. He’s looking forward to the future with the Denver Broncos.” — Richard Burnoski (Thomas’ agent) 5/9/08

Well, this ends the criminal aspects of this case and most likely any league discipline has now been avoided. This is good news for Denver fans as Thomas can now focus on the off-season program without this hanging over his head.

While I’m pleased we’ll have this talented DT on our team this year, I feel like this whole issue points to Thomas’ lack of judgment and maturity. You’d think that being suspended for drugs in college would have been enough to teach Thomas to make better choices. And if that didn’t work, maybe being dismissed during his senior year for failing to follow team rules after his suspension. But even though those issues cost Thomas not only playing time and serious money when his draft stock fell, it wasn’t enough to keep him from going down to Florida and getting busted in a car with cocaine carrying friends.

CREDIT: Pyzam.com

My only concern going forward is that, if all those other things weren’t enough to change Thomas’ behavior, do you really think this incident will?

  • http://merlinofchaos.livejournal.com E. Halsey Miles

    To me, it sounds like just got awfully unlucky in this situation. He was drunk and doing the right thing by having someone else drive him; it’s never been clear how much of a relationship he even had to the driver. I think the lesson he learned here is “get a cab” but I, for one, am not willing to hold this one against the guy, checked history or not.

  • jvill

    I thought the driver was a high school teammate? Not that it makes a huge difference, but guilt by association is always a tricky thing.

    Anyhow, there’s a pretty big difference in getting busted for smoking weed while in college, and getting arrested for a heavy narcotic as an adult professional. The latter tends a leave a much longer lasting impression, even if he wasn’t charged. Hopefully it will.

  • http://www.broncotalk.net Jonathan Douglas

    I hate to disagree, Earl, but if I were skating on the ice Marcus Thomas is, I think I might not have been in FL boozing it up this off-season. Call me a square, but I think I would have played it a bit low-key (at least this first year).

    I know that some of these athlete have a hard time breaking ties their old negative influences – whether that’s friends or other groups they were involved with before ‘making it.’ I know there is a strong desire to not turn your back on your ‘peeps’ or ‘forget where you came from.’ But there are some fine examples of players that came from humble background (read: Rod Smith), that proved you can have a long and successful football career without any arrests, disciplinary action, suspensions.

    I’m of the strong opinion that each person is responsible for his/her actions, and it’s time some of these players stop giving excuses (like it was the other guy’s drugs) and start making better overall choices (like not going to the club and getting drunk in the first place).

    In this case, I’m willing to jump behind Thomas and support him (and Marshall for that matter) this season… but my patience is just starting to wear thin with guys that just can’t seem stay out of the news.

  • http://merlinofchaos.livejournal.com E. Halsey Miles

    While you can easily fault Thomas for perhaps going to a party when he knows that his career could take a very nasty turn just by being there, expecting a 23 year old to go completely on the wagon is more than I would expect, at least. But that’s me.

    However, we don’t know whether or not he had any idea about the other guy’s cocaine. Maybe he knew, maybe he didn’t. But my experiences with people with cocaine is that they don’t tell nobody, and they especially wouldn’t tell a guy like Marcus Thomas “Oh yea, I got a bunch of coke in my truck, wanna come?” Drug users hide, and Thomas is a big name with a lot of money. Guys from his past are going to want to be close to him, and I can only HOPE he’s actively staying away from the ones he knows are users.

    But I am not going to make assumptions that he knew or didn’t. Personally, I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s still in the exact same position he was already in: a screwup and he’s out, so it really isn’t any different. I’m not big on pre-judging, I think the media does way too much of that for us and it’s too easy to dive right into the opinions. C’mon. Look at the situations where we’ve seen the tape and then read what media people had to say about it? We know how much they get wrong, either deliberately or not (how many people reported that Elway told Cutler to shut up?) and in situations like this, I’m just not going to buy into media dumping on him.

    Maybe he shouldn’t have been down there partying at all, but it’s the early offseason. If he’s going to party, ever, that’s the time to do it. Y’know, maybe this just taught him that anything he might do is dangerous, but the very nature that makes some of these guys the top level competitors that they are is the very same nature that makes them do some questionable things here and there.

    But I’m still not going to dump on a guy for going out and drinking, especially for a guy who had the sense to get someone to drive him home and then it turned out he got the wrong guy to drive him. I’m not going to make assumptions about what he knew and what he didn’t. That’s not fair to him or the team.

  • http://www.broncotalk.net Jonathan Douglas

    Good points. I most certainly don’t want to play into the media’s game of pre-judging.

    I guess I’m just still reacting to things like this because of Darrent’s death. Darrent made the right choice to leave the party that night, but still ended up shot. I guess I feel like that should have sent a real signal to young player that going out to these clubs and parties as an NFL personality can be dangerous even if you make ALL the right decisions.

    As I said, maybe I’m a square, but if my boss was paying me piles of cash to do my job and keep a clean record, I’d park my ass at home with a good movie. :)

  • http://merlinofchaos.livejournal.com E. Halsey Miles

    Well, it looks like after the night in jail, he basically did just that; stayed home and lifted a lot of weights.

    What a way to spend the summer!

    I hope he’s a beast on the field!

  • http://www.broncotalk.net Jonathan Douglas

    Me too! :)