New York Giants safety Michael Thomas was above the moon when named to his first Professional Bowl previously this 12 months, producing it onto the roster after in the beginning being listed as a particular groups reserve.
Thomas experienced occur near to accomplishing that honor beforehand, but consistently identified himself on the outside the house hunting in thanks to Matthew Slater of the New England Patriots, who is viewed as by most to be the best particular groups participant in all of soccer.
Nevertheless, a switch to the NFC gave Thomas a renewed option to verify that off of his bucket record, and in his first year with Large Blue, that is just what happened for the properly-decorated veteran.
“I continue to haven’t stopped smiling. I acquired a standing Professional Bowl week for cheesing from ear to ear and acquiring the most significant smile at all periods. In every single image the Giants posted, you could see all of my pearly whites. Everybody could inform I genuinely appreciated the encounter,” Thomas advised The Athletic.
“That’s simply because the Professional Bowl nod intended one thing particular to me. Not simply because of the status it delivers or how decorated my occupation resume will look. Not simply because my agent will be ready to use it in foreseeable future negotiations. Creating the Professional Bowl as a particular teamer was a intention I wrote down in the course of my follow squad days back in San Francisco with the 49ers.”
Still, with only a person “special teams” location obtainable for non-place-specific gamers in the Professional Bowl, Thomas feels a lot of are overlooked and go unrewarded for their contributions. Accordingly, he proposes a alter to how Professional Bowl rosters are structured.
“How could this program be altered? I’d propose acquiring 4 Professional Bowl options per meeting alternatively of a person for the particular teamer place: the best kickoff address, best punt address, best kickoff return blocker and best punt return blocker. This would be a lot more real looking and consistent with how we pick out the other positions,” Thomas said.
T”here’s no change when it occur to the particular groups gamers. The participant on kickoff return who often sets great blocks at the stage of attack, hardly ever allows penetration and opens up huge lanes for the returner to normal 30 yards ought to undoubtedly be acknowledged and praised. At the exact same time, he ought to not be as opposed to the participant who is functioning down on punt protection, defeating double-group blocks and consistently producing open-industry tackles to guide the league. These are two completely diverse gamers who have diverse work opportunities to complete. However, in our existing program we have them preventing for the exact same accolades. Which is like acquiring a cornerback and a middle competing for the exact same award. I feel it’s time we altered the way we watch particular groups gamers.”
Thinking of the league’s yearly All-Star Recreation no longer features accurate NFL soccer, there’s little damage in embracing Thomas’ proposed technique. It would provide all those who usually go overlooked deserving honors, though not diluting the high-quality of play that, if we’re being real looking, does not exist in any case.
