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Lamar Thomas

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Not to be confused with Lamaar Thomas.
Lamar Thomas
Biographical details
Born (1970-02-12) February 12, 1970 (age 54)
Ocala, Florida
Alma materUniversity of Miami
Playing career
1989-1992Miami (FL)
1993–1995Tampa Bay Buccaneers
1996–2000Miami Dolphins
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2008–2010Hampton (WR)
2011–2012WKU (WR)
2013–2015Louisville (WR)
2016–2018Kentucky (WR)
2019Salt Lake Stallions (WR)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
As a player

Lamar Nathaniel Thomas (born February 12, 1970 in Ocala, Florida) is a former NFL player and former color commentator.

College career

Thomas played college football and college basketball and ran track at the University of Miami before being drafted in the third round of the 1993 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He is a University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame inductee, class of 2014.

With the Miami Hurricanes Thomas set a then-school record for most receptions in a career (later eclipsed by Reggie Wayne). He was the victim of "The Strip", George Teague's strip of the football at the 10 yard line in the 1993 Sugar Bowl, an Alabama rout of Miami.[1]

Thomas was interviewed about his time at the University of Miami for the documentary The U, which premiered December 12, 2009 on ESPN.

Playing career

Thomas played eight seasons in the NFL as a wide receiver, three with the Buccaneers and five with the Miami Dolphins, where he had his greatest success. In his final year of NFL play, he had 43 receptions for 603 yards and five touchdowns.[2] His last two seasons were spent on injured reserve (shoulder and hip).

Post-playing career

Thomas worked as a color commentator for Comcast Sports Southeaster until he was fired due to his comments during an on-field brawl between the University of Miami and FIU in 2006.

From 2013–2015, he worked as the Louisville Cardinals wide receivers coach after working with new Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino at Western Kentucky in the same position. With the Cardinals, he helped recruit future Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Lamar Jackson; Jackson had caught Thomas' attention at WKU.[3] He was the wide receivers coach at the University of Kentucky from 2016–2018.[4][5] In 2019, he served the same position with the Salt Lake Stallions of the Alliance of American Football (AAF).[6]

Miami/FIU controversy

During an intense on-field brawl between Miami and FIU on October 14, 2006, Thomas defended his alma mater. Besides defending the Miami players, he expressed a desire to join the fight himself:

You come into our house, you should get your behind kicked. You don't come into the OB playing that stuff....You can't come over to our place talking noise like that. You'll get your butt beat. I was about to go down the elevator to get in that thing.....I say, why don't we meet outside in the tunnel after the ball game and get it on some more? You don't come into the OB, baby. We've had a down couple of years but you don't come in here talking smack. Not in our house.[7]

Thomas later claimed he was joking about his comments, but two days after this incident, Comcast Sports Southeast fired him.[8]

On the October 17, 2006 episode of Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, Thomas said he got caught up in the moment and made a mistake. However, he said he did not blame Comcast for firing him.

Later, a message from Thomas was allegedly posted to the Miami discussion board on Scout.com. He claimed that he had been taken aside earlier in the year and told he needed to be "more pro-UM" as his criticism of the struggling team had been taken rather hard by the players. He dismissed concerns that he was serious when he said he wished he could have gone down on the field and joined in ("I'm 36 years old, what the hell would I have accomplished?") and said, "If that was during my tenure we would have invited FIU to Tamiami Park to get it on." He was not, he said, hired to be neutral.[9]

Personal life

In July 1996, Thomas was charged with aggravated battery against a pregnant female after beating his fiance, Ebony Cooksey. In February 1997 he pled no contest and was sentenced to eight days in jail and 18 months probation. In March 1997, he was arrested for allegedly beating Cooksey again, and charged with violating the terms of his probation. He was jailed until the May 1997 hearing.[10][11]

References

  1. ^ 93 Sugar Bowl on YouTube
  2. ^ Lamar Thomas Statistics - Pro-Football-Reference.com
  3. ^ Jones, Jonathan (April 3, 2018). "Lamar Jackson, His Mother, and the Plan They've Always Had". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  4. ^ "Bio for Lamar Thomas". University of Kentucky. Archived from the original on 21 July 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  5. ^ Smith, Jennifer (January 11, 2018). "Kentucky parts ways with wide receivers coach Lamar Thomas after two seasons". Lexington Herald-Leader. Archived from the original on 19 January 2018. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  6. ^ McCammon, Michael (February 8, 2019). "Former Louisville players set to begin AAF action". 247Sports.com. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  7. ^ http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/ny-spmiami174936692oct17,0,783086.story?coll=ny-football-headlines[dead link]
  8. ^ http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/15774438.htm%7C[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ Lamar Thomas[permanent dead link] reposted to Wake Forest section of scout.com; retrieved October 19, 2006.
  10. ^ Fitzgerald Jr, Henry. "Lamar Thomas denied bond, sent to jail". Sun-Sentinel.com. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  11. ^ Benedict, Jeff; Yaeger, Don (1999-10-01). Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 9780446930055.
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