David Garfield Thomas (born August 25, 1968) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...

, and

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

. He was drafted in the eighth round of the

1993 NFL Draft The 1993 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 25–26, 1993, at the Marriot Ma ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

Early years

Thomas attended

Miami Beach Senior High School Miami Beach Senior High School (Beach High, MBSH) is a secondary school located at 2231 Prairie Avenue Miami Beach, Florida, across from the Miami Beach Convention Center and Botanical Garden. It is located at the corner of Prairie Avenue and ...

, where he received third-team All-American and All-Conference honors in football as a senior. He also

lettered Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

. He enrolled at

Butler Community College Butler Community College (BCC) is a public community college in El Dorado, Kansas. Campus There are a number of branch campuses throughout the area, in Andover, Council Grove, Marion, McConnell, Rose Hill, and a number of distance-learning ...

, where he registered 7 interceptions as a freshman and 10 (second in the nation) as a sophomore, on his way to becoming one of the top

s in

junior college A junior college (sometimes referred to colloquially as a juco, JuCo or JC) is a post-secondary educational institution offering vocational training designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations and workers in su ...

. As a junior in 1990, he transferred to the

. He appeared in all 13 games as a backup cornerback, posting 17 tackles, one interception (returned for 51 yards against

UTEP The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stude ...

) and one pass defensed. As a senior in 1991, he was

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

. In October, an off-field incident caused him to lose his final year of sports eligibility at Tennessee. In 1992, he didn't play football but still stay at the school and graduate.

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

Even though he was out of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for two years, the

selected him in the eighth round (203rd overall) of the

. During his time with the team he was one of the tallest

s in the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

and showed promise playing

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

and in some of the nickel packages. He was a part of the

Super Bowl XXVIII Super Bowl XXVIII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Buffalo Bills to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

winning team. He appeared in 12 games and finished with 8

tackles. In

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, he appeared in all 16 games as a backup cornerback. He collected 4 defensive tackles and 20

tackles (fourth on the team).

Jacksonville Jaguars

The

selected him from the Cowboys roster in the 1995 NFL expansion draft. He was the team's nickel cornerback and played in 16 games with 2 starts. He tallied 39 tackles, 8 passes defensed, one fumble recovery, one blocked punt and 12

tackles (second on the team) In

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, he became the starting left cornerback after replacing

Vinnie Clark Vincent Eugene Clark (born January 22, 1969 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a former American football cornerback in the NFL for the Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, and the Jacksonville Jaguars. He played college football at ...

in the fifth game against the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

. In the ninth against the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

, he sustained a fractured left femur while covering an

onside kick In gridiron football, an onside kick is a kickoff deliberately kicked short in an attempt by the kicking team to regain possession of the ball. This is in contrast with a typical kickoff, in which the kicking team intends to give the ball to the o ...

after colliding with teammate

Dana Hall Dana Eric Hall (born July 8, 1969) is a former professional American football player who was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the 1st round (18th overall) of the 1992 NFL Draft. A 6'2", 206-lb. safety from the University of Washington, Hal ...

. He was placed on the

injured reserve list The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

on October 29. He tallied 36 tackles (2 for loss), 2 interceptions, 6 passes defensed and 5

tackles. He was replaced with rookie

Aaron Beasley Aaron Bruce Beasley (born July 7, 1973) is a former American college and professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons. He played college football for West Virginia University, and recei ...

. In

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, although he was named starter at right cornerback and appeared in all 16 games, it has been speculated that he was never the same player after his injury. He collected a career-high 88 tackles, along with 2 interceptions, 15 passes defensed, 2 forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, he started 12 out of 14 games at right cornerback. He missed 2 games and left 3 other contests early because of injuries. He recorded 69 tackles, one interception, 15 passes defensed, 4 forced fumbles (led the team), 2 quarterback hurries, one fumble recovery and 3

tackles. In

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, he was relegated to backup rookie

Fernando Bryant Fernando Antoneyo Bryant (born March 26, 1977) is a former American football cornerback of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars 26th overall in the 1999 NFL Draft. He played college football at Alabama. ...

at left cornerback and playing in the

nickel defense American football, a nickel defense (also known as a 4–2–5 or 3–3–5) is any defensive alignment that uses five defensive backs, of whom the fifth is known as a nickelback. The original and most common form of the nickel defense features ...

. He finished with 15 tackles, 2 interceptions, 4 passes defensed, one blocked punt and 18

tackles, one punt block and one forced fumble on

New York Giants

On April 11,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, he signed as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

with the

to play

and in the

, but was named the starter when

Conrad Hamilton Conrad E. Hamilton (born November 5, 1974) is a former professional American football cornerback in the National Football League. He played six seasons for the New York Giants and the Atlanta Falcons. He is now the coach for the Desert Mountain ...

was injured and later waived. He was a part of the

Super Bowl XXXV Super Bowl XXXV was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Baltimore Ravens and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

team. In

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, he was replaced as the starter at left cornerback with Will Allen. He was released on March 1,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

References

External links

Thomas a Giant Find
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Dave 1968 births Living people Miami Beach Senior High School alumni Players of American football from Miami American football cornerbacks Butler Grizzlies football players Tennessee Volunteers football players Dallas Cowboys players Jacksonville Jaguars players New York Giants players