Joe Thomas: From NFL HOF to Hall of Fame Meats, Untold Stories of Playing for Wisconsin & The Cleveland Browns, and Favorite Spots around Wisconsin

SPEAKER_00
0:00

How much cattle do you have out here?

SPEAKER_01
0:02

More than five. More than five. There's a a couple thousand. You didn't think you'd make the NFL growing up? I never thought about the NFL. It was just, I don't have to stop playing football. And then in college, I was just loving my time at Madison. I was just living the dream.

SPEAKER_00
0:16

Would you drink an entire fishbowl by yourself at once?

SPEAKER_01
0:19

Well, that was the nightcap.

SPEAKER_00
0:21

You played in the Johnny Manzel Browns hype era. Does one story stand out to you?

SPEAKER_01
0:26

None of them were very happy stories, but uh there's a few that you can laugh about at least by now.

SPEAKER_00
0:33

Hey guys, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. A very special episode today with an absolute legend, the NFL Hall of Famer Brookfield native Joe Thomas, who I'll give a proper intro to in a few minutes. We got to drive all the way over to Moscuto, Wisconsin, last Friday, if you don't know where that is. It's about an hour west of Madison, somewhere through Black Earth and uh Mazal Mania in those towns. I grew up in Madison. I felt nostalgic driving through there, but he has a very large farm with a lot of cattle on it, Hall of Fame farms, which we were just blown away by. A beautiful property, so we got to spend a few hours out there, interview Joe on this episode, and we've got what I think is an absolutely amazing Illinois couple gets lost in a Wisconsin farm skit out on social media. It should be out right now. Excuse my Cubsad, I was I was only getting into character Go Brewers. Okay, with Joe, we got to talk about how he got into farming and transitioned from the NFL to uh to farming. And we got to talk about how he had to wrangle loose cow last week, his fitness and nutrition regimen. The guy's down like 70 pounds from his playing days and looks like an absolute machine. So, any guys out there who are looking like Adam Garski these days, you're gonna want to take some notes during that section. Joe's got just some some great advice and methods that you are going to want to take note of. We also talked about him getting recruited by Barry Alvarez. How much lineman drank at UW? Spoiler, it was it was quite a bit when they went out. The Johnny Manzell Browns there. If you forgot that Johnny Manzel played on the Browns, and that just came back into your head. Shows got a good story for you. We talked about his favorite moments in Cleveland, his favorite spots around Wisconsin, and more. Absolutely loved spending time with the guy. Before diving in, I want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible. Nicolela, the Midwest Law firm injured. Get Nicola and Russ and the team will take great care of you. That is Nicolela. Drink Wisconsinably Beverage Company, Vez Vodka Brandy, and canned cocktails in the game. I personally love their canned brandy old fashioned. That is Drink Wisconsinably Beverage Company and Annex Wealth Management. If you are looking to get your finances in order, talk to our good friends, the experts over at Annex Wealth Management. That's annexwealth.com. Annex, know the difference. All right, let's dive in with Joe Thomas. He played an NFL record, 10,363 straight snaps, blocked for an NFL record, 23 quarterbacks, went to Brookfield Central, where he was a four-year honor roll student, according to Wikipedia, and also an all-state punter, according to different podcasts I listened to. A man of many talents, also team captain of the Wisconsin Badgers football team and broke records and shot put and discus and at UW. He also asked his now wife Annie out in front of her current boyfriend. The guy just has no fear. He was the third pick in the 2007 NFL draft, which he refused to go to since he was fishing. Went on to become a Cleveland Browns legend in 23 NFL Hall of Fame selection. Now on to the next chapter of his life. He is the founder of Hall of Fame Farms out here in southwest Wisconsin, where we are today. Absolutely beautiful setting. Joe Thomas, welcome to Milwaukee Uncut.

SPEAKER_01
4:20

It's my pleasure to be here. Thank you guys so much for coming out to Muscaday, Wisconsin, and being able to see a little bit of God's country over our shoulder. I love hosting people and showing them the beauty of our state. Not that you don't know the beauty of our state already, but a lot of people don't get a chance to get out here to the driftless, which I think is the most beautiful part of our incredible state.

SPEAKER_00
4:40

Absolutely. We love driving out here. I grew up in Madison, haven't driven through Black Earth and um Meso Mania and all the all the little towns. Beautiful day, beautiful drive along the Wisconsin River.

SPEAKER_01
4:53

It's beautiful out here. I love the drive from Madison because you just follow the Wisconsin River. And as soon as you go west of Madison, you start seeing the bluffs and you feel like, ah, I'm here. I am at peace now. And you're also kind of wondering as you see the hills, if you grew up in Milwaukee like I did, like, wait, did I drive all the way to Colorado? Why are these hills?

SPEAKER_00
5:14

Are they look like mountains? Just absolute gods country out here. So um, speaking of, you grew up in Brookfield, Milwaukee suburb. You played for the Badgers, Cleveland. How did you get into farming?

SPEAKER_01
5:27

I'm still asking myself that question sometimes because I never bought the farm here in 2012 thinking that it would be what it is today. And when I was growing up in Brookfield, not on a farm, parents weren't farmers, grandparents weren't farmers. I never really had a dream thinking that it could become reality. I was a Tom Sawyer boy as a kid. I loved being outside. If I didn't have scabs on my knees and my elbows and dirt all over my pants, it wasn't a day that I lived to the fullest the way I wanted to. And so for me, I always dreamed of owning some land and maybe being a farmer, but it was more a fantasy. It was along the lines of man, wouldn't it be cool to be a pro athlete? But that'll never happen. So I don't need to worry about that. And so I feel like I'm just living that dream. And a lot of it was because of what you mentioned earlier. Got married to the beautiful Annie Nelson. She is an amazing person that has a lot of farming in her family. We have our four beautiful kids. And as they started coming out here after they were born, after we bought the farm, they started telling me, hey, dad, it's not really a farm unless you have animals out there. We need to get some animals. How about some cows out there? And it really just started as a journey of, well, got to get the wife and kids some cows, make them happy, get them to come out to the farm and have some fun.

SPEAKER_00
6:47

And now and how much cattle do you have out here?

SPEAKER_01
6:50

Well, more than five. More than five. There's a couple thousand between me and and um some of the cooperator herds that uh help pasture some of my animals in the summer, and then my partner that's up in Minnesota that does some of our finishing. So it's become quite quite an operation a lot bigger than I ever dreamed.

SPEAKER_00
7:09

So Annie from Hudson, Wisconsin, close to where Brie grew up in Menominee, did she grow up on a farm? She did not. She grew up kind of in the country in the town of Troy.

SPEAKER_01
7:18

So they had uh one steer in their backyard that they named Norman. And that's really actually, if you go even back further, that's like the genesis of all this because my wife had such great memories of having Norman in the backyard sticking his head through their window and peeking around and slobbering the kids. Um, and her her grandparents and uh, or excuse me, great grandparents grew up on the farm. Her uncle is still a dairy farmer, so there's a lot of farming in her background. Uh, and so it was it was, I would say, an easier leap for us to say, yeah, let's go into that farming world because there is some farming history back there, and there's definitely a nostalgia amongst her and me, and hearing the stories from our family members about what it was like living on a farm or what it is currently like for some of those that are still in agriculture.

SPEAKER_00
8:06

Yep. And how did it evolve from you just wanting to get some land and a few cows for the family to the operation you have out here today with Hall of Fame meat?

SPEAKER_01
8:15

So we harvested our first two steers in like 2019 after we got things going and started feeding friends and family, and I had to buy a new chest freezer because there's about 500 pounds of beef on each steer. So after I put a thousand pounds of beef in my freezer, bought a new chest freezer and a new upright freezer, I thought, man, this stuff is gonna last forever. I better start giving it away or it's gonna go bad. So every time friends and family would come over to the house, I'd say, Oh, go grab yourself some steaks, some burgers, take whatever you want. You know, we raised a couple steers, and you know, the ultimate gift in the Midwest, the show of love and respect is let me feed you something good. Come on in and let me make you a casserole. You know, that's like what happens when you go to somebody's house. And so for me, it was like showing that servanthood, that love for friends and family by feeding them. And as soon as they ate the beef, it was like, Whoa, where did you get this? This is not the stuff that I've bought in the grocery store before. This is amazing. The taste, the flavor, the freshness, the tenderness, the marbling. And that's when I realized after two months thinking this beef is gonna last forever to open in the freezer and seeing that it was empty, like, well, maybe you need more than two per year to feed these people that are in my life. And so that's kind of when the ball started, where I just started expanding the herd, we had more space. Um, and then it got to the point where it was out of hand and I had too too much beef finally to give it.

SPEAKER_00
9:38

Did you have a legitimate business at this point? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01
9:41

This was just raising spears for myself and for the family and friends, and knowing, like, hey, this is really good, high-quality, healthy beef, because I know what it's been eating, I've been feeding it, I know how they've been raised the right way, and understanding and experiencing the difference of that farm to table product, that farm to table raised beef on driftless pasture. Um, and then once the herd started getting out of control with numbers because nobody told me that they actually breed and have babies, and then once it got out of control, I realized okay, well, maybe we need to sell some of the extra that we're producing, and that's when we started the website, and then it was really popular there, and it just kind of one thing led to the other, and pretty soon I realized like I need to take this really serious because this is actually a business now. I actually am selling beef and people are buying it and complaining that it's sold out, uh, and so we just kind of kind of have run with it from there.

SPEAKER_00
10:33

How you played ten and a half seasons with the Browns, right? Yeah, how has transitioning to an athlete to the business world been for you? And what did anything you learn on the field transition over?

SPEAKER_01
10:45

Yeah, tons of stuff. It's amazing the longer I'm in agriculture and farming, how many carryovers there are from the lessons that I learned on the football field to the lessons that I'm learning on the agriculture field. Because on the football field, when your coach says, be there at 8 a.m. and then I'm gonna want you to go out and run 30 windsprints, you don't think about it, you just do it. And the other day when we had the barstool guys out here, it started pouring rain. So we quick came back to the shop, we were kind of drying off, and then all of a sudden the neighbor, no shit, this is exactly what happened. It was like a movie with Lassie, like the neighbor screeches in, pulls to a stop, and jumps out and says, One of your cows is out on the highway, we got to get them back in. And it was like immediately nobody even thought about anything. They popped right off the couch, they put their boots on, jumping in cars, peeling tires to get out of here. And all of a sudden, everybody just popped into action. Nobody had to say anything, nobody had to have a pre-production meeting about all right, what are we gonna do here? You just get off the couch and you go and do it. And I think that's one of the great things about farming is like and why farmers typically have such great work ethic. It's like you you don't have to think about something because you have a bunch of animals out here that are relying on you every single day to do the job. They don't care if it's 30 below, they gotta eat, they don't care if it's a hundred degrees, they need to eat, they need water, and so you get in that routine of hey, I am the steward of this land, I'm the steward of these animals, and I don't have to think about it. If I feel like doing the work today, you just do it because you have to. There's no choice. Did you get the cow? We got her back in. You got it.

SPEAKER_00
12:26

How do you wrangle a cow on the highway?

SPEAKER_01
12:28

It's not easy. So basically, you just try to get blockers, and thankfully, we had all these guys out here um that were filming and we were doing the farm deal, the hall of fame.

SPEAKER_00
12:37

You had the whole bar stool crew out trying to wrangle.

SPEAKER_01
12:39

Yeah, you should have seen Chef Donnie, how fast he was running. Like, if they would have timed that 40, it was definitely sub four or five. He's got some wheels. He's got some wheels, he's got a chance he could go back.

SPEAKER_00
12:49

You're lucky you had Chef Donnie instead of Chef Adam that night. That's right. Chef Adam Chef Adam, I can't see him moving. He probably would have been a 5'3, maybe.

SPEAKER_01
12:57

He probably would have been having a cigarette and uh trying to build a little campfire to cook his burger over there as he watched and enjoyed the show, but we got her back in. Um, we blocked her, we were able to kind of move her because she was all fired up. There were there was no like getting the horses out and lassoing her. You just had to guide her and hope that she wanted to go back with her people.

SPEAKER_00
13:17

Chef Adam definitely would have been a ripping of dart on the grill. I don't know the last time that guy went on a jog, but he can he can make he can make a good burger.

SPEAKER_01
13:25

Nobody can make a better burger if you've got a burger tattooed on your hand. I trust you on the grill, making me a Hall of Fame Wagyu burger.

SPEAKER_00
13:32

As well as 72 other things tattooed on tattooed on the only one. Chef Adam. Um spe speaking of fitness and the the healthy beef you're raising here. I think you were 3310-ish when you were playing. Um, what's your fitness and nutrition regimen like?

SPEAKER_01
13:50

So I did play at about 310. I was as heavy as 325. I really retired from the NFL because my knee got real bad. Um, a bunch of surgeries on the knee, removing cartilage and meniscus, and got to the point where it was just bone on bone and the the daily pain was too much. My last season in the NFL, I only practiced three times. And to get in shape for the season, I picked up swimming because I couldn't run, I couldn't even really stand to watch practice. I would just uh lay in the training room because I couldn't be on my knee at all every week. Knee drained before the game, would get it shot up. So the pain was manageable at least. And then the next week you're just crawling around the house, sliding down the stairs on your butt because you can't walk down the stairs. And so it was kind of a miserable experience and living through it with a bad knee. Getting a retirement doctor says the only thing we can do is either replace it or you can lose some weight. That's all I needed to hear. So then I got really, really focused and dialed in. My nutrition before that was, what do I need to eat to be fat? And now the nutrition was what do I need to eat to reduce inflammation and feel better? And so then that's when I really picked up, all right, I need to remove processed foods as much as I can from my diet. I need to try to remove as many carbohydrates and things that are causing additional inflammation on top of just being bone on bone in my knee. And from January of 2018 when I officially retired until about September when my last daughter was born, I think I lost 50 pounds. And so I got really dialed in. So three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, lifting weights, Tuesday, Thursday, and then one day on the weekend, I would uh swim or do yoga. And I've kind of kept that same routine since then, added in intermittent fasting. So, like if I'm lifting weights Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I'll try to eat a good meal revolving around beef, as you'd expect. So getting that protein, getting that good whole food, adding some vegetables in there. Um, and then Tuesdays and Thursdays, which are more like cardio mobility type days, I try to fast until dinner. So I'm getting that 24-hour fast a couple of times during the week. And it's been a great routine that's worked for me, reducing inflammation, losing weight, feeling fit, and feeling maybe not younger than 41, but younger than a NFL 41-year-old. Um, so I've just been really, really lucky that I was able to kind of find that health and wellness obsession right at the end of my career.

SPEAKER_00
16:27

And you never had to get the knee replaced.

SPEAKER_01
16:29

Knee has not been replaced. Hip has, but the knee's doing pretty good. Um, thankfully, a lot of that pain and and the inflammation, swelling, the issues that I was having was related to the position of playing left tackle, which I did for 15 years basically. Um and once I removed that, lost the weight, cleaned up the diet, got rid of a lot of those inflammatory foods with the processed foods and the sugars, and really focused on that really healthy, high quality beef as the centerpiece of the protein consumption and the fat consumption that I'm getting. It's been a world of difference on just how I feel and the energy that I have every single day.

SPEAKER_00
17:08

Follow-up question How many do you know how many calories a day you were eating on on the I need to get fat and stay fat program?

SPEAKER_01
17:16

Yes, the stay fat, the fat Joe program as my kids.

SPEAKER_00
17:19

One sounds funner than the 24-hour fast.

SPEAKER_01
17:23

So I always said that I I didn't really understand nutrition as much when I was trying to be fat, Fat Joe. Um, but I knew that I had to push myself away from the table with the Thanksgiving meal feeling every single meal. So three, four, five meals a day, I felt horribly stuffed and uncomfortable. And I actually didn't like eating at the time because I wasn't even really tasting the food. I was just eating as much as I could until I felt like I was gonna burst. Um, and so getting away from that, I do kind of miss the late night thin mint Girl Scout cookies and the pint of ice cream that I ate almost every single night. And so looking back and doing that analysis, I was realized that during training camp I was eating like 10,000 calories a day. And a lot of it was sugar because it's hard to eat 10,000 calories of good whole foods, but when you're putting the sugars and the ice creams and the cookies, like that's a good way to pile on the calories.

SPEAKER_00
18:18

Go going back, you you didn't think you'd make the NFL growing up or in college necessarily, but you had to, was there a moment when you knew your talent was different, whether it was growing up in Brookfield or at UW, where you're like, oh, I'll actually be able to do this?

SPEAKER_01
18:32

I just felt so fortunate when I was in high school that I had an opportunity to continue playing football. I never thought about the NFL. It was just holy smokes, this is gonna be awesome. I I don't have to stop playing football like all my buddies that I'm playing with. And then in college, I was just loving my time at Madison. I loved my teammates, I loved Madison, I loved going to school there, I loved the social scene. I met my wife, like I was just living the dream. And so I I never even considered playing in the NFL until my junior year. In college, you have scouts that are coming through the building and watching practice all the time. And so you just get used to it and you don't even think about it. And it was after one of the practices my junior year that one of the scouts stopped me coming off the field and said, Hey Joe, have you thought about if you're gonna come out for the NFL draft after this season? And I was like, NFL draft? Like, I'm a junior. Like if I was gonna get drafted, it would happen next year. But it was at that time and in that moment I realized like, wow, if they think I'm good enough to leave school early to play in the NFL, hey, maybe there's a shot I actually can play in the NFL. And then my perspective changed a little bit on like, okay, well, maybe I do have a chance to go play in the NFL. Not that it made me do anything differently, but now all of a sudden I had that in my mind, like, okay, senior year, I'm not gonna be transitioning to wear uh suit and tie anymore. I'm probably gonna be transitioning thinking about the future of going to live somewhere else to go play in the NFL.

SPEAKER_00
19:59

Did you consider coming out early at all?

SPEAKER_01
20:02

So I've always been somebody who's really focused on just like kind of what's in front of me and not wanting to be distracted with things I don't control or things that are gonna be happening down the line. And so I wanted to make sure that I gave my best effort for my teammates and for the badgers while I was playing, and I didn't want to be distracted with that decision, so I'd put it off to make that decision after our bowl game my junior year. And it just so happens that in that bowl game I tore my ACL, and then the question really wasn't even in my mind anymore. I was gonna come back because I wanted to get healthy and prove that I could be the same player that I was before I hurt my my knee. And in hindsight, looking back, I don't think I would have come out because I just was loving my time so much in Madison, and I didn't really think that I was ready mentally or physically to go play in the NFL at that moment. So I do feel like I would have come back had I been faced with that decision as a healthy player, but tearing your ACL makes the decision a little bit easier.

SPEAKER_00
21:01

Yeah, and you you played for Barry and Bielma there, right? Yep. Any any good Barry stories from from that first year getting recruited by him? Who was he like?

SPEAKER_01
21:11

Uh he was awesome. Everybody loved Barry. He was like a father for like a god on campus. Just a god, and he was such a great leader. I always thought that the thing I respected the most about him, and I thought why guys would give everything they had for Barry on the field on game day practices in the weight room is because they loved him so much like a dad, because he treated you like a man, but then he expected you to act like a man, even as a 18-year-old kid coming into school. And I always loved that he just gave you that autonomy to make or break yourself, but he was gonna work your ass off. And I think that's why he got such great teams that would pull together and play for him, play for each other, because he did work you into the dirt, but then he would wrap his arm around you and give you that big hug. And sitting in my living room. Brookfield, Wisconsin, being recruited. I'll never forget sitting on the couch. And it was uh Barry Alvarez, Jim Huber, who was the offensive line coach at the time, Brian White, who was the offensive coordinator, and they were in there for the in-home visit. And it was around Christmas time. Um, and people knew I was being recruited in town, but it wasn't like it is now. This was senior year. This was senior year. Senior year, okay. Senior year. And it's not like it is now where everybody has social media and they know who's getting offers like the second it happens, and it's such a big business and industry. Like you would you would have had an agent today. Yeah, right. You'd have an agent NIL. So like people would have known about it. I mean, people in Brookfield, don't get me wrong, they knew I was potentially gonna go play college spores, but it wasn't a thing. And um, one of my neighbors who is a friend of mine, Tim Hughes, actually, who was the strong man and uh the greatest showman, by the way, went on to a successful Broadway career and a movie star now. But he was singing Christmas carols with some of like the local kids, uh, and they were going door to door and they knocked on our door. And so they opened the door and they look in, and I came to the door and said, Oh, hey Tim, how's it going? And they looked over, and there's Barry Alvarez sitting on my mom's couch, which was like this high off the ground, like in the formal living room that, you know, if you grew up in Wisconsin, you probably had like the little formal living room that you could only go in twice a year, right? It was like Christmas and Easter is the only time you go in that room. And so we're sitting in there, and it's Barry, Jim Huber, and Brian White, and Tim's face was like, Oh my gosh, what on earth is happening? And what did I step myself into? And should I really go through with singing Christmas girls for Barry Alvarez right now? Please tell me they did. They did. And they did a great job. That's that's awesome. True professionals. Did you consider any other schools? I did actually. So, growing up in Wisconsin, I played AAU basketball, but like wasn't a traveling family, right? You went to AAU tournaments here and there, but it wasn't like my kids, where we lived in Germany for a year. We'd visited, you know, 20 countries when we were living over there, and we we like to do a lot of travel, you know, it's one of the things that we love doing with the kids. And so I hadn't left the state a whole lot. And I think when you don't get out and travel as much, you don't get a chance to appreciate what you have right here in Wisconsin. You don't realize how amazing this state is from way up north to all the way down south, from east over by Lake Michigan to where we are right now over here in the Driftless area with these beautiful hills and gorgeous lush valleys. And so my mentality a little bit was like, hey, I think I want to leave the state. I want to go to school somewhere else. I was a huge Badger fan, but in my mind, as probably a lot of people, it's like the grass must be greener over there. And so I visited Notre Dame, I visited Virginia Tech, Colorado, Nebraska, uh, Kansas, and then took unofficial visits to Wisconsin because I already felt like, hey, I kind of know what Madison is, right? I don't need to take an official visit there. But then as I was going through the recruiting process and visiting these campuses, I was finding a lot of things I didn't like about them. And then every time I'd come home, I'd appreciate all the stuff that was here. And so it was a longer process. But by Christmas time, playing basketball at Brookfield Central, I sat down with my parents, and my dad was a banker for MI Bank and Bank One back in the day. Yeah, you know, shout out to the old school Milwaukee regional banks. But he's very process-oriented, so we sat down, wrote a list of like pluses and minuses, you know, benefits, costs, and all the schools that I mentioned that I visited had some great things, but they also had some drawbacks. And we got down to Madison and it was like, well, amazing social scene, amazing offensive line development, amazing football team, amazing Hall of Fame coach with Barry Alvarez. I wanted to do track, they had an amazing track program, won two Big Ten championships, actually four if you consider indoor and outdoor. But, anyways, so they had everything I was looking for and incredible academics. I wanted to go in the real estate program, number one in the country. And it was so funny to go through that process and be so stressed about it because in the end it was so obvious what the right decision was that I was like, this is the most freeing feeling ever to realize after making this big tour that everything I was looking for was right under my nose the whole time.

SPEAKER_00
26:15

And what was your favorite moment as a badger? Did one stand out?

SPEAKER_01
26:19

So the one that always stands out to me honestly happened when I was a freshman. We were playing at home. It was my very first Big Ten game of all ever my life. At home, Ohio State, under the lights. ESPN was there. They were coming off of their national championship season in 2002. They had a 20-some game, undefeated streak going, and they came into Camp Randall. Nobody gave us a chance. Jim Sorgi goes down in the first half. One of those dirty Ohio State guys had choked him out and he couldn't speak, couldn't give the cadence on the field. So Matt Schaabert comes in. We had the great Lee Evans, who became a first-round pick that next year, was matched up against Chris Gamble on the outside. Another first-round draft choice from the Ohio State Buckeyes defensive back. And it's seven to seven in the fourth quarter. It the rain starts coming down. Camp Randall's bumping, jump around's playing, and we called an out and up, which is a double move on the sideline. It's kind of a make or break, not quite a Hill Mary, but it's up there in the risk reward category. And Lee Evans gives this great fake head fake to the sideline. Chris Gamble jumps it, trying to make the hero play and go for a pick six, runs down the sideline. Matt Shabert throws like a 50-yard bomb, which was probably 30 yards further than he'd ever thrown in his entire life. He had a bit of a noodle arm, not exactly a cannon, and hits Lee Evans down the sideline, caught it, runs into the student section. We score, we win the game. And I was like, oh my God, if all these games are going to be like this, I'm never going to make it. I'm going to have a heart attack. But that's that moment that just will stick out forever because after the game, the students pile on the field, and I'm like, this is what college football is all about.

SPEAKER_00
27:58

Then do you guys go right down State Street after that one?

SPEAKER_01
28:01

Of course, I went right home to the library and started studying because I had a lot of tests. Okay, yeah, we went to State Street and celebrated a little bit.

SPEAKER_00
28:08

Um, and then moving on, you you get drafted while you were fishing, and you find out you're going to the Browns. How did that feel? Third overall pick. Hey guys, just a reminder that summer is officially here. It's time to go outside and enjoy the weather. And maybe just maybe take a hard look at your financial life too. Annex wealth management led by our guide, our good friend, who you've probably seen on some recent videos, Dave Spano, they are the ones to call Annex is a holistic wealth management firm right here in the Milwaukee area. And in many places around Wisconsin, that helps you with everything: retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. It'll help declutter your old accounts, dust off your investment strategy, organize your estate documents, and build a financial plan focused on your goals. That's our good friends over at NXWealth Management, nxwealth.com, NX. Know the difference. All right, let's get back with Joe Thomas.

SPEAKER_01
29:12

It was great, but I had that workman light blue-collar Wisconsin attitude, like, all right, today I find out where my next job is going to be. And it was like, but I can go fishing first before I have to start the job. So me and the dad went out on Port Washington, caught some brown trout, and had an amazing morning. Because I kind of knew in that in that minute, like, hey, things are going to get pretty serious. And very quickly, I'm going to be moving to Cleveland. I'm going to be completely focused on my football career. This might be the last chance I get for a little while to go fishing with my dad, do something on Saturday mornings that was our tradition. Every Saturday morning growing up, we'd get in his little 17-foot 1977 grummin boat with a uh 55 Johnson outboard on the back, and we'd go troll out of the harbor in Lake Michigan and we'd catch salmon. And so I wanted to have one more opportunity to do that before I officially started my NFL journey, my working life, because those were the moments that were always the most important for me growing up was family and friends. And I just wanted to make sure I took the opportunity to do that one more time because not knowing what the future held, that to me was more important than being around a bunch of guys in suits and giving Roger Goodell a hug and sweating it out on TV because I didn't even have a suit. So I didn't want to have to buy one and uh didn't want to go to New York because the fish were biting that day.

SPEAKER_00
30:34

You you are kind of a small town Wisconsin guy. Who grew up in Brookfield. Yeah, just a little bit. Did you have a preferred team you wanted to go to, or were you just like, whoever takes me, I'm so uh I was lucky being at the top of the draft.

SPEAKER_01
30:49

I kind of knew I was gonna go on the first three picks, and it was um Calvin Johnson, myself, Brady Quinn, Jamarcus Russell, yeah. Those were kind of the four guys that everybody had pegged to go at the top in the top three, and it just depended on how number one went. We knew that if Jamarcus Russell went number one, that Jamarcus Russell draft. That was me. If we if Jamarcus went first, Calvin we knew was gonna go to Detroit because they couldn't help themselves, but draft receivers at the time, and then we thought I was gonna go three. So I kind of had a pretty good idea to either be Detroit or Cleveland. Most people would be like, dang, Detroit or Cleveland, me. I was like, Detroit and Cleveland, this is awesome. Like I'm close to Wisconsin, they've got great fishing in both those places, passionate fan bases. This is perfect. I don't want to go somewhere hot. Arizona was, I think, four, Tampa was five, and I was like, man, that's the last place I want to go. It's hot down there. Can't go catch walleye and bluegills. Like, that is not me. And so I was really excited uh when Cleveland drafted me, knowing that I could stay in the Midwest, I could stay close to some amazing fishing. And I actually had a lot of family in Ohio, so it was a perfect fit for me.

SPEAKER_00
31:56

Yeah, and you seem it seemed like you absolutely embraced and loved the town and they loved you. Did you have what was you what was your favorite era of Browns football that you were a part of or favorite year?

SPEAKER_01
32:07

It was that first one. Yeah. It was the only one that we had a winning season, believe it or not. I mean, it's it's tough to think back about all the losing that we did, but that first year we won 10 and 6 as a rookie.

SPEAKER_00
32:19

How close were you to the playoffs that year? So you had to be right there.

SPEAKER_01
32:22

We were very close, actually. Um, unfortunately, this is when my badger buddy Jim Sorgi uh reared his ugly head as a professional quarterback because we won 10-6. We tied the Steelers for first place in the division. Yep. Um, the tiebreaker was head to head. We lost both times, uh, but that was like the second tiebreaker. I think that maybe the division record was in there somewhere. I can't remember exactly what the tiebreaker was, but but it came down to the last game where we had already won and um oh that's what it was. Sorry. The tiebreaker between us and Pittsburgh at 10 and 6 was head to head, which they won both. So they won the division, but we were still up for the wild card. And it was us in Tennessee that were fighting for that wild card spot. Tennessee was playing Indy, and if Indy won, Tennessee was out, we were in. If Tennessee won, we were out and they were in. Unfortunately, the Colts already had the playoffs wrapped up, so they played Peyton for the first drive and took them out and put Sorgi in. And then Sorgi was unable to carry the momentum of the 7-0 lead, and so they got smoked. And Tennessee won, and then we're out of the playoffs, and then I never sniffed the playoffs the rest of my career.

SPEAKER_00
33:32

You give Sorgi a nice message after that performance?

SPEAKER_01
33:34

A noogie. Yeah, I gave him a noogie, and I took away his free fishbowls for life at Wando's card.

SPEAKER_00
33:42

As a large lineman, how many would you drink an entire fishbowl by yourself at Wands?

SPEAKER_01
33:47

Well, that was the night cap.

SPEAKER_00
33:52

What was the average night on State Street for the Badger offensive line?

SPEAKER_01
33:57

Started with a lot of beers, ended with more beers, and then a fishbowl as a nightcap. We were not afraid of uh drinking a couple beers on State Street when I was playing as a big lineman, and we also didn't know the uh possible negative effects of uh of heavy drinking, like most college kids.

SPEAKER_00
34:14

You guys could hold it, hold it well. We could hold our own.

SPEAKER_01
34:16

Yeah, we could hold our own.

SPEAKER_00
34:18

Are we talking like a 30 rack per lineman? It was it was up there.

SPEAKER_01
34:22

Usually, if you were gonna go out, you kind of had to do the math, right? And it usually was about a case per person. You know, you get a keg, bring the boys over, it's like, all right, well, a keg is what, like 72 cases? Like, all right, well, we can have 34 linemen for a couple days.

SPEAKER_00
34:37

That that math adds up. Somewhere in there. Somewhere in there. Oh man. Who was your what were your favorite spots to go to in Madison while you were a student?

SPEAKER_01
34:49

So Wandos was always a big hangout. A lot of the football guys were barbacks and bouncers back before NIL. You had to actually had to work to make money uh outside of football.

SPEAKER_00
34:59

Making 20 bucks as a bouncer an hour instead of the NIL money.

SPEAKER_01
35:03

Yeah, that was 20 bucks per hour, with including tips. Um, and that's actually my wife worked there for a little bit as a as a bar.

SPEAKER_00
35:13

She probably made more than $20 an hour. My first job ever, I think I was it was like sophomore year of high school. I was working at the Bridges golf course where Jim Leonard actually worked. I think he was just hanging out with the cart girls most of the time, if I remember correctly. Yeah, I would I I was not at that point. I think I was making like $5.15 an hour, and then the cart girls just came in with wads of 20s, and I learned something about life on that job.

SPEAKER_01
35:38

Absolutely. Yeah, so we loved Wandos. I mean, all the classics, you know, State Street Brats is a great spot. The KK always go to Mondays, the state was a big spot, and you know, um, then there was always the little local watering holes on Regent we'd hit up, and um there was plenty of great spots to get a drink in Madison. Mondays was the first place I lost a fake ID. Really? Yeah, they checked ID back then.

SPEAKER_00
36:03

I was um, I think I was uh 17 or 18. Um I still I still had hair, which I do not right now. And I had my friend make my friend's older brother make an ID, and I was Richie Burhey, because they spelt my last name wrong, from Augusta Main. And I had a baby face, and that that did not make it through Mondays.

SPEAKER_01
36:23

The big mustache on the driver's license was a dead giveaway.

SPEAKER_00
36:26

Yeah, I couldn't grow one of those. I couldn't grow one of those, and that was uh that was the start of going through seven, I think, in my in my career. But um, and anyway, um do you you play it in the Johnny Manzell Browns hype era? What was that like? Does one story stand out to you from that?

SPEAKER_01
36:44

None of them were very happy stories, but uh there's a few that you can laugh about at least by now. Um so Johnny. We drafted him in the first round. He wasn't ready. Um, we had a good season going till about two-thirds of the way through the season. Came to a little bit of a rough sp spell. The coaches wanted to keep playing Brian Hoyer, front office wanted to sell more tickets and put Johnny in the game. So Johnny went in, didn't do a great job, ended up getting like a bit of a concussion. Showed up like on a Monday morning. Um, we'll call it a concussion. I'm actually pretty sure he was just still drunk from partying the night before. So they held him out of practice. I think it was the way of softly benching him without making an announcement. Oh, he's injured concussion, not benched. Uh so now he's not playing. He's like, Oh great, now I don't have to do anything. So instead of coming to treatment and rehab, he just like vanished. Uh so Saturday night, we can't find Johnny. Nobody knows where he's. He's gone all week. Well, I think he may have been in the training room, but you know, concussion protocol. So they're not sitting in meetings, they're you know, maybe sitting in a dark room in the training room, but we didn't know where he was. And we had heard that nobody else knew where he was. So Sunday morning we get to the stadium, we're in the locker room, we're getting dressed, and all of a sudden I see a bunch of the guys like start talking to each other and like showing phones and stuff. And so, of course, I'm focused, but I'm also curious. So I go over to my right guard John Greco, and I'm like, dude, what are you guys all talking about? What are you laughing about? And he goes, Hey, check this out. He shows me a picture that Johnny had sent him. So apparently Johnny had flown to Las Vegas. I don't know who he went there with. He knew he couldn't be there, right? So at least he had the foresight to realize like, if Johnny Manzel is like strolling around Vegas, it's gonna get back to Cleveland that like I'm out here partying instead of getting treatment or whatever. So he thought he had this great idea that he would buy a wig and a fake mustache and he would go to the casino and go to the parties with a wig and a fake mustache, and nobody know who he is. But what he didn't realize is if he's sending pictures of himself with said wig and fake mustache that people are gonna start sharing that photo to his teammates and talking about it, yes, to the guys that are there, you know, working. Um, and additionally, like he pulled out his ID and showed it to like the uh person at the gambling table who runs the table. I forget the the dealer. And the dealer's like, Oh, Johnny Manzell, thanks for being at the table. And so word spread like wildfire. And you as you can imagine, the teammates and the Browns were not too pleased that he was parading around Vegas, gambling and partying with uh a wig and a fake mustache as uh you know Steve Manzell or whatever the fake ID, fake name that he was under was parading around with. Yeah. So you could uh there's about a million Johnny stories that sound just like that.

SPEAKER_00
39:49

Yep, yep. As a as a consummate professional, was were you just like what the fuck?

SPEAKER_01
39:54

Well, I thought you were talking about Johnny there for a second, the consummate professional. No, that's when I was a professional gambler drinker at the time, yeah. The consummate professional. Absolutely. Well, different professions, but yeah, yeah. I mean, as as a leader, as somebody who uh was always trying to do the right thing, always trying to be there for his teammates, to have uh that type of shenanigans going on was like man, we need to get rid of this guy. From the top draft pick quarterback, too, because that that position, especially yeah, it was like, okay, this guy's not have anything close to what it takes to be a leader that anybody's gonna want to listen to.

SPEAKER_00
40:32

Uh on on a more positive side, what was your favorite moment or uh thing about being in Cleveland?

SPEAKER_01
40:38

Being in Cleveland was awesome. I loved my time there, I loved the city, I loved the fan base, and the thing that I always reflect back on the most is how loyal and passionate those fans were. Even in the 1-15 season, the 0-16 season, the last two I had in Cleveland, the fans were there there, they showed up, they cared about the team. And the same connection that Wisconsin folks have towards their Packers is the same connection that people in Ohio have towards the Cleveland Browns. It's their identity. And so they always cared, they always showed up, they always supported you in whatever you did. Of course, most of the support sometimes at one in 15 was booze, but they were still there, they cared. It was important to them because it it it was a fabric of their identity, it was a fabric of the community. They wanted to see the people on the field, the players, reflecting their values, their blue-collar work ethic. And I always just always I always appreciated the way that they were always in your corner no matter what. Um, and that's not something that you can say about every fan base. There's a lot of fan bases that if you're not winning, they just turn the TV off and forget about you. And that's not the case with Packer fans, it's not the case with Browns fans, and I think that was a unique part of why I connected so well with the fan base because it reminded me of being a kid as a Packer fan. Yeah, and like I watched every Packer game no matter what. Now they were pretty good when I was a kid. Right. Farve won the city. It's been pretty, pretty fortunate for Packer fans. Um, but for me, it just felt like that nostalgia I had as a kid watching the fans and seeing the kids in the stands. I I ru it reminded me of myself as a Packer fan growing up, and so I always wanted to give everything I could to those fans because I remembered myself being in their shoes when I was a kid.

SPEAKER_00
42:25

Yeah. Did you have any favorite places to play on the road?

SPEAKER_01
42:29

Lambo was the best. And it wasn't just me because I grew up in Wisconsin and grew up a Packer fan. It's when you walk into that stadium, you get that feeling and that sense that this is a sacred place that in the NFL, there is no more holy grail. This is the cathedral to the NFL. This is one of the oldest, most uh passionate fan bases. This is one of the most historic places in pro football because to my knowledge, there's no other stadiums that are still pretty much the same as it was in the same place. The field may have changed, the grass may have changed, but you walk in there and you just feel the history and the roots of the NFL when you're in Lambeau. And the cool thing is we played a bunch of preseason games there. It's the only place you play a preseason game that actually fills the stadium, that fans are actually there, they're tailgating. It feels like a regular season game, and it just speaks to the loyalty and the passion of the Packers fan base and the and the uniqueness of Green Bay, the city, having an NFL franchise with 100,000 people in that city. I went to the draft last year in Green Bay as one of the hosts.

SPEAKER_00
43:40

That was wild.

SPEAKER_01
43:40

And there's like a quarter million people. And I'm telling my co-hosts, I'm like, you guys probably don't realize this, but the population is half of what is in the parking lot right now.

SPEAKER_00
43:50

Right. No, it it is literally the entire population in that in that field every Sunday almost. Yeah. The field in the bus parking lot, plus bars around. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01
43:59

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00
44:00

But yeah, that it was it was unreal, the people at that draft. Um before letting you go, we we talk about Wisconsin and Milwaukee. You're a big hunter and fisher. Any favorite spots to go hunting and fishing around this beautiful state?

SPEAKER_01
44:15

I've been very fortunate. I've had a chance to hunt in a lot of places around the state. I think what you're looking at over our shoulder is my favorite. Uh the driftless area of Wisconsin is just so rich with wildlife and diversity from deer hunting to turkey hunting, uh duck hunting. The trout fishing out here is second to none. People from out west, they drive here to come trout fishing. Think about that. I mean, it's just incredible. The beauty that we have here is second to none. And so if I had to pick one place to go hunting, you're looking at it. Fishing, I'm gonna put myself on Lake Michigan. The salmon fishing that we have out of Milwaukee from time to time in the summer is second to none anywhere in the world. People from Alaska come down here to go fishing because of the diversity of species that we have in Milwaukee, but also how accessible it is to so many people. I mean, even if you don't have a big boat, I mean I grew up fishing out of my dad's 17-footer, it's just a little bigger than a rowboat, but we could get out there and get on the water and come back and spend some time in Milwaukee, grab a burger at Cops Custard, which is like the best burger in the world. You like the buttery burger. I love, I love Cops burgers, the cookie cheese, not culverse. I love butter burgers too, but uh cops and then having a nice custard cone after that on a hot day, it's hard to beat.

SPEAKER_00
45:36

I was thinking of Sale's. Oh that's what popped in my head. Yes. Chef Chef Adam loves that one. That's that's too much butter for me. Oh, a lot of butter. That is, that is they they they douse that thing. Um, any uh speaking of go being able to go all over the state, any favorite um towns you like visiting or ones that stick out, whether it is hunting, fishing, or just getting away or passing through?

SPEAKER_01
46:00

I love getting up north. Uh Three Lakes, that area. That's where we used to go to go up to my godfather's cabin on Big Stone Lake and the Three Lakes chain, and just all those little Northwoods vacation towns are just fantastic. You go up Manaqua and Manitouish waters and over to Hayward. Um, Hayward is one of my favorite places also because the smallmouth fishing up there is incredible, and like the dive bar scene up there, the little bars that you can pull your boat up to and get an amazing Friday night fish fry with an old-fashioned like to me, that's everything I've always wanted in life, is just that moment right there where you're sitting at the bar after a day of fishing and you're waiting for your fish fry and pounding a couple spotted cows in an old fashioned and looking out over the water. Like that is absolutely.

SPEAKER_00
46:45

Are you talking about a specific supper club?

SPEAKER_01
46:47

So Anglers Haven up there in that that area is uh one of my favorite little bars on the water. Um, Del Bar Supper Club, uh, not too far north of Madison, is another iconic place that's just spectacular from top to bottom, from service to food to setting to just getting that nostalgic Wisconsin feel. But, you know, you're leaving out hundreds if you name a single one because there's so many great, cool, uniquely Wisconsin places from a dive bar supper club standpoint, from an on-the-water restaurant standpoint. And I think that's one of my favorite things to do when I bring people here that have never been to Wisconsin. It's like, what do I want to show them that's unique to this state that they're gonna find really cool dive bar, supper clubs, restaurants on the water, getting on a lake? Because so many people don't even realize how many lakes we have. We bring friends from Ohio out here. Um, our social media director for Hall of Fame Farms is from Ohio, never been to Wisconsin. First thing she says to me when she gets out here is, and I didn't realize you guys had so many lakes. I'm like, hey, Minnesota may be the land of 10,000 lakes, but we got 15,000 here. We just don't brag about it because we're all nice.

SPEAKER_00
47:54

We do have more. Yeah. Um, and then Joe, what what is what is the the goal with everything you're building here?

SPEAKER_01
48:03

So I think the goal is is multifaceted, but one, I want to continue to promote agriculture in the driftless area. We've got some of the richest soils on planet earth. We've got some of the most talented small family producers here. Uh Organic Valley, not too far up the street from us. We've got so many other people that are doing similar great work producing the food that feeds the world. And I think being able to highlight them with my platform, with what we're doing with Hall of Fame Farms and the Wagyu that we're producing out here, is giving me great pride because it gives me an opportunity to also highlight my friends that are also doing amazing work out here, highlight the incredible agriculture that we have in the state of Wisconsin by telling my story, by allowing people to taste our Hall of Fame Wagyu beef and the products that we make from it. Um, and then also being able to tell the individual stories of the farmers and the family farms that we have that have generations of families that have been out here doing the same thing and doing incredible work, and also being able to raise being able to try to raise the healthiest, most delicious beef on planet Earth, and being able to sync my mind and my purpose as a person who played in the NFL and has now found a passion for that second profession, and then allowing my kids to be part of it. I think those are probably some of the more important things to me that get me out of bed every single day and get me out here on the farm, rolling up the sleeves, being proud to be a farmer.

SPEAKER_00
49:37

That's awesome. We'll end it there. Thanks so much for having us, and we're yeah, excited to go explore the place.

SPEAKER_01
49:42

Thank you so much for coming out here and having a few minutes to chat. And I can't wait to show you the farm.

SPEAKER_00
49:48

Hey guys, before signing off, just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible. Annex Wealth Management, Nick Le La and Drink Wisconsin Believe Beverage Company.