Former Cleveland Browns great Joe Thomas is not resting in retirement

Cleveland Browns great Joe Thomas went on Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s show, Titan Games, and showed that he’s still a great athlete; retired or not.

Joe Thomas might be a top-ten Cleveland Brown of all time. He’s certainly the best offensive linemen the team has ever had, all due respect to Otto Graham. So when Joe Thomas retired and started his broadcast career with his TomaHawk podcast and NFL coverage on t.v., few would’ve expected Thomas to still be the badass athlete he was during his tenure with the Browns.

Enter the Titan Games.

The Titan Games is a show hosted by Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, and basically plays out like American Gladiators. In fact they would’ve had a better shot at just remaking American Gladiators for the third time. Unlike American Gladiators, the Titan Games features well-known superstar athletes, as opposed to (potentially doped up), muscle-bound, no-names. The 2007 remake notwithstanding.

The Titans are six all-star athletes from a variety of disciplines and sports, split up over three regions; East, Central, and West. Among the group includes Olympic boxers, former UFC Champions, and of course, Thomas a future NFL Hall of Famer. The full list is below.

"East: Tyron Woodley, UFC fighter; Hannah Teter, snowboarderCentral: Claressa Shields, boxer; Joe Thomas, former NFL playerWest: Victor Cruz, former NFL player; Jessie Graff, stuntwoman"

This appears to be a format change from season one, which only featured contestant vs. contestant type matchups.

The buzzworthy moment of this past week’s edition of Titan Games saw Joe Thomas go toe to toe with Matt Chan, a firefighter from Denver, CO. Chan, of course, has a heartbreaking tale of injury and recovery, where he eventually ended up on the Titan Games. To his credit, Chan gave the show the most buzz it ever had. After falling behind early, Chan raced ahead of Thomas in the closing moments of the show’s final contest and was mere seconds away from victory.

The last obstacle? Breaking through rock with an ax and placing a large Titan-T logo into the now open slot. A firefighter in an ax swinging competition; game, set, match, right?

Wrong.

Thomas, the Browns’ future Hall of Fame offensive tackle, had a flash of energy and was able to clear the rubble and debris faster than Chan. Chan did get his giant-T on the block first but couldn’t insert it properly, allowing Thomas in the luckiest stroke of his athletic career, to prop up the symbol and have it almost effortlessly slide into the stand securing the win, a mere millisecond before Chan.

The win was huge for Thomas, who’s getting more eyes on him than any time before. Well, outside of all those articles written about his weight loss. Thomas’ win also got some buzz going for Johnson’s show, which honestly wasn’t that much of a trending topic in its inaugural season.

If the show gets picked up for a third season, Thomas’ showdown with Chen might just be the reason why. Short of an NFL-comeback for Thomas, his run on The Titan Games might just be the next best thing for fans of his. Here’s hoping he’s in more episodes going forward.