BEREA, Ohio _ Browns 10-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas can retire whenever he wants with the luxury of knowing he'll be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame five years later.
But what Thomas explained Monday is he doesn't know whether the season-ending torn triceps tendon he suffered in Sunday's 12-9 overtime loss to the Tennessee Titans will cause him to close the book on his playing days.
For now, Thomas plans to undergo surgery Tuesday and begin to rehabilitate before deciding after the season whether he wants to make a comeback or end his legendary NFL playing career.
"That's a decision that is best to be talked about in the offseason," Thomas said during a conference call. "Right now is obviously too soon after the injury and before the surgery. You have no idea how any of the rehab or the surgery is going to go.
"Talking about the last few years of my career, that decision about, 'Do I continue to play or do I retire,' is something that I've always left up to the offseason because it does take some time to get away from football and have reflection and discussions with family and just figure out what the next step would be.
"Obviously, you go through a range of emotions after an injury like that, and I think it's the most fair to myself and my teammates to just wait until after the season to really kind of sit down with my family and kind of discuss what the future looks like."
Thomas, 32, will have surgery to reattach the tendon to the elbow bone. Doctors have told him he should expect a full recovery in six to nine months, meaning he would be ready for next season should he choose to resume his career and all goes well with rehab.
"Joe is a tremendous competitor and just knowing him _ I'm not speaking for him _ he will come back and want to continue to do what he does, which is be one of the best left tackles in this league," coach Hue Jackson said. "Hopefully he will want to do that."
Thomas is under contract through the 2018 season. He has repeatedly said he considers his health, performance and love of the game whenever he contemplates whether to keep playing. His health is obviously a big question mark now, but he was pleased with his recent performance and enjoying himself despite the Browns starting the season 0-7.
"I felt like I was having one of the best seasons of my career," said Thomas, whom the Browns placed on injured reserve. "I felt like our offensive line was playing well and we were really gelling together. I was having a lot of fun. I didn't feel like I was losing any of my physical skills. That's for sure.
"I felt like I was playing at the top of my game. It was especially disappointing to get knocked out with an injury like that, especially the way I was feeling. I was feeling great physically, so that's tough to lose the rest of the season because of that."
Thomas also pointed out he loves Jackson and loves playing for him.
"I've respected him from afar when he was with the [Cincinnati] Bengals and he was with the [Oakland] Raiders," Thomas said. "Playing for him was awesome, and I definitely would love to continue playing for him."
No matter how Thomas ultimately decides to proceed, his amazing streak of 10,363 consecutive snaps ended when he suffered the injury while shoving Titans outside linebacker Brian Orakpo at the end of a 3-yard rush by running back Duke Johnson with 5:35 left in the third quarter. Until then, Thomas hadn't missed a snap since the Browns drafted him third overall in 2007, and they believe it's the longest streak in NFL history.
"That is something that I'm not sure will ever be repeated," center JC Tretter said. "I put it up there with the Cal Ripken streak. That's just something that, this day and age, I'm not sure will ever be touched. Obviously, you'd love to see him go through his entire career running that streak, but that number is truly impressive. In a league full of different stats and things we track, I think that is the most impressive stat you'll find."
Immediately after Thomas pushed Orakpo, he grabbed the back of his left arm, fell to the ground and screamed in pain. Thomas knew right away he wouldn't be able to play through the injury like had pushed through a torn lateral collateral ligament, three torn medial collateral ligaments and two high-ankle sprains in previous seasons.
"I could feel the tendon detaching from my elbow, and it rolled up into my mid-triceps and I really had no function in that arm," Thomas said. "And so I kind of knew right away that I wasn't going to be able to go back out there, even if I wanted to. It definitely hurt.
"It was probably a wear and tear thing where over the decades of playing left tackle that elbow gets a lot more beating. And certainly I think my position playing left tackle, that being the arm that's closest to my defender is going to take the brunt of injury."
Thomas has started all 167 games of his 11-year career, and he's one of just five players in NFL history to make the Pro Bowl in each of his first 10 seasons. Those streaks will end soon.
Jackson called losing Thomas "a big blow not just to our offense, but to our organization" because of the impact he had "as a player, as a person, the things he brought to our football team in the locker room and the leadership piece."
The Browns will need to recover from the psychological effect of his absence.
"In our locker room, you are used to having him in there, seeing him in there and knowing he is going to play," Jackson said. "He has been iron man. You walk out there, Joe Thomas is on the field ready to go. Our players, we need to get past that as fast as we can. We don't have that safety net anymore."
The Browns plan to start Spencer Drango at left tackle Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings in London and could figure out a different lineup during their subsequent bye week, Jackson said. Drango filled in for Thomas after he left the field against the Titans. Thomas said he hopes to help Drango as much as he can, but he won't be wearing his helmet and uniform while doing it.
"It's definitely surreal," Thomas said. "Obviously, you don't ever expect to get injured, but as a football player, you always understand the realities of the violent sport that we play, that at any moment, it can be taken away from you, and you could be sitting on the bench and rehabbing an injury. In the back of your mind, you're always prepared for it, but you're not always ready for it. So it's kind of been a whirlwind 24 hours."
