The Rock’s new game show, The Titan Games — which is basically a combination of American Ninja Warrior and American Gladiators — debuted on NBC last night.
The breakout star of the first episode was Browns legend Joe Thomas, the ironman of football who played left tackle for Cleveland for the better part of a decade. Thomas was the “Titan” and took on two challengers on Mt. Olympus, which is like the Aggro Crag but for large people who do Crossfit.
That’s all well and good. What was more notable was that Joe Thomas was, for all intents and purposes, completely unrecognizable. I had known that Thomas lost a lot of weight after his career — he played at 312 pounds — but still, I did a triple take.
This was Joe Thomas when he was an All Pro offensive lineman with the Browns:
This is Joe Thomas on The Titan Games:
If I saw that man on the street, I would certainly be wowed by his size, but I would also have absolutely no idea that was Joe Thomas.
My colleague Andrew Joseph wrote about Thomas’ transformation last year. Thomas lost over 50 pounds since his playing days, and points to a lot of cardio — swimming is his favorite — and a diet heavy in meat and vegetables as getting him down to his current size.
