adalius thomas

Perhaps the oddest thing about a very odd week in the history of the New England Patriots, a franchise that has known its share of very odd weeks, was the identity of the commissioner who finally brought the hammer down on the lawless regime of Bill Belichick (last seen stalking the sidelines dressed like he'd just knocked over a 7-Eleven while his enraged team performed public ritual murder on the San Diego Chargers). Way back in 1970, Sen. Charles Goodell, R-N.Y., lost his political career at least in part because he took legislative action to curb the unilateralist excesses of Richard Nixon. (Sen. Goodell lost to William F. Buckley's less-easily parodied brother James.) So, here's his kid, Roger, conducting himself in such a way that he probably should be standing on a balcony somewhere, his medals gleaming in the tropical sun. No wonder Nixon lusted after the job of the commissioner of the National Football League. Everything about the position would appeal to him.

Anyway, seeing a Goodell acting as the New Sheriff in Town―to use the John Ford-ism that's become trendy among America's sporty press―has brought out the latent authoritarian in everyone, it seems. He'd already knuckled Pacman Jones for gunplay, Michael Vick for aggravated Rovercide, and Dallas quarterback coach Wade Wilson for practicing pharmacy without either a license or a decent lie. Goodell couldn't very well have taken a pass on laying the wood to Belichick, who went out of his way to steal defensive signals on a sideline only 20 miles or so from Goodell's desk. In truth, he should have suspended Coach Beyond-The-Law for a couple of games, too, but a half-million bucks is a considerable fine, and the loss of a draft pick makes any football executive cry. People who have been waiting six years to see the Patriots get their comeuppance seemed generally quite happy with Goodell. And then the game started.

Quite simply, no NFL team in recent memory has played a game as well from start to finish as New England did Sunday night. The 38-14 final is not even remotely a measure of it. Neither is the 407-201 margin in total offense, or the 35:46 to 24:14 gap in the time of possession. This was one football operation beating the other one into the ground. The Patriots built this lead in the offseason. San Diego canned head coach Marty Schottenheimer because he lost a playoff game to the Patriots, replacing him with Norv Turner, who has now coached 325 NFL teams in his life. For their part, the Patriots picked up receivers Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth, and, most notably, Randy Moss to give Tom Brady some actual weapons to use. They also signed Adalius Thomas, a frighteningly athletic linebacker from the Baltimore Ravens. It was Thomas who broke the game open, stepping in front of a terrible Philip Rivers pass and outracing all of the Chargers more than 65 yards for a touchdown. By the time Thomas made his play, Brady already had used two of the other newcomers, Welker and Moss, to carve up the Charger secondary, the latter on a 23-yard post route that bisected two San Diego defenders and was as perfectly an executed football play as ever has been. Brady looked off the defenders and came back to Moss, who found the ball on his fingertips as he crossed the goal line at full speed.

On the other side of the ball, Thomas has given Belichick so many options on defense that the coach's creativity is at floodtide, and the team doesn't even feel the absence of all-pro defensive lineman Richard Seymour and explosive safety Rodney Harrison, the latter of whom Goodell earlier busted on a banned-substances rap. The beating was so obvious and thorough that the postgame commentary from the Patriots had more to do with the vicissitudes of the previous five days than it did with the problems inherent in beating a team that went 14-2 last season. There was all manner of chortling and gloating about how the team had managed to overcome the stigma of the media's pointing out that its head coach had gotten caught behaving like an arrogant jackass. A team this good, this dominant, got to cast itself in its own mind as outraged innocents battling to stick it to The Man.

It was like watching conservatives talk about how Michael Moore was picking on them
Adalius Thomas was a sixth round pick by the Baltimore Ravens in 2000 (pick 186). Competing with Peter Boulware and Michael McCrary for playing time, Thomas made only 89 tackles in his first three years. In 2003, Thomas was recognized for his special teams play and was selected to his first Pro Bowl. That year, he registered 34 tackles (23 of them on special teams) 8 passes defended, 4 sacks and a forced fumble.

Thomas was a backup linebacker until 2004, when he finally began to shine. That year he amassed 72 tackles, 4 forced fumbles, 5 passes defended, an interception and 8 sacks. In 2005, Thomas enjoyed his finest year to date. With Boulware relegated to situational pass-rush duty, Thomas was named the starting left outside linebacker, where he accumulated 84 total tackles and 9 sacks. In the absence of Ray Lewis, Thomas stepped up as the leader of the Ravens Squad, becoming the first ever player to play 5 defensive positions (DE, OLB, MLB, Safety, and CB) in one game (a feat he recorded three times).

Thomas finally got recognition in 2006, where he helped a Ravens defense that was ranked #1 overall, and finished 13-3 getting the #2 seed in the playoffs (ultimately losing to the Colts). He also earned his 2nd Pro Bowl bid to the 2007 Pro Bowl. In the game he returned a Marc Bulger fumble for a touchdown.

On March 2, 2007, Adalius Thomas signed a 5-year contract worth $35 million, including $20 million in guaranteed money.


Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts Colvin certainly showed up to play last night in the Patriots' home opener against San Diego at Gillette Stadium. His pair of sacks, pair of forced fumbles, and interception highlighted a strong defensive performance by the Patriots in their 38-14 win.

"I told him whatever ritual he had for this weekend he had to keep that for the season," teammate Adalius Thomas said.

It was a big night for New England's linebackers. In the second quarter, Thomas returned an interception 65 yards for a touchdown, and in the fourth, Colvin and Mike Vrabel dropped San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers 20 yards on back-to-back sacks to seal what was a blowout pretty much from the get-go.

"It was a combination of our offense giving us the opportunity to rest on the sidelines," Colvin said of the consecutive takedowns, "and we go back out there and [defensive coordinator] Dean [Pees] gave us a good call. The guys who are covering did a great job giving us the opportunity to get to the quarterback."



Colvin was one of the players who mocked Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman's sack dance after the Patriots' 24-21 playoff win in January. He didn't get into any mimicry last night, but it was evident he was fired up. There was some yipping and yapping out there.

"There was more [jawing] than in a typical game," Colvin said. "The last game we played against them we talked back and forth the whole game. They're competitors just like we are."

Colvin, who led the Patriots with 8.5 sacks and 26 quarterback hits last year, had a less-than-spectacular season debut last week against the Jets. His name did not even show up on the defensive stat sheet. He let Laveranues Coles slip by for a 7-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter.

But Colvin made a statement early last night, picking off Rivers at the San Diego 28 on the Chargers' first play from scrimmage. Later in the first quarter, Colvin came off the edge, flew past tight end Brandon Manumaleuna and strip-sacked Rivers. Nose tackle Vince Wilfork recovered the fumble and the turnover led to a Stephen Gostkowski field goal.

His two sacks gave Colvin 50.5 career sacks, the sixth-highest total among active NFL linebackers.

"Rosevelt had a monster game," Wilfork said. "He was a different Rosevelt. He worked on some little things this week and it paid off. He's always been a great pass rusher, which he showed again tonight and my hat goes off to him and hopefully he can continue to do that for us, because we're going to need some of those plays down the road."

Thomas's interception return for a touchdown gave the Patriots a 24-0 lead.

"It was just dropping back and reading the quarterback," Thomas said. "When he [threw it] I broke on it and caught it. I dropped one last week, so I told them I owed them one. So it was a good thing and I just ran like Forrest [Gump]."

Early in the first quarter against the Jets, Thomas came close to picking off Chad Pennington's short pass intended for Jerricho Cotchery, but didn't come up with the ball.

He hung on last night and beat wide receiver Malcolm Floyd, his closest pursuer, to the end zone.

"I didn't hear any footsteps, but I looked up at the Jumbotron," Thomas said. "You don't look behind you. I mean you look back and tend to slow down so I just took a peak at the Jumbotron. A kick returner one time told me to do that so that's what I did."

It was the seventh career interception for Thomas, the Patriots' prized offseason defensive acquisition, and his third career interception return for a TD.

"That dude," Colvin said, "we talked about that over the offseason, him scoring all those touchdowns. You see the reason Bill [Belichick] brought him in. You see the types of plays he's able to make. Not just being able to make the interception, but to take it all the way to the house and that's a tremendous asset for us."