Blair Thomas, Broken Promises and the True Meaning of Disappointment

Cleaning up and packing before a move is always a challenge, but every so often you stumble upon lost treasure. 

This past weekend I found a shoebox filled with old football cards from my childhood and for a few minutes enjoyed a good laugh thumbing through a pile of former Jets. 

Names that I hadn't given much thought to in years suddenly burst to life...Freeman McNeil, Ken O'Brien, James Hasty, Pat Leahy, Al Toon, but then one card made me pause. 

Blair Thomas.

1990 #2 Pick: Running Back...Penn State.

Thomas came to the Jets right at the time I started to really follow football as the team looked to reinvent itself under new coach Bruce Coslet and GM Dick Steinberg.  The Heisman trophy runner up seemed like a sure thing, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.  Within just a few short years, Thomas became yet another Jets draft bust.

Yet for me, Thomas always held a special place in my heart given he was my first bust.  Over time, others would follow (Browning Nagle, Johnny Mitchell, Dewayne Robertson, Vernon Gholston), but none would ever mean so much.  

As I gripped that 20-year-old piece of cardboard in my hands, my mind raced through Blair's career, the current scandal at Penn State, and then perhaps selfishly to change gears and clear my mind, wonder whether the Jets' fortunes could possibly change for the better Sunday night against the Patriots.

Ultimately, I would end up disappointed in all of them, but sadly, it's not that simple.

Around the time that Blair Thomas played for Penn State, I was the age of most of the young boys Jerry Sandusky is accused of abusing, and can't even begin to imagine what they may have went through and have endured since.  We sympathize over the alleged victims in a case like this, but the majority of us really have no idea.

I can only believe that if the allegations are true, these young boys at the time thought they were so lucky to be given access to something as special as what the Penn State football program promised, only to be possibly horribly betrayed.   

College scandals are nothing new, but this is something that on so many different levels makes your skin crawl.  I'm disappointed that something that for so long promised to be so pure and true as Penn State football could potentially have been be used as a front to commit such atrocities.  

As a first-time father caring for a 10-month-old son, you worry...24/7.  You try your very best to give them all the love and attention humanly possible to make sure they can live happy and healthy lives. 

In time, though, you realize you can't be there every hour of every day and need to have faith that those who care for them in your place will do their best.  It's disappointing to know we live in a world where safeguards to protect our children sometimes seem fail, and I have trouble accepting that.

Making matters worse is the potential that so many people turned a blind eye or passed the buck to this over the course of more than a decade at Penn State. 

It leaves some to guess what will be the tipping point for college athletics as Scoop Jackson at ESPN wrote last week? 

Today like so many of us watching from afar, I have no answers and as the initial feeling of shock shifts to a numbing sense of genuine disappointment, you have to wonder, what's next? 

The coming weeks, months and possibly years ahead are probably going to be painful for the entire Penn State community, as sadly, this is only the beginning.

By comparison, the Jets' failure to deliver on their promise of beating the Patriots Sunday night seems downright trivial, but it's far easier to digest. 

I've grown accustomed to that kind of disappointment and consider myself mature enough to accept it. The Jets might make the playoffs, but probably won't make the Super Bowl...so be it. 

I threw out a lot of stuff on Sunday afternoon, but I made sure to keep my small collection of Blair Thomas cards.  Fact of the matter is that Thomas really wasn't a bad guy, just someone who failed to live up to our expectations and who sadly has experienced his fair share of heart issues of late, despite being only 44 years old. 

Today I wish him only the best and while I'm still disappointed that he couldn't deliver for the Jets at a time when few things mattered more in life than football, I consider myself fortunate that's all I had to worry about.

Sadly though, the world is an imperfect place...

Not everyone is so lucky, and that painful truth is something we all were reminded of the better part of the past two weeks.  As a parent, you learn that the joy in hearing a child laugh is only a fraction of the pain you feel in hearing them cry. 

Hopefully, justice prevails in Happy Valley, the University and community rebuilds, the victims somehow manage to find peace and perhaps closure, and all of us keep our promise to remain ever vigilant for the sake of all our children. 

One can only hope.