We can still get Walt Thomas

[NickZepp]

Sorry if this is already posted. Everyone wanted us to get him well after 12 minutes in Saints camp he's available!

Undrafted Thomas gets cut, QB Palko makes impression

May 14, 2007

By Bob Heist
Louisiana Gannett News

METAIRIE -- After signing a free-agent contract with the Saints, the legend of Walter Thomas had reached Bunyanesque proportions.

That's about what the 6-foot-4, 374-pound defensive tackle looked like entering the team's weekend rookie mini-camp.

A recruit of LSU coach Les Miles while he was at Oklahoma State, Thomas burst onto the draft scene in early April. During a phenomal workout at Mississippi State's pro day, he reportedly ran the 40-yard dash in 4.9 seconds, bench pressed 225 pounds 27 times and displayed a vertical leap of more than 30 inches.

Thomas was even pictured doing a front flip in a New York Times pre-draft story of little-known prospects.

But the one thing Thomas, who flunked out of Oklahoma State and lasted just two games into his career at Northwest Mississippi Community College, never had to display before the draft was his physical conditioning.

That came during the first day of mini-camp on Saturday morning, and it didn't take Saints coach Sean Payton long to separate fact from fiction.

"He had a brief career," Payton said with a chuckle on Sunday.

Exactly 12 minutes into his first workout, Thomas surrendered to the heat and went to the trainer's room for treatment. That's when Payton made the call and cut him.

"As a free agent signed after the draft, there's no way of measuring where he was conditioning-wise," Payton said.

"It was a wait-and-see situation, and we saw it when we saw it."

Seriously would anyone want a guy that couldn't last 15 minutes in an NFL training camp?

 

[cowboyjoe]

well, what i saw on his home page, website, really bothered me, unless he shows a huge change, and then you got to realize, he wasnt drafted, failed workout with the saints, which showed he wasnt in shape, so where is his heart and head.

till he changes those issues, his conditioning, and his webpage, that had abusive profanity on it, then i dont want him;

dont get me wrong, i was all over this guy,thinking he would be a super player that really wanted to play and get his life in straight, just doesnt look that way.

you can be a workout warrior in weight room, speed, but if you dont have the heart, determination, will power, to be the best, then where are you, then you add in the issues he had on his webpage, just scrares me off.

i respect jeff ireland being our head scout, etc, so if he said that walter just wasnt what we were looking for, they did look at him, and must have seen something they didnt like, till walter thomas changes, then let sleeping dogs lay.

 

[cowboyjoe]

i almost must add, i was one of the ones, that contacted about 12 writers, dallas cowboys to look at this guy, so to my mind we did give the guy a chance, he just have to change some issues of his life, commitment, work, study, heart, to succeed if he wants it, till then, i say no

 

[MadCow]

That was equivalent to a job interview. Passing out like that in such a short time was like showing up to a prospective Fortune 500 employer with torn jeans, a wife beater t-shirt, between the toe flip flops and "BO" to boot.

Let Thomas show some initiative and take a few months to get himself in top conditioning. Go back to school somehow and then try again with a better perspective of how blessed it is to have an opportunity to play in the NFL.

As for Thomas signing with the Cowboys right now, not only no, but ....

 

[THUMPER]

Guys who are lazy like that rarely change. 20 years from now he will be flipping burgers somewhere talking to 15 year olds how he once went to an NFL training camp and could have made it big if not for: (fill in the BS excuse that doesn't include him being out of shape and not giving a damn).

 

[silver]

he just have to change some issues of his life, commitment, work, study, heart, to succeed if he wants it, till then, i say no

That's it? oh that's easy. that's like quiting dope. ask QC.