Joe Judge Mourns the Loss of Former NFL Receiver Demaryius Thomas

Giants head coach Joe Judge remembers the lasting impact former NFL receiver Demaryius Thomas made on him when their paths crossed in New England.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Dec 10, 2021 4:12 PM EST

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Denver Broncos

New England Patriots

New York Giants

Giants head coach Joe Judge only worked with former NFL receiver Demaryius Thomas in 2019 when both were members of the Patriots organization.

But in that one season together, Thomas made enough of a lasting impression on Judge, who, like the rest of the NFL community and those who knew and loved Thomas, are mourning the former receiver's passing Thursday evening at the age of 33.

"Obviously, you take all of his athletic accomplishments, and they don’t hold a candle to the kind of person he was," Judge said Friday before the Giants took the field at the University of Arizona for their planned practice. "Just character and just a quality human being."

According to KOARadio's Benjamin Allbright, Thomas had been dealing with lingering neurological effects from a 2019 car accident that, according to an Associated Press report quoting his cousin, LaTonya Bonseigneur, included seizures.

“He had been suffering from seizures for over a year, and we believe he had a seizure when he was showering,” Bonseigneur told the Associated Press.

“He was alone and a friend couldn’t get hold of him, so he called his driver, who has a key because of these seizures, and he went into his home and found him in the shower.”

Judge isn't the only member of the Giants coaching staff who got to work with Thomas, who spent the 2010-2018 seasons with Denver. Receivers coach Tyke Tolbert, the Broncos receivers coach from 2011-2018, also got to know Thomas very well.

Tolbert was not made available by the Giants for comment, but he did issue a statement via Twitter:

. Judge, however, spoke glowingly of the impact Thomas left on him as a coach.

"I got to coach him for a brief period of time, but I’d say the impact he had on me as a coach, my approach to the game with a lot of the players, it was profound," he said.

"Watching this guy as he led as a player – this guy was able to be a leader to the team as an older, experienced player, but he was on PUP at the time. He was hurt. There was a good chunk of time that I was with him that he wasn’t even active on the field.

"It’s tough as a player to have any kind of an impact on the team when you’re not out there competing every day, but his ability of almost transcending being a player and almost being a coach at times with the way he would share wisdom and talk through techniques, the hours that he would sit in my office when we talked through game plans ... it was tremendous."

But it was Thomas's character that Judge will always hold dear.

"All the football stuff aside, none of that holds a candle to what kind of person this guy was and I think everybody he interacted with, he impacted," Judge said.