Broncos' Thomas' Twitter remarks stir pot
http://www.denverpost.com/premium/broncos/ci_15178887
Broncos' Thomas' Twitter remarks stir pot
WR's Twitter talk roils Broncos camp
By Mike Klis
The Denver Post
Posted: 05/28/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Demaryius Thomas and his broken foot were all a-Twitter.
And then — poof! — the tweets disappeared.
Thomas, the Broncos' first draft pick and No. 22 overall last month, wrote on his Twitter account Monday: "Bout 2 to get some xrays!"
A couple of hours later, Thomas tweeted: "Sad."
By Wednesday, those messages were removed from his Twitter account.
Conspiracy theorists lit up the Internet message boards. Calling all Twitters! Calling all Twitters!
Thomas' back-to-back tweets, and the subsequent removal of them, immediately raised reminders of the risks involved in using a first-round draft pick on a receiver with a broken foot. Thomas has been sidelined since breaking the fifth metatarsal in his left foot while training for the NFL scouting combine in February.
But a Broncos source said that upon closer inspection, the tweets were several hours apart and unrelated. The team had no official comment, but the source said, "I can assure you 100 percent that there was nothing 'sad' about his recent X-rays."
The source also said that once Thomas realized his Twitter followers would connect one message with the next, the rookie receiver decided to remove the messages.
Welcome to the local NFL fishbowl, kid.
Thomas did not return calls seeking clarification of his tweets. As the Broncos were practicing Thursday, Thomas walked from the weight room to inside the team's cafeteria.
When did he expect to join the Broncos' offseason practice sessions?
"I don't know," he said before sliding inside the cafeteria doors.
Already, Thomas' recovery has taken longer than hoped. When he first suffered the injury, Thomas' agent, Todd France, told SI.com that "Demaryius will be 100 percent by the time OTA's [organized team activity] begin."
But when Broncos rookies gathered for their first camp in late April, Thomas said he didn't think he would be ready until June.
Regardless of whether Thomas' X-rays were "sad" or there was "nothing sad" about them, Broncos coach Josh McDaniels indicated training camp, which begins the final week of July, would be the target date for all his players recovering from foot injuries.
In addition to Thomas, rookie receiver Eric Decker, who was taken in the third round, is recovering from a lisfranc fracture on his left foot, and veteran right tackle Ryan Harris is returning from a fractured big right toe. Harris is expected back next week, if only on a limited basis.
"If there is a guy that is borderline-ready or not ready, we're not going to push it," McDaniels said. "We've told all those players that August is the time we want you to be ready to go, and if they're all ready, we'll be excited to see them out there. They're all taking a bunch of mental reps, they're in all the film sessions, so they're seeing all the things we're doing and getting all the info. Hopefully, everyone will be healthy by August."
Even if Thomas and Decker are completely recovered by August, because of their lack of training time it would be surprising if they're able to contribute significantly in September, the first month of the regular season.
"Like all rookies, they've got a long way to go and need to get on the field as fast as possible," Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton said. "These OTAs are certainly big for rookies. You get the chance to run the same plays over and over and over again."
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
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Originally Posted by claymore
No Shit!
