Current Badgers Visit Former Badger
December 18, 2007 | Football
Over Thanksgiving weekend, four current Badgers and friends decided to make a road trip to visit one of their good friends who was no longer in Madison. Cornerback Ben Strickland, long snapper Steve Johnson and punters Ken DeBauche and Paul Standring made the trek to Cleveland, Ohio to visit All-American tackle Joe Thomas.
Check below for a photo gallery of the weekend. All photos courtesy of Paul Standring.
The four players along with eight other friends from Thomas's hometown, Brookfield, Wis., packed into a couple of Chevy Suburbans and made the seven-plus hour drive to see the Cleveland Browns take on the Houston Texans.
'We obviously wanted to see Joe [Thomas] in his first full season and see him play one of these times,' said Strickland. 'We went down and had a good time. It was nice to see him and see how happy he is and how comfortable he is in Cleveland.'
The 12 guys spent the weekend at Thomas' house hanging out and catching up with their old friend.
'We didn't really discuss football all weekend,' said Johnson. 'Since that is all we do all year long, we caught up on other parts of life.'
'It was a good time actually, talking to Joe about stuff other than football and catching up on some things,' said Standring. 'Annie (Joe's wife and former Badger basketball player) had her hands full with all of us around for the weekend.'
Capping off the weekend, the 12 guys all attended the Browns-Texans game with their chest painted spelling out J-O-E-T-H-O-M-A-S-7-3-!. Fans and players alike were impressed with the crew with their shirts off while the temperature was in the 30's.
It was Paul's [Standring] idea,' said DeBauche. 'We were just sitting around and we were like `we should do something for the game' and Paul thought we should just paint our chests. We had a great time down there. Everyone kind of loved us there because it was so cold out. It was fun, just going out and having fun with our friends.'
Thomas and the Browns won the game 27-17, but he wasn't the only former Badger on the field that day. Running back Ron Dayne and tight end Owen Daniels both play for the Texans. Daniels had seven catches for 82 yards and a touchdown, while Dayne ran for 78 yards on 16 carries.
Thomas and the rest of the Browns offensive line blocked for RB Jamal Lewis who tallied 134 yards and a score, while QB Derek Anderson went 24-for-35 for 253 yards and two touchdowns while only being sacked once.
