ONE NSU MAGAZINE / cohesion that had not been seen before.” Over the next several seasons, Thomas continued to rack up impressive on-field results as a player for the Broncos, before moving on to stints with the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Miami Dolphins. By 2018, however, Thomas’s interest in helping others and solving problems had taken precedence over his passion for football. MINDSET MODIFICATION After hanging up his football cleats for good in the summer of 2018, Thomas made a bold transition to the psychology field in 2019, because of his growing desire to help others. “I chose psychology for several reasons, including to challenge myself in a way I believed was important,” he said. “This may be difficult for people to understand, but I felt my mind was understimuated while playing football. I didn’t have the ability to solve problems and make decisions in my professional career,” Thomas explained. “For athletes, even as your career progresses, you still have everyone making all the decisions for you. I wanted autonomy, responsi- bility, and increased cognitive rigor, but each time I asked to have a greater influence on how I performed my job, I was rebuffed.” Thomas said he knew it was time to make a career change after he heard the same demeaning remark from two coaches on two different teams. “They said, ‘We pay you to run, not to think.’ A part of who I am is intellectual, and I didn’t want to repress that part of my being any longer,” he admitted. “I needed to have the courage to step away from football to discover the parts of me I was unable to be for the many years I spent as an athlete.” NFL TO NSU Because the last team he played for before retiring from football was the Miami Dolphins, whose training facility was based at Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU’s) Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus at the time, Thomas was already familiar with the university. Consequently, when he decided to pursue a master’s degree in psychology, NSU was his clear-cut choice. 29
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