Peyton Manning had some great things to say about his former Denver Broncos teammate, wide receiver Demaryius Thomas, who died at the age of 33 on Thursday. Broncos chief communications officer Patrick Smyth went to Twitter to share Manning’s reaction to the death of Thomas. Manning, who was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year, believes Thomas will be joining him in Canton, Ohio, very soon.
“D.T. was a better person than he was a player, and he was a Hall of Fame player,” Manning said. “That tells you how good of a person he was. He treated my kids like they were his own. He was there for every teammate’s charity event. …” Manning continued: “I texted with D.T. on Tuesday. He was talking about a TD audible we called vs. Arizona in 2014. Absolutely devastated.”
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Manning and Thomas played together for four seasons and worked well go. He threw 539 touchdown passes in Manning’s career, and 36 of those went to Thomas, the fourth-most in Manning’s career. And in 2015, Manning and Thomas led the Broncos to a Super Bowl title. Thomas caught 105 passes for 1,304 yards and six scores in that season.
Thomas was a member of the Broncos from 2010-2018 before spending time with multiple teams for the next two seasons. He announced his retirement from the NFL in June of 2021 and finished his career with 724 receptions for 9,763 yards and 63 touchdowns.
“It was a tough decision, a real tough decision,” Thomas told DenverBroncos.com from his home in Atlanta when he announced his retirement in June. “… Always as a kid or always when I did something, it was always [giving] my best to go and go and go. And football was my go. Every year I tried to get better and better, and I knew I was aging, of course. It was something tough, but I’m grateful I did 10, 11 years. I’m so grateful for that and now I can move on. I’m happy; I’m healthy. And now I can try to find my next itch.” Thomas died on Thursday night at his home in Roswell, Georgia. The cause of death has not officially been announced.
