Xavier Thomas was smart and athletic. He was in an IB program in high school, and later took honors and AP courses. He got his initial degree at Clemson in three years because he wanted to have it done by the time he entered the draft.
His mother preferred that he play baseball and not football – “It’s so violent. I’m a mother. I’m going to be protective at all times,” she said – but it was football her son was drawn to, and what he excelled at. Other than quarterbacks Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields, Xavier Thomas was considered the best recruit – higher even than friend Micah Parsons, who now stars for the Dallas Cowboys.
He chose Clemson over the University of South Carolina and had 3½ sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss as a true freshman in a reserve role. Tameka Thomas said her son had a “diva moment” going into his sophomore season as his numbers dropped slightly and he began to see his NFL dream come closer.
Yet getting to the pros was on track until it wasn’t. And when Covid overwhelmed the country and Thomas was sent home, he didn’t deal with it well.
He acknowledged there were “some things at home” that were weighing on him at the time, but added that he doesn’t think he would’ve ended up depressed if Covid hadn’t happened.
That’s when he told Clemson coach Dabo Swinney he was going to step away from the game, likely for good.
“I had never had any real adversity come my way,” Thomas said.
Tameka says now she doesn’t really know how she was able to help her son – the middle child, with two older sisters and two younger sisters – other than to stay supportive. Asked if she knew he was depressed at the time, she pauses.
“I want to say yes but I also say no because I’m thinking I was in denial,” Tameka said. “Again, that’s my baby, and I’m thinking there’s no way he’s gotten to this point. But I stayed in his ear because I didn’t want to admit it to myself. I can say now yeah, I think I knew more than what I wanted to actually accept.”
The message Tameka had always given her son was that, whatever decision he made, he needed to do it for himself and for no one else. When Xavier chose Clemson over South Carolina, the hate came out through social media, and his mother was there to remind him he was always going to have people that liked him and people that didn’t.
The same went for his decision to play. And Thomas realized he wanted to play.
Swinney stuck with his player. Shedding the weight wasn’t easy – Thomas now weighs 244, and at one point he was 298 – as Thomas had to restructure his entire lifestyle. He still played in seven games that season, but by that point, going into the NFL draft was off indefinitely.
“I’m super proud of XT because he got to a place that a lot of people don’t recover from,” Swinney said in comments provided by Clemson. “He was in a very dark place but what he did that was so important was he communicated and sought out help and had the courage to let people know what he was struggling with.”
He watched his friend Parsons get drafted and star for the Cowboys and felt the ping of regret.
But by this point, he had survived the harsh adversity and knew he was OK. He leaned into his religion, seeing his journey as a plan from God. His big season was supposed to be 2022, but that fifth year was mostly derailed by a broken foot, sending him back to school for a sixth Covid year.
“I’m glad it went the way it did,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t mature yet. I would’ve gotten drafted early (in 2020), but I wouldn’t have been ready mentally and I would’ve found that out quick and early.
“If it didn’t happen, I probably wouldn’t have lasted two years in the league.”