Dolphins rookie makes one giant leap

Donald Thomas didn't really play much football until walking on at Connecticut. Now he has a shot at the NFL.

Posted on Tue, May. 06, 2008

BY DAVID J. NEAL

Which is ironic because, until a few years ago, the only thing Thomas couldn't be was a football player.

Nothing outside pads, a playbook and a room at training camp are guaranteed for sixth-round picks. But the idea that Thomas might be a few months from being on an NFL roster a few years after being a walk-on at the University of Connecticut -- with almost no high school football in his background -- comes off as one of those Rudy-esque stories they reject in Hollywood these days.

''It's crazy,'' Thomas said. ``It doesn't even register. It doesn't seem like it's real.''

As a matter of fact, if Thomas had not been drafted, he figures he still would be in the classroom.

''Hopefully, I'd probably be substitute-teaching in the Bridgeport [Conn.] school system and hopefully getting some acceptance letters from some law schools and getting ready to go to law school in the fall,'' he said.

NEW HAVEN GUYS

Thomas, like Dolphins coach Tony Sparano, is from New Haven, Conn. In addition to the pizza joints -- ''We talked a little bit about some pizza places on Wooster Street in New Haven, Sally's or Pepe's Pizza. He knows them well. That's not good,'' Sparano joked -- the city has a couple of universities: New Haven, where Sparano went and later served as head football coach, and a pretty fair school called Yale.

With that institution partnered with New Haven Hill Regional Career Magnet School, it helped make Hill Regional one of the places for the academically inclined.

''It was a brand-new school,'' Thomas said. ``It had brand-new everything. New computers and everything. State-of-the-art everything. So why wouldn't you want to go there?''

The only thing it didn't have was a football team. Thomas had played three games for West Haven High School's freshman team before he was told he would have to transfer to West Haven from Hill or quit football. Thomas' mother, a principal, and his father said that wasn't happening, so football got put on the shelf for the remainder of high school. Thomas had to be content pitching and playing first base for the baseball team, playing basketball and making the National Honor Society. He then went to the University of Connecticut, figuring on just being a good student.

''I got bored with it and wanted to do something else,'' he said. ``Playing basketball with some of the players after the season was over, they pushed me to try out [for football].''

Thomas started out as a defensive end for the scout team, then redshirted in 2004 as he made the switch to offense. He spent 2005 on special teams. After working his way up the depth chart for 2006, Thomas played in 10 games, starting two at left guard, then was suspended for two games after an altercation at a local restaurant resulted in his arrest. He became an All-Big East guard last season.

''I have seen some pretty good feet from a big guy like that,'' Sparano said. ``I've seen strength, and I've seen a little bit more awareness than maybe even I thought [possible] with a lack of his exposure out there and his [limited] experience.''

DOLPHINS NO MORE

Cornerback Scorpio Babers, out of Sam Houston State, and former Alabama linebacker Keith Saunders have made the move from minicamp workout players last weekend to undrafted free agent signees. The Dolphins announced their signings Monday.

In the ''Goodbye'' column, the Dolphins waived linebacker Abraham Wright, a small, swift, edge-rushing seventh-round pick who impressed in training-camp practices but not in preseason games; defensive end Derreck Robinson, a free agent who played in seven games last season; and a pair of rookie free agents, wide receiver Marcel Reese, out of Washington, and cornerback Aaron Lane, who played at Purdue.