Earl Thomas has a message for you. And everyone else in the Pacific Northwest. And Seahawks fans beyond that.
“Hold on everyone. Let’s not get it confused I want to be a Seahawk,” the three-time All-Pro typed into his phone then disseminated to all Saturday morning on his Twitter account.
Thomas felt compelled to thumb his missive while traveling in Ireland because of what he told Ireland’s national independent talk radio show “Off the Ball” on Friday following his NFL tour of Dublin.
“I love being in Seattle,” Thomas wrote Saturday. “The winning culture that we have established I want to be a part of it for life!! …
“I don’t want my comments to get confused with the truth.. when I am asked tough questions about my future in Seattle I don’t know any other way but to be honest and tell my truth on how I see it…
“But never think for a moment I want to leave this beautiful city.”
The issue remains whether he will price himself out of it.
Thomas, who turns 29 in May, told Off the Ball in Ireland in a video released Friday: “Right now, I don’t…nobody knows. It’s a guessing game, so we’ll see.”
He was asked how he deals, emotionally, with the uncertainty of where he is going to be playing this year, the final one of his contract, and beyond.
“In my case, whether I am in Seattle or anywhere else, I am going to be rich and happy regardless,” Thomas said. “It’s a cutthroat league, but if you are at the top of your game and you don’t give them any reasons to devalue you, you’re good.”
While listening to trade offers that have yet to make them act, the Seahawks have been talking to Thomas’ representatives on a possible extension beyond 2018. There were talks as recently as this month’s NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.
Thomas has stated he wants to be paid at or near the top of all safeties in the NFL. He particularly noticed last year when Eric Berry, who was in the same 2010 draft class as Thomas, signed for six years at $13 million per season with $40 million guaranteed.
“I saw Eric Berry get that huge deal. There ain’t never enough of that,” is how Thomas put it last Aug. 1, at the start of his eighth Seahawks training camp before what became his sixth Pro Bowl season at free safety.
Thomas hinted at January’s Pro Bowl he may hold out from the start of next season if he doesn’t have a new deal by the time it starts in September or before.
He knows that any team wanting to trade for him won’t do so at Seattle’s steep price — believed to be a first-round draft choice, a third-round pick and maybe a player on top of that — to have Thomas for only this year. He knows any acquiring team would have to work out an agreement on a contract extension with him, at this point, at or near his high price.
“Keep in mind when I’m asked ‘what ifs’ I’m always coming from a perspective of a gambling man that’s willing to bet on myself if my back is against the wall and things are out of my control,” Thomas wrote Saturday.
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