Jeff Thomason, Millennium Hall of Fame

Richard Dunn

It was a big deal for his local friends watching on television when

color commentator John Madden circled him with the magic marker on the

air in the NFC Championship Game for the 1996 NFL season.

Playing tight end for the Green Bay Packers, former Corona del Mar

High standout Jeff Thomason sprang Dorsey Levens with a key block as

Levens caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from Brett Favre and the Packers

went on to capture the Super Bowl.

Thomason, who eventually played on two Super Bowl teams for Green Bay,

hopes to be in the spotlight often in 2000 as he joins a new team, the

Philadelphia Eagles, who will give Thomason a chance to be the starter.

The backup tight end to Mark Chmura in Green Bay, Thomason filled in

nicely for five years, including last season when Chmura missed most of

the season with a neck injury and Thomason stepped in to catch a

career-high 14 passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns.

“It was fun last season,” said Thomason, who played primarily behind

Tyrone Davis. “Mark went down and that was unfortunate for him, but it

gave me an opportunity to play a bit more and catch a few more balls.”

The 6-foot-5, 255-pound Thomason, the only former Newport-Mesa

District athlete currently in the NFL, will rejoin Eagles head coach Andy

Reid, who was his position coach with the Packers from 1995-96.

Thomason, a football and swimming star in high school, was traded to

Philadelphia on March 16 in exchange for tight end Kaseem Sinceno, “a

salary cap” move for the Packers, said Thomason, who had bought a house

in Madison, Wis., and was surprised by the trade.

“I thought I was pretty much set, with Mark’s neck being questionable,

but you never know. That’s just the way it works,” Thomason said. “I got

in my car and drove out to Philadelphia, and now I live just across the

Delaware River in New Jersey.”

Entering his eighth NFL season, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot

Sports Hall of Fame feels lucky. “I always dreamt of playing three or

four years, and the thought of playing five or six years, I’d be happy.

And now I’m pushing my eighth,” he said. “The more you learn about the

sport and understand the different aspects of the game, the more

comfortable you get with it.

“(Football) has been my life now. It’s something I’m very confident

with ... it’s fun in some ways to get out of the shadow of Mark Chmura

now. I think here in Philadelphia I’ll definitely compete for (the No. 1

spot).”

Thomason, who owns a house in Newport Beach but has always used it as

rental property, grew up swimming and playing football in Sacramento.

Sherm Chavoor, Mark Spitz’s coach and long considered one of the best

swim coaches in the country, was Thomason’s first instructor in the pool.

After Thomason’s family moved to Newport Beach, he became a rare standout

in both sports, earning CdM Athlete of the Year honors in 1988.

“The (CdM) coaches said it was the first time they’d ever seen anyone

compete in those two sports,” said Thomason, who won four individual CIF

Southern Section 4-A championships in his prep swim career.

“I think because I swam the sprint events, I could use my size and

strength to my advantage,” added Thomason, the back-to-back CIF champion

in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events, following a celebrated CdM

football career.

Thomason was a two-way starter (tight end and defensive end) for CdM

football coach Dave Holland, who once said, “I knew Jeff was going to

play major college football, and from there anything can happen.

Physically, he was the best blocking tight end I ever had, and he had

great hands.”

Former CdM swim coach Mike Starkweather once said: “He would virtually

swim anything I asked him to swim.”

Thomason, who has caught 42 passes for 443 yards and three TDs in his

NFL career, played four years at Oregon, the only school to seriously

recruit him out of high school.

“It’s been that way his whole career,” Mitch Melbon, CdM’s quarterback

in the Thomason era, said of his former teammate’s lack of recognition.

“In high school, he was by far the best player on the field. I couldn’t

believe he wasn’t All-CIF.”

Coming out of college, the former two-time All-Pac 10 tight end was seemingly worse off than Mr. Irrelevant, going undrafted in 1992. But

Thomason signed as a free agent with Cincinnati and ended up playing two

seasons for the Bengals, catching four passes for 22 yards.

The sad Bengals went 8-24 in 1992 and ‘93, then Thomason was cut the

following summer. Green Bay tried to sign him, but a signing deadline had

passed and Thomason was out of work. “The Packers said they wanted me

back for a closer look (in 1995),” Thomason once said.

Thomason’s stay in Green Bay as a backup tight end and member of the

kickoff team reached a pinnacle with back-to-back trips to the Super

Bowl, including a title in Super Bowl XXXI against New England in January

1997. The Packers lost to Denver and John Elway in Super Bowl XXXII.

Thomason, who is single, enjoys golf and reading. “That’s one of the

nice aspects of being out of Green Bay -- there’s a little more night

life and more things going on here in Philadelphia,” he said.