ESPN: Behind the competitive fire that fuels Michael Thomas

quote:

---

The athlete-with-something-to-prove is not an uncommon story in sports, of course, and Thomas checks all the boxes. Does he play angry? Boy does he ever! Like a swarm of bees knocked loose from their hive, angry. Does he play hungry? You bet! Like a ravenous animal unleashed on a T-bone, hungry. Does he play desperate? But of course! Like a drowning man gasping for air, desperate.

---

quote:

---

They'll tell you if Thomas drops a pass, or misplays a route, or fumbles his footwork -- in practice, not a game -- he unleashes a self-directed verbal tirade that sounds like something akin to tongues. "I have no idea what he's saying. Nobody knows what Mike is saying," Jordan confirms. They'll tell you he spews so much invective at himself, they'll turn around thinking, surely, he must be talking to someone. "Sometimes I hear it," safety Chris Banjo says, "and I'm like, 'Wait? Was that to me? Was he talking to me?'"

---

quote:

---

And it's true that, for a man who swears up and down he doesn't like to run his mouth ("It's better to just walk it than to talk it," Thomas declares at one point), he does chirp. He chirps so much and with so much panache that Cam Jordan has anointed him "Steve Smith Jr.," a nod to the onetime NFL trash-talking virtuoso.

---

quote:

---

He is an elite receiver for sure

---