What’s Your Why: Solomon Thomas

What's Your Why is an in-depth interview series to get to know the players at the New York Jets. On this episode, DL Solomon Thomas sat down with team reporter Caroline Hendershot and discussed his path from Australia to Stanford, losing his sister Ella, and his expectations for the 2024 season.

Caroline Hendershot: All right, Solomon, you were born in Chicago, but then you move to Australia when you were two years old. Tell me about that. What was that like growing up in Australia?

Solomon Thomas: I was born in Chicago and was there for about a year and a half, two years. Then my dad's job took us to Sydney, Australia, and got to live there for five, six years growing up. You always don't have the most memories growing up at that age, but I definitely just remember small glimpses of my family at the beach, being in kindergarten there, so it was just great times with the family. The times I remember, they're very happy, very joyous, sacred times. I was growing up having fun, it was very inclusive there, people were very happy, very light, kind of feeling that beach energy. I loved growing up there. I loved the food, I loved the people, and after we moved when I was like seven, eight, we went back every two years, every three years. So, it's definitely a place that means a lot to my family and I think it was really great for my family, for me, my sister, growing up and opening that perspective, being in a different country. I feel like that really opened up my worldview.

CH: So, when did you discover football?

ST: I discovered football when we moved to Dallas after Connecticut. We moved during the fall and right at the beginning of school. We're driving around our town of Capo Texas one Friday night and no one's there. We're like what's going on? No one at the restaurants, there's not many cars in the streets, then like we dropped by the high school, and we hear the band going crazy, people cheering. So we take a little scoop by where the stadium is, and it was like Friday Night Lights. The one thing my family did before we moved to Texas was, we watched the movie Friday Night Lights because we were told you had to. We come to Texas and our first Friday there's nobody to be seen, everyone's at the game. We were like, okay, it's real, this is real life, people live it. So that's when we first like found out what football was. I was a little bigger, getting a little chubby, but still a big stature and people were like, 'are you playing football?' I said 'no, I'm not signed up' and they were like 'what are you doing? You have to play football; you have to sign up'. Not knowing what the sport is, that's when I started playing because people are just like, you're big. You have to play football.

CH: You decide to declare for the draft and you're the second-best ranked defense end behind Myles Garrett. How did that feel going into the draft?

ST: It was a really hard decision to leave Stanford. I wanted to go chase my dream, I wanted to be in the NFL so bad, and that's why I ended up leaving. It was a crazy feeling. Seeing the ticker and seeing Myles name first and my name is second, I was like, 'Wow, this is real and I have a chance to go chase my dream'. So just motivation to put in more work and more work. It's just a crazy feeling, surreal seeing your work is paying off and you're about to be drafted in the NFL.

CH: What do you miss most about Ella?

ST: I mean, I miss I miss everything about her. But mostly I miss the way she made me feel. Just completely whole. Me and her in a room is completely together. We had our own like language, had our own like world. My parents would be there and just be like, these two are like on their own planet. We just could talk. We had our own hidden jokes that we would say to each other, and we just felt like we could be each other together. No matter how the world looked at us no matter what people said about us, when we were together, we were peaceful, and everything was okay. I just miss, having that person to go to. Ella was my person. I miss having that human being that I can go to in any way and just be like, 'Hey, I'm feeling like this' or 'Hey, I'm going through this'. That sibling feeling, I'll never get that again. I'll miss that, I'll miss that for the rest of my life.

CH: Jermaine Johnson one time told me that you're the glue of that room. Do you feel that way?

ST: That's really nice of him to say. It's hard to accept that but I just show up every day and I love my teammates. I just love this job so much. I lost my love for this job in the middle of my career, and I had to find it again. Ever since I found it, every year I come back, and I love it more and more. I love being around these guys. I think the locker room is the most special place in the world. You have guys from all over the world who come from different states, different countries and different colleges. We all have different feelings, different philosophies on life, different political beliefs, but when the ball is snapped, we put it all aside and we fight for each other. That's what I think is beautiful about this game. If the world worked like a football locker room, I feel like the world would be a better place and I always say that. I come in every day and try to be the best person I can for my teammates.

CH: There's a lot of returning players this year. What do you feel like is the potential of this team?

ST: I mean the potential is a Super Bowl. That's what we want and that's what it needs to be. You never want to just plan for a building year or a good year or a division title, you want to plan to win it all. That's our goal and that's what I'm working for every day. We're not coming in, working our tails off, putting everything we have all summer long, just to go win 11 games. We want to win the whole thing.