What they wanted, more than anything, was to see their son’s smile. One last time.
On Sunday morning, surrounded by rows of fans in No. 88 jerseys packed along barriers outside the south end of Empower Field, Katina Smith and Bobby Thomas tugged at the blue sheet draped over the newest statue in the Broncos’ Ring of Fame Plaza. Gary Kubiak, the Super Bowl-winning coach who knew Demaryius Thomas as an unselfish young man in a world of selfishness, helped them pull it down. Former Denver edge star DeMarcus Ware assisted, too, the teammate who sang the national anthem with Thomas before every game as a moment of peace.
Thomas always talked about peace, Ware reflected. Dozens of former teammates in the crowd on Sunday, and Thomas’ parents, just wanted to see the late receiver at peace. And as father Bobby finally pulled off the blue cover, mother Smith’s hand instantly drifted up to her son’s face, immortalized in bronze. He was smiling, like he always was. That was all his mother and father hoped for.
It was the first time Smith got to touch her son’s face, she reflected in tears, since the Thomas died four years ago.
“It was an accumulation of all the years that he’s practiced,” Smith told The Denver Post a few minutes later. She rattled off her son’s life in the span of a few seconds, a near-eulogy.
“All the years he’s played different sports, did different things, helped in the community, had the injuries, had moments where he didn’t think he was living up to his job here as a Bronco,” Smith said. “And then, to have this displayed, lets him know that through it all – the heartache, of the ups and the downs — that he did accomplish what he wanted to accomplish, in life.”
They chanted “D-T!” in waves, on Sunday, the unveiling of Thomas’ Ring of Fame statue the culmination of a weekend full of life to celebrate a legendary receiver that was full of life.
The Broncos hosted a record-setting 175 alumni at Saturday’s walkthrough and a later dinner, presenting a gold Ring of Fame jacket to Thomas’ family in front of luminaries like Ware and Peyton Manning. As the Broncos set for kickoff against the Giants on Sunday, the entire south end of fans at Empower Field stomped their feet and held up orange No. 88 signs. Friend and former teammate Emmanuel Sanders spoke to the crowd at halftime, breaking down, telling Thomas, “We miss you.”
It was an outpouring of celebration. And mourning, too. Because this day was also the culmination of Thomas’ life on Earth, as Smith believed.
“From the beginning, when I first conceived him, up until the time that he transitioned to heaven,” Smith explained. “Because I believe he’s in heaven.
“Because if he’s not,” she laughed, “we all in trouble.”
Everyone has had a Thomas story, a man teammates complimented as a great player — five straight 1,000-yard seasons from 2012-16 — and a better man. On Wednesday, current Broncos receiver Courtland Sutton recalled Thomas’ tradition of bringing donuts in every Saturday: one box for the equipment staff, one box for the training staff. Manning remembers Thomas pushing his son Marshall around in a laundry basket directly after the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 victory in San Francisco. The love has been widespread, carried by dozens of teammates who sat in rows of white chairs to remember Thomas at his statue unveiling Sunday.
“Just tells you what they think of him,” Kubiak told reporters later. “But it didn’t surprise me, because that team was really, really close. And, so, they all wanted to be here and share this moment for DT.”
This, of course, was broader than Thomas, and the number of former teammates in attendance was a nod — as Kubiak said — to the Walton-Penner ownership group’s investment in alumni. Late Super Bowl-winning back Ronnie Hillman’s family was there, and the Broncos offered a video-board tribute to Hillman pregame. Former defensive coordinator Wade Phillips raised the 2015 Lombardi Trophy to the heavens, walking onto the field for a halftime ceremony along with hordes of Super Bowl 50 teammates.
More than anything, though, this was a day to remember Thomas, and every detail offered a shred of catharsis.
“We were close,” Manning told a group of reporters, after noting his name would be next to Thomas’ in the inscriptions of Ring of Fame honorees plated around Empower Field. And the legendary quarterback could barely muster words, through a thick, few sobs.
“And he was so close to my family as well,” Manning continued. “And that means a great deal. So just seeing that at halftime … that’ll be pretty special.”
The fact that Thomas made it here, as Manning said — growing up in rural Georgia with mother Smith in prison, and father Bobby on deployment in the military — was “amazing.” And the smile on his Ring of Fame bust reflects a man that “smiled through everything,” as Ware said. Through fame. Through pain.
It was a smile that felt like home, as Denver Broncos Boys & Girls Club employee Malcinia Conley described this week to The Post. She got to know Thomas from his years volunteering in Denver. His smile felt like family, she said. That felt like a blanket, and a cup of hot chocolate, on a winter’s day.
It is a smile, now, etched permanently outside Empower Field.
“That smile is that symbolism of peace that he had in him,” Ware said. “And everybody, every single fan, whenever they want to come here before every game, they can go and see that smile. And get some type of peace, fulfillment, inside them.”