Thurman gets—and gives—a lot of love upon return
Statue welcomed back by Bills great himself
His wooden rump is scuffed. So is his right bicep. And there is some lightly charred “turf” around his feet.
All are off-the-gridiron battle scars shown by the more than 1,000-pound pine statue of Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas that— although officially less than a week old — is now long on legend.
The newest Carvings for a Cause tree statue has had quite a week.
Since its dedication, Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium, the wooden likeness of the former Buffalo Bills star was left unattended in a parking lot during the 6-3 loss to the Cleveland Browns, only to be vandalized afterward with burning charcoal and then spirited away to Canada in the flatbed of a pickup.
The theft generated international attention, leading to a quick recovery, a mention on Wednesday’s Jay Leno show and its eventual return by truck across the border Thursday for an afternoon reunion with the real Thurman Thomas at its new home — Sahlen’s Sports Park in Elma.
Whew. The spectacle wasn’t lost on the Bills legend, who hugged and kissed the statue after it was hoisted by crane to the ground at about 5:20 p. m.—as the season’s first snowflakes began falling.
“My baby’s back, my baby’s back,”
said Thomas, smiling with his arm around the statue. He then bent over, offering a kiss to the carving’s right arm. “I missed my baby,” he said. “I haven’t been able to hug it since Sunday.”
Clad in a black warm-up suit and a black and silver Florida Gators cap, Thomas seemed to take the thievery in stride — even joking about the “strength” of the four Canadians who muscled the statue away.
“You figure their beer is stronger than ours,” Thomas quipped.
The statue, according to Therese Forton-Barnes, founder of Carvings for a Cause, was picked up in Welland, Ont., and brought home. One of the men who took it called Forton-Barnes and admitted that it was in Canada.
“He was very remorseful on the phone and very honest,” Forton-Barnes said. “He told me it was in one piece.”
The Ontario man talked with The Buffalo News on Tuesday on condition his name not be used. He said his group decided to “rescue” the statue, which was left alone in the parking lot, after other tailgaters poured charcoal embers from their grill onto it.
“At the time, it seemed like a good idea,” he said.
They lifted the statue onto the back of a truck, took it across the Peace Bridge, declaring it at customs as “a statue of Thurman Thomas” and entering Canada. The group intended to return it at the next home game, against Houston on Nov. 1.
The person with the carving said he heard about the statue’s disappearance on Buffalo radio and thought it best to return it at once.
“I thought losing my helmet got a lot of attention,” said a surprised Thomas, referring to his missing the first two plays of Super Bowl XXVI in 1992. “This probably got even more.”
The statue caper is the latest in a series of bizarre antics by Bills fans in 2009. Since the start of the season, national eyes have been redirected from star receiver Terrell Owens to:
• The spray-painted Hamburg lawn of cornerback Leodis McKelvin.
• he theft of $400,000 in jewelry from safety Donte Whitner’s home, also in Hamburg.
• A report surfacing Thursday that a Pennsylvania teenager — and Bills fan — raised enough money to pay for a digital billboard along the Niagara Thruway that 3,000 times per day will demand the firing of Coach Dick Jauron and two other team officials.
“It’s been a strange year,” Thomas said, “a strange string of events.”
News Staff Reporter Gene Warner contributed to this report.
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