CLEMSON — It could have happened to any college kid on spring break in Miami.
Sure, there were red flags. But the group of Clemson football players flocked to South Florida anyway, in search of warm water and college fun.
Besides, what's a virus to a star athlete? And Xavier Thomas' mom always raved about Miami.
He stepped on the plane.
Soon after he got back in late March, he called his parents. He had bad news.
Thomas, a junior defensive end, was determined to make 2020 his breakout season, to prove wrong the social media commentators who'd labeled him a “bust,” and to boost his NFL draft stock.
And then he got sick.
Titus and Tameka Thomas were in Walmart when he called. The nation was settling into COVID-19 lockdown, and their son was due home from Clemson in a few days.
"He said, ‘I can’t come home. I tested positive,’” Titus said. “I’m thinking he’s joking.”
As the year has worn on, with college football forging ahead with this season amid the pandemic, several hundred more players have had to make those same calls to their parents.
Things have taken an even darker turn in recent weeks with mass cancellations, including Clemson's game at Florida State scheduled for Nov. 21. But those in power insist the fruits outweigh the faults.
Athletic departments couldn’t survive without football’s television revenue, they say. And they point to virus statistics: nearly all players infected have made full recoveries, and few have experienced more than mild symptoms.
But the impact of a positive test extends far beyond an availability report. It swirls past teams and into the lives of loved ones, leaving in its wake fear and uncertainty. Thomas' story is evidence of as much.
To be clear, he eventually recovered. And returned to the field.
But for his family, whose world revolves around Thomas and his football dreams, the seven-month slog back to the field was gutting.
There was a doting 8-year-old sister wondering why her big brother couldn't come home. A mother prepared to drive three hours through the night to be with her sick son. And a young man at the peak of his physical powers left depressed, parked in front of his television, and, when he tried to exercise, unable to properly breathe.
'Why me?'
To the outside world, Thomas cuts a striking presence. He stands 6-2 and weighs 270 pounds. Tattoos twist up and down his sculpted arms. In pictures his smiles look more like snarls.
But Thomas has a weak spot. Her name is Tiana.
"In her mind, she's huge," Tameka said.
Really, she's short for her age: 8. Her hair is a little longer than shoulder length, and she has engaging eyes with long lashes. She's petite, a tiny girl with a big personality. She loves to sing. Last summer, she went to acting camp.
Clemson defensive end Xavier Thomas gets a sack against Boston College on Oct. 31. David Platt/ACC photo
In many ways she's the opposite of her older brother, who often prioritizes brevity in conversation. But whenever he returns to the family's Florence home, he ends up running up and down the stairs with Tiana, laughing, making a racket. The two always sleep in his room, sometimes one on the couch, one on the bed; other times both on the bed.
Thomas, who also has two older sisters, used to change Tiana’s diapers. Now she cries whenever he goes back to Clemson.
"It tears him up," Titus said. "He has to fight tears. He hates to see her cry."
So Tiana was confused, and a little upset, when her older brother didn't come home in March. Titus and Tameka didn't tell her why.
Tameka, as it happens, was freaking out herself.
Her son kept reporting symptoms that sounded similar to what she had heard on the news about the coronavirus. He felt weak. He had chills. One night, he told Tameka in a text message, he was running fever of 103 to 104 degrees, He hadn't gotten his virus test results back yet, but she was convinced of the worst.
"All I could think about was, 'I'm going to lose my baby,'" she said. "I was going to go on the road and get right there."
Titus calmed her down before she hopped in her 2018 black Lincoln Continental; there would be no 200-mile dash through the night to Clemson.
But Tameka's anxiety persisted, even as Thomas' symptoms dissipated.
He was feeling better by the time he learned of his positive test. Shortly after he returned home, though, he fell into a funk.
At first he spent hours working out in the makeshift garage gym. Then he stopped. He enjoyed hanging with Tiana, but he spent more and more time lost in video games.
After missing much of the 2019 season with a concussion, drawing the ire of those wrong-headed online commentators, Thomas had now been pushed further off his schedule by the virus. His frustration was compounded by the fact he believed to be hitting stride during spring practice just weeks earlier.
"He felt like things weren't going his way," Titus said. "Like, 'Why me?"
One night he came downstairs for a late snack – a piece of fruit and a Capri Sun. His father, owner of Exotics 843 Bar and Grill in Florence, peeked away from the work on his laptop.
Titus is a thoughtful man. He speaks slowly, deliberately, mining his brain for the proper words to deliver his point.
On this night he served it to his son straight.
"How many people you know going to throw away a lottery ticket worth $50 million dollars, and they already have it in their pocket, they just can't cash it in right now?" he said. "You want to throw it away?"
'Another excuse'
The message got through. Thomas returned to campus in June for voluntary workouts ready to work.
Then he started to feel off again. He got chills. His throat tightened up. A thermometer revealed a high temperature.
It all felt too familiar.
Doctors told him he hadn't, in fact, caught COVID-19 again — but he did have strep throat. When he recovered, he had trouble breathing.
Walking up a couple flights of stairs proved difficult; workouts were unbearable. Worse yet, fall camp was approaching, and rumors began circulating Thomas would opt out of the season. The internet trolls, again.
On Aug. 6, the first day of fall camp, Dabo Swinney revealed Thomas would redshirt this season. He simply wasn't in football shape after the health issues, Clemson's head coach explained.
"A lot of people were like 'Here we go. It's another excuse. He's been a bust,'" Titus said. "He pays more attention to what's being said in the media, and on social media, than he does anything."
That was especially true in 2019. With Clemson's Power Rangers — defensive linemen Christian Wilkins, Austin Bryant, Clelin Ferrell and Dexter Lawrence — having departed for the NFL, Thomas was anointed the next big thing.
Then the concussion happened. Thomas started just eight games and recorded 31 tackles (eight for loss), two sacks, two pass breakups and one fumble recovery all season.
That's what's made this year's health issues so frustrating. But the opportunity for a tidy ending is there.
On Oct. 17, in the second half of Clemson's 73-7 win at Georgia Tech, Thomas finally touched the field. In just five games this season he's already surpassed his 2019 sack total with 3.5.
"I honestly can't say I've seen him focused," Titus said, "like right now he's focused."
The NCAA granted all players an extra year of eligibility because of the virus, so he won't have to burn a redshirt this season.
That means Thomas, who is set to graduate with a degree in criminal justice this month, can play as long as Clemson's season lasts. His parents plan on being in the stands for every game. Tameka doesn't love football — she pushed him toward baseball as a kid and the head injury validated her worst fears — but she shows up because the gridiron is where her son is happiest.
And because she knows other parents will have questions. At least 40 Clemson players have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Thomas was the first.
"I'm thinking he's still thinking about it in the back of his mind, like 'What if?'" Tameka said. "What if something else becomes worse because of it?"
How many games Clemson, No. 3 in the College Football Playoff rankings, has left is unclear. The Tigers challenge No. 2 Notre Dame in the ACC Championship on Dec. 19 in what will be their final statement to the CFP committee.
If Clemson wins a Jan. 1 semifinal playoff game, it would advance to the national championship game on Jan. 11. A big stage. A chance to impress NFL scouts.
Back to where Thomas' COVID-19 problems started.
The game is set for Miami.
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