In the early weeks of March 2020, professional sports leagues across the country cancelled the remainder of their seasons as rising cases of COVID-19 spread across the U.S leaving their players scrambled and heartbroken. To Marist Senior and Matthew Thomson, his world would do the same five months later on August 7, when the Pioneer Football League would cancel its fall football season, leaving Thomson with a new reality: one without the sport he loves.
“It’s almost like a death or something of that sort” Thomson stated, “ Besides my family [football has] been the only constant in my life since the day I was born” Thomson, raised in Southington, Connecticut and son of former New England Patriots player Rob Thomson has spent his earliest memories on the football field from attending practices with his dad to eventually creating a name of his own developing as a well-known linebacker.
Starting at Southington High School - his father’s alma mater - before continuing on to a post-graduate year at Choate Rosemary Hall and finally finding his niche at Marist College in 2016, Thomson arrived on the football team with a handful of accolades. Losing only one game in the entirety of his high school career, receiving multiple Connecticut All-State team selections, and the Jim Fowler “Hustle” award from his one year at Choate, he entered the scene with intensity and grit. However, it was his love for the game that set him apart.
Credit: Matthew Thomson
“He was always [asking] ‘What can I do better?’” Marist Football head coach Jim Parady stated, “After practice you’d look on the field [and] he’s doing extra position work; he’s out there doing extra conditioning”. This hard work would reflect in the numbers throughout the years with Thomson totaling his career with 31 games played , 50 solo career tackles and 49 assists for a total of 99 tackles.
“When tough times come, and they always come during the course of a career or a season [...] he always had that voice to push people into the right direction”
This strong work ethic paired with an enthusiastic approach to the game would earn him a captain position in the fall of 2019. “Every day there’s an example of how he affected his teammates in a positive way” Parady continued, “When tough times come, and they always come during the course of a career or a season [...] he always had that voice to push people into the right direction”
And the tough times came.
When the cancellation of the fall 2020 season was announced, seniors like Thomson were left scrambling for a new game plan. There would be no more packed weight rooms, or cross-country plane rides, but instead a decision: where to go from here.
“When the season got cancelled I treated it just like I would in football, you respond and you adapt” Thomson commented. This response would introduce him to a new home, 1300 miles south to start his finance career at Northwestern Mutual in Miami, Florida originally deemed to start after the fall semester.
“One thing that I wanted to promise myself playing football was that when I got to end, I’d have zero regrets"
In terms of football, Thomson’s reflected on his three and a half years at Marist fondly, despite its sudden conclusion. “One thing that I wanted to promise myself playing football was that when I got to end, I’d have zero regrets” he said, “Obviously I’d be lying if I said there wasn't a piece of me that wished that I could have played this last football season, but I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason in life and this is all part of my trajectory”
Matthew Thomson '20 leading the Marist College football team with the Red Fox flag behind him
Credit: Matthew Thomson
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