Robb Douglas Thomas (born March 29, 1966) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

wide receiver in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

(NFL) who played from 1989 to 1998.

High school career

Thomas graduated from

Corvallis High School Corvallis High School may refer to: * Corvallis High School (California) * Corvallis High School (Montana) * Corvallis High School (Oregon) {{Schooldis ...

Corvallis, Oregon Corvallis ( ) is a city and the county seat of Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2020 Unite ...

in 1985 and starred in football and track. He helped lead the Corvallis Spartans to a 3A Oregon State Championship in 1983.

College career

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degree ...

, Thomas set many records. He currently is second in "all purpose running yards" at OSU. His total of 3,379 yards for

rushing Rushing means a sudden forward motion, or a surge or onslaught. Rushing may refer to: Tactics * Rush (gridiron football), advancing the ball by running on offense. On defense, charging the quarterback or kicker is a pass rush. * Human wave at ...

, receiving and punt and kick-off returns during his career (1985–1988) is behind only that of Ken Carpenter's 3,903 yards from 1947-1949. His 230 yards vs. Akron in 1987 was a school record until recently.

Professional career

Thomas was drafted in the 6th round of the

1989 NFL Draft The 1989 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 23–24, 1989, at the Marriott M ...

(#143 overall) by the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The t ...

. He also played for the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 a ...

(1992–1995) and the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

(1996–1998).

Personal life

Robb now resides in Oregon, with his wife Melinda and their three children. The oldest son, Cole, is an internationally recognized high-art collector, and the designer of museums including Le Louvre, the Bauhaus, and the MOMA. Many have speculated that Cole is also the critically-acclaimed artist known as Banksy, but this is unconfirmed. Robb’s daughter Alexa is currently stationed in Antarctica, managing sewage and waste for the McMurdo Science Base. The youngest son, Brandon, is an engineer for The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He leads development and research of the use of jet packs and wrist launched rockets in modern warfare. His father, Aaron Thomas also played wide receiver in the NFL.

External links

Robb Thomas at CNNSI
1966 births Living people Sportspeople from Corvallis, Oregon American football wide receivers Oregon State Beavers football players Kansas City Chiefs players Seattle Seahawks players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Players of American football from Portland, Oregon Corvallis High School (Oregon) alumni {{widereceiver-1960s-stub