Temple’s School of Podiatric Medicine hosted a panel discussion Thursday night with Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Famer William “Tra” Thomas and Dr. Gideon Lewis, a sports medicine foot and ankle surgeon. The pair shared career advice and answered questions from the crowd.
Lewis opened the event at 6 p.m. with a speech detailing his career in sports medicine. He engaged with the audience, made up mostly of sports medicine students, encouraging them to view medicine as a business.
“You guys are a walking business,” Lewis said. “You don’t think of medicine as a business, but it is. You guys are building your brand right now.”
He then shared stories about his career in sports medicine, including anecdotes about the athletes he has worked with and tips for students to be more personable with their patients. Lewis advised those who wish to go into sports medicine to research the sports their patients play as well as the medicine to better connect with their patients.
Lewis played a video message from Olympic athlete Gwen Jorgensen, a patient of his who won the Triathlon gold medal at the 2016 Olympics. Jorgensen shared advice from her self-titled autobiography, encouraging students to vocalize their dreams.
After Jorgensen’s video, Lewis shared practical medicine advice alongside footage and images of his patient’s injuries and encouraged the audience to approach problems creatively.
“You have to think outside the box, right, deal with a person,” Lewis said. “It’s not just treating a condition.”
Thomas then began his portion of the event with an introduction and joke about seeing the footage from Lewis’ surgery.
“I didn’t know I was gonna come here and watch surgery,” Thomas said. “Like I don’t need to see what’s happening, it’s awesome to see what you guys are doing but yeah, I was texting my wife like ‘They’re showing surgery.’”
Miranda Royds, the event’s moderator and a second-year medical student at the School of Podiatric Medicine, then asked Thomas questions about his career as a football player and, later, football coach. Thomas shared how he worked to prevent injuries among his players and stories of his own injuries during his football career.
After asking about injury prevention, Royds then began to ask questions about Thomas’ time as an Eagle and personal experience in the NFL. Thomas, who played in the Eagles’ 2004 Super Bowl, remarked on the personal accomplishment it was for him to play in the championship.
Thomas also spoke about his transition out of professional football and the importance of finding hobbies, which for him meant learning how to paint and teaching his son to play football.
“Life after football, you have to find something that you really enjoy because once you’ve had that mindset of just always trying to beat the person in front of you, you just have to find something different to kind of put that energy into,” Thomas said.
He continued to share his experience in the NFL, from the mentorship he received from his father to the bonds he shared with his fellow teammates before encouraging the audience to stay steadfast in their respective career paths.
“Never give up, you know, never quit,” Thomas said. “I think, my NFL career, I went to Florida State, I sat the bench for four years. So I came in as a defensive end and then they switched me over to the offensive line after my redshirt freshman year, and I sat the bench and only played the end of my junior year. And I started my senior year, I ended up picking a draft, so it wasn’t like I just had instant success. I had to grind it out, work it out.”
After Thomas delivered his advice, Royds opened the floor for the audience to ask Thomas and Lewis questions. The pair fielded questions for 20 minutes, with Thomas giving his opinions on current NFL practices and the importance of the bond he shared with his teammates and Lewis providing further advice on the sports medicine field.
“I thought it was very important, because when you have a relationship with someone like that and then we could communicate without having to talk because it becomes a field,” Thomas said. “There are times where we have a stunt if we got a tackle in the end coming around, I need to know that you’re going to be there, so I can’t sit there and wait for you to call or wait for you to bump it off.”
Declan Landis and Johnny Zawislak contributed reporting.
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