Imagine the mental and physical pain you’d go through if you missed the chance to earn one of the Super Bowl rings to add to your esteemed jewelry. The same happened to Pittsburgh Steelers legend J.T. Thomas, who had to miss one Super Bowl season. Decades later, team owner Art Rooney II gave Thomas what he deserved.
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“Some of you may not know this, but he missed the 1978 season,” Rooney said at the 2026 Hall of Honor event. “He wound up with a very serious illness and wasn’t able to play. The doctors told him, ‘You can’t play this year.’ And missed the whole season, missed that Super Bowl. Lots of people who have the disease he had never lived much longer, let alone come back and play football again.
“He came back the next year, won another Super Bowl with us, but he’s missing that ring from 1978, and he deserved it. So, JT, Super Bowl 13 ring. Here you go.”
Thomas had already been announced as part of the Hall of Honor class this year, but he had no idea about the gift Rooney gave him. It was a pleasant surprise.
Thomas, who won three Super Bowls with the team during their dominant run in the 70s, was deemed out for the 1978 season after he was diagnosed with a blood disorder called sarcoidosis. He had already established himself as an important player, having won two consecutive Super Bowls before this season. However, not having him in the secondary was tough.
“It’s gonna be tough,” cornerback Mel Blount said in 1978. “Nobody’s gonna replace J.T. from a mental standpoint. By that I mean not only what he knew about the game, but what he meant to all the players. He’s such a likeable guy.”
“He would have been a starter for four Super Bowls had he not gotten sick that year,” Rooney said. “Just a great contributor and tough player. J.T. wasn’t afraid to hit someone; that’s for sure.”
While many succumb to the inflammatory disease, which affects the lungs and lymph nodes, Thomas wasn’t giving up that easily. He returned the very next season and had 13 starts for the team, winning yet another Super Bowl with Blount. 48 years later, Thomas has gotten the much-awaited ring he deserved.
Thomas has always had a special place in his heart for the Steelers, a team that he believes gave him a space to grow and become the person he is today.
“It really changed my life,” Thomas said during an interview with the Steelers in December, 2016. “The people that I met at the Steelers organization, it was growing in the sense that we just started winning. More so, the people of Pittsburgh really embraced us, they almost owned us.”
While Thomas’ whole career is worth documenting with his “You’re not going to catch the ball today” mindset, as described in the Pittsburgh Magazine, his personal favorite moment came against the Oakland Raiders in the 1974 AFC Championship Game, which also helped the Steelers reach their first Super Bowl game, which they eventually won.
“We were young and underdogs,” he reminisced. “In the closing seconds, I had an interception against Ken Stabler that kind of sealed the game.”
Thomas was only in his second year in the league at that time, but he was not afraid of the dominant rushing attack from the Raiders. Then came the Stabler interception, which Thomas returned for 37 yards, setting up the play for Franco Harris’ Immaculate Reception.
The former cornerback also had another notable moment in the 1975 AFC Championship game, when he forced a fumble.
JT Thomas was never as celebrated as Mel Blount, but he was a quiet force that kept the Steelers defense so competitive.
Now that Thomas has finally received his fourth Super Bowl ring, he can fully enjoy being an inductee in the Hall of Honor of the team, engraving his legacy on the franchise for eternity.