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If you ask most football insiders, they will tell you that a solid, championship football team is built from the inside out. They’ll tell you that you start on the offensive and defensive lines and build around them. They’ll tell you that if you control and dominate the trenches, every other facet of the game will come easier.

The same can be said in the Arena Football League, where pass protection is at a premium, considering how often teams throw the ball. For the 2008 Playoff-Guaranteed Arizona Rattlers, the play of the offensive line begins with center Eric Thomas.

Eric Thomas is a seven year veteran of the league and is playing in his first season with the Rattlers. He played collegiately at Florida State where he was a first-team All-ACC and won the 1999 National Championship with the Seminoles. Thomas took that experience of winning a championship with him to the professional ranks.

In 2001, after stints with the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Thomas switched over to the AFL and made a seamless transition playing for the Tampa Bay Storm. Again, with his strong play at center and this time on defense when the Ironman rules still applied, Thomas helped his team to a championship as the Storm won ArenaBowl XVII in 2003.

“It was an amazing feeling,” Thomas recalled about his ArenaBowl victory. “We had a real talented team, but we started the season out real slow. We kept getting better and better throughout the year.”

Thomas signed with the expansion Austin Wranglers after his Arena Bowl season, joining current Rattlers Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator Skip Foster. He played four seasons with the Wranglers, starting in all 62 games in which he played and anchoring one of the best offensive lines in the league. Over a two year span from 2005 to 2006, Thomas and the Wranglers allowed only six quarterback sacks.

“[Winning the championship in Tampa Bay] helped me a lot. Playing well in the playoffs as a backup helped me become a better player and I’ve been starting ever since.”

Now with the Rattlers, Thomas is a model of consistency and professionalism on a team that started training camp with 18 rookies and nine second year players. As the young players on offense learn the game, and his linemen teammates continue to gel together into one solid unit, Thomas remains a strong, composed, veteran leader.

“I’m not a real ‘rah-rah’ guy,” Thomas said, “I lead more by example. I try to help out the younger guys, give them pointers."

Thomas, or ET as his younger apprentices like to call him, even admits that being in a leadership role is new to him.

“I used to be the young guy, and now I’m hitting the prime of my career, so I’m trying lead by example and help the guys out. You’re not going to see me walking around the locker room and talking it up. I lead by example, so if I see something that can help the team win and help a player out in his career, that’s what I do.”

ET, with his combination of leadership, experience, and skills, is one of the most important keys to the Rattlers success this season. He has won championships at two different levels, and knows what it takes to win.

“I look at our locker room and see all the talent in the world,” said Thomas. “We have all the pieces needed to make a run in the playoffs. Our goal now is to keep getting better every week.”