Tashard Choice speaks to Georgia Tech players about the legacy of Demaryius Thomas
On Thursday night, the Georgia Tech football program held a team meeting. And for that team meeting, coach Brent Key invited in a special guest: Tashard Choice.
Choice, the running backs coach for the Detroit Lions and one of Tech’s all-time great players, spoke to the team about football and life, but also about Demaryius Thomas. Thomas died in 2021, and Tech honors his life every Aug. 8.
“This was one of my closest friends, call him my brother,” Choice told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after he spoke to the Yellow Jackets. “Coming back here to talk about him, that’s super important.”
Key began Thursday’s meeting by speaking to the team about Choice, who was then welcomed to the front of the room. Choice first told the Jackets how “surreal” his life felt, having graduated from Lovejoy High School to being at Oklahoma for two seasons to transferring to Tech for his final three seasons, to a six-year NFL career to now almost a decade being a coach (he spent the 2022-24 seasons at Texas and, in January, told Key to consider hiring Texas safeties coach Blake Gideon to be Tech’s new defensive coordinator).
Choice, in Atlanta for the Lions’ exhibition game against the Falcons on Friday night, implored the current members of Tech’s team not to take their individual opportunities for granted, to stay true to themselves and to others, and to understand how difficult it is to make an NFL roster. He then stepped aside so the Jackets could watch a tribute video to Thomas, one of Tech’s all-time great wide receivers who was found dead at his home in Roswell on Dec. 9, 2021.
Thomas was 33.
When the video, a montage of Thomas’ football highlights from his prep career, his time at Tech and in the NFL, along with some of Thomas’ notable quotes, was finished, Choice stood in front of the room but needed a moment to collect himself. The emotions of seeing Thomas and hearing Thomas’ voice again were heavy.
“What matters? What really matters? When y’all watch somebody who y’all never met before, why is it so significant? Because of who he was as a person,” Choice said. “Football wasn’t his main thing. How he treated people, how he cared about people more than himself, that’s what makes people who they are.”
In 2022, The PeyBack Foundation, founded and led by Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, established the Demaryius A. Thomas Scholarship Endowment, scholarships that aid students from Laurens County (Thomas grew up in Montrose) to attend Tech. Manning spoke to the Jackets about Thomas that year, followed by Morgan Burnett in 2023 and Joshua Nesbitt in 2024.
Thomas wore No. 8 for Tech and No. 88 in the NFL, where he made four Pro Bowls and helped the Denver Broncos win Super Bowl 50. Thus, Tech honors his life on eighth day of the eighth month of the year.
And Choice still tries to honor him every chance he gets.
“First, for ‘Bey Bey.’ Just the fact for who he was,” Choice said about why he felt compelled to speak to the Jackets on Thursday. “The other reason is Georgia Tech, Brent Key, the staff, the players, a lot of the guys here. For me, it’s always to try to do something — if one kid heard it and it actually changed how they move, that’s all it’s meant for. Somebody did that for me. I remember sitting here, speakers coming in here and talking. It clicked for me, to work hard to give it everything you got. That’s all I wanted to do.”
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