Now that we've had a chance to transcribe the lengthy chat with Adalius Thomas this morning, here's more of what he had to say:

On his right arm, which he broke vs. Buffalo last Nov. 9:
I played two more series with it like that. I didn't know it was cracked, I just knew it was hurt. But...I think you get so used to pain and it's a difference between playing with pain and playing hurt. Playing with pain is what you're expected to do. But it's that fine line of, the bone is cracked versus broken all the way. If I had came out and did the x-rays right away, I probably would have missed a couple games and probably could have came back because it had just been cracked; it could have healed. But not knowing that it was cracked, I was like, 'look, we'll just have to wait until halftime to x-ray it'; that was a bad decision on my part.

Was it made worse by staying in for two series?
I think so because I played with it, but playing with it made it break all the way, so...

How the arm is doing now:
Well, I'm doing like anybody else, just doing all the stuff you can do to make it better, stronger, it's definitely improving, the progress is going along fine. So I'm definitely looking forward to a full recovery and try not to have any limitations when it comes to training camp and stuff like that. The goal right now is September, not April or June, so being smart but at the same time knowing when to push and when to back off.

His feelings on the rumors that either Julius Peppers or Jason Taylor may become his teammate:
I think that you have to look at it from a team standpoint first and then look at how it affects you. Will adding one of those players make the defense better? And I think you'd be in denial to say no it wouldn't. I think both of them bring certain values to the table. How it affects me personally, I don't know, it depends on what they have them doing. If they're going to be playing outside and primarily rushing or primarily dropping, that's something you have to ask Bill. But you always hear rumors. You get to the point now where they're just part of the everyday thing. And so you just sit and wait, because you waste so much energy on a rumor that never comes to fruition and for what? and then it never goes through and you've wasted all this time and energy worrying about ok, if he comes then I'll have to do this and how does it affect me. it doesn't really matter. The only thing that really matters is, if it happens, it happens, I don't prefer it one way or the other, whatever decision Bill makes. I know Jason Taylor, I've met Peppers, I don't know him personally, I know he's a beast, a freak of nature on the field. Whatever decision they make, they're going to do what's best for the team and I trust they make the right decision.

His thoughts on the proposed move to an 18-game regular season:
My idea of it? It sucks. I mean, basically, why would you want an 18 game season? Why? For what? [It's pointed out that it's to make money.] Exactly. Exactly. As far as that goes, with me, the money thing, stop. Just stop. If (NFL owners) want to cry about money, then open your books up to an independent audit to really show how much money you're making. If you really want to cry about money, open your books up, put what you really make in the paper like you put our salary in the paper every year so that the fans can say well they're making this much money, why don't they do this? Why don't you do the same thing. If that's the case, I'm sick of people talking about, crying about, well, we need to make cuts here...I mean, that's your business, if that's how you want to run things, that's fine, but going to an 18 game season...for what? I mean, I'm just trying to figure out, what's the purpose? At the end of the year, when players go to playoffs, (they feel that) it's been a long season, so now you're going to say it's a longer season?

(Thomas then says a longer regular season means all NFL contracts will have to be re-done so players can get paid for those two games; a reporter quotes NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as saying that players do get paid for preseason games. Technically that is true, but non-rookies only receive a $1225 per week stipend during training camp, plus $200 per preseason game; rookies receive $825 per week stipend with no preseason game bonus money.)

Don't even give me that. Your ticket prices don't change for preseason, so why does our pay change for preseason? Since they're making all these rule changes. That doesn't make any sense to me - (the owners say players) already get paid. No, YOU get paid in preseason.

On the "Brady rule" which says defensive players can't lunge at a quarterback's legs once they're on the ground:
Give (the quarterbacks) some pom-poms and put him on a skirt. My thing is this - there is nobody's knee out there that is more important than the next individual's knee. That person's knee is as important to him as the next person's knee is important to them.

Sooner or later it's going to be two-hand touch. Guys are getting bigger and faster and a lot of things are unfortunate, but it's hard to tell somebody...get the guy with the ball, you've always been taught that.

More on the inconsistencies of NFL rules:
This is the craziest one I ever heard of - we made a rule change a couple of years ago based on something that a baseball player did, when (Cardinals' pitcher Josh Hancock) left the team function, drunk driving, and he (crashed and died). He was at a team function and they were serving alcohol. And then the league comes out the following week and makes a rule that there's no alcohol to be served at team functions, players can't drink at team functions. So now we're making rules off what someone else did - baseball has guaranteed contracts, why don't you try to adopt that rule? If you're going to do what other (leagues) are doing, why don't you adopt that rule. You can't drink and drive is what we're trying to promote. But you sell beer at the game - how the hell do you think people got to the game? You can't make a beer commercial because it's unethical, but everyone that retires is in the Coors Light commercial at the podium. And it's the official beer of the NFL. No, just say we don't want you to make a beer commercial because we want to take all the money from the beer companies. If they don't want to pay us, they can't pay you. And that's what it's about.

On whether an 18-game regular season will have to be collectively bargained:
Yes. I don't see how you can't. You're going to have to increase my pay for two games. In the contract it says 16, 17 regular season games. That's what it says. (Players receive 17 checks for the 16-game regular season plus one bye week.) You say you're going to add a week but you're going to pay me like preseason. Are you going to just stretch the payments out over 18 weeks? No. We're not doing that. You can mark me down on the injured list for two weeks. You can put that in your books. You've done lost your mind.