Joe Thomas staying with Browns to deliver their Chicago Cubs moment

Cleveland Browns left tackle Joe Thomas has never missed a snap in his 10-year NFL career. Along the way, he has lost 109 of 156 games - the most by any active player who isn't a special-teamer, where a player's career can run deep into their 30s.

As the 2016 Browns slump toward a potential 0-16 season, Thomas is finding a way to be optimistic about his team's prospects.

In an extensive feature by ESPN's Elizabeth Merrill, Thomas argues that he's happy he wasn't traded away from the Browns at the deadline, because he believes glory could be in the Browns' future and he doesn't want to miss it.

"I'm a Clevelander," Thomas said. "I've spent the majority of my adult life here. Every day when I come to work, it's 'Let's turn this team into a consistent winner.' Because it would be such a special story. It would be like when the Cubs won the World Series. Everybody in the country has probably been cheering for them for so long because they've been suffering for so long. And you want to cheer for teams like the Browns.

"It's a blue-collar city, and for a blue-collar guy like myself, it's easy to fall in love with the people and kind of the chip on the shoulder that a lot of people have because they feel like they've been slighted for so long. It's so important for me to be here for the turnaround. I don't want to just get a Super Bowl ring (by) being traded to a dream team. It would feel unsatisfying. Unfulfilling."

Even the most optimistic analyst would say the Browns are at least a few years away from Super Bowl contention, and Thomas is approaching his mid-30s. He's under contract through 2018, so the window for the nine-time Pro Bowler to experience what the Chicago Cubs experienced last month gets smaller every day.