A 4-year-old Juanyeh Thomas laughed uncontrollably, little legs kicking, high-pitch screaming, as older sister Cachet tickled him in bed before school in Crestview, Fla. The Cowboys safety recalls a morning that began like any other, the morning his father burned down their home.
Stephanie Thomas, Juanyeh’s mother, roared into the bedroom and scurried her children next door. There, Juanyeh observed the fire pit that became of 125 East Walker Circle. The sight is seared.
And that smell. He cannot forget that smell.
“After that,” Juanyeh said, “that’s when life started getting really, really hard.”
The Cowboys will reduce their roster Tuesday from 90 to 53 players. Following a rookie year on the practice squad, Juanyeh Thomas is expected to make an NFL team for the first time. The impending achievement represents a milestone on a journey whose inspiration largely derives from a single mother’s commitment to her five children.
They believed in this moment.
“I knew and my family knew, eventually, the dark days would be over,” Juanyeh said. “I have a chance to break a generational curse.”
In 2022, Juanyeh joined the Cowboys as an undrafted rookie from Georgia Tech.
He quickly turned heads on special teams; however, an early opportunity never surfaced in a safety crowd. His command on defense steadily grew. By all accounts, he is playing faster and more confidently while showing the versatility to play nickel cornerback.
Cowboys backups faced the Jacksonville Jaguars’ starters during the Aug. 12 preseason opener. Coaches and established veterans were eager to see which young players, if any, would respond to the challenge.
Juanyeh intercepted quarterback Trevor Lawrence on the first drive.
“He’s just a baller,” safety Jayron Kearse said. “He can play some football. He can play some football. I don’t know how the 53-man cuts come and go, but he definitely deserves a spot for his performance in training camp and even OTAs and then the things he’s put on film out there in the games.
“He definitely deserves to be on the 53. I think he has a real shot.”
Behind his merits is a backstory few in Dallas know.
Juanyeh lost more than a home Sept. 24, 2004. He effectively lost a father. According to an incident report The Dallas Morning News obtained from the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, a neighbor gave sworn testimony that Juanyeh’s dad slashed his own family vehicle’s tires with a large knife that morning, and a deputy observed him pouring lighter fluid on flames inside the house.
He was arrested on charges that included attempted felony murder and arson to a dwelling.
The episode is not something a son forgets or, in this instance, forgives. Juanyeh is 23, one year younger than his father was at the time. There is no relationship.
“It had the hardest impact on me,” Juanyeh said. “I don’t know. It just sparked something inside of me, and I’m not going to say it sparked something good inside of me. It was pain. It was anger. It was fear because no kid should see their dad doing that type of stuff. You would think, obviously, your dad would be coming from loving, caring, helping.
“To see that, that hurt my core. I sit here thinking about it all the time.”
It wasn’t like Stephanie and her children — four of them at the time — had nowhere to go immediately after the house fire. Red Cross, she said, gave the family a $250 voucher and three-night stay at a motel in Destin, Fla. They stayed those three nights.
Then, they had nowhere to go.
They frequented a Florida interstate rest stop, mother and children smooshed into a sedan. They bounced between the homes of people they knew, each stay a short-term one. They slept on the floor for a period of time, Juanyeh said, when Stephanie secured housing without furniture.
Dinner often consisted of canned food. Canned ravioli. Canned Chef Boyardee. Since there was no kitchen pot, Stephanie said she opened a can, removed its label wrapping and put it directly on the stove until the sauce bubbled. She has dealt with a number of medical issues, most recently from a December car crash. People, including coaches, stepped up to care for her children when doctors demanded she care for herself.
In her youth, friends and family called Stephanie “Smiley.” She beamed where she went. Adulthood tested the temperament. Too often, she grinned through pain. If she lost her smile during the darkest times, between cries, she found it.
Faith guided her and the children.
“I’m laughing right now at the devil because he thought he was going to win,” Stephanie said in a phone interview. “I always told him, ‘I’m not going to let you win. I’m not going to let you win. You cannot have my children.’ And I meant that. The odds were against me, and you understand the odds. We had no steady place to stay at the time. …
“I looked to God, and yeah, I had a few people that God sent in my direction because he does send people to your path. But I didn’t look to anybody but God. All glory goes to him.”
Juanyeh wasn’t one to complain.
Not about food. Not about sleeping arrangements. He dealt with a significant stutter as a kid. “Anything that Juanyeh wants to say,” Stephanie would tell him, “is worth saying twice.” He worked with a speech therapist and overcame it.
He always considered football his way out, a path to provide for family. He was right: Making the roster comes with a $750,000 salary before taxes and other fees.
But football also helped Juanyeh find his voice.
The Cowboys held their preseason finale Saturday against the Las Vegas Raiders. As pregame warmups concluded, he asserted himself vocally, shouting in encouragement to several dozen teammates who encircled him. Juanyeh’s leadership in the 31-16 win only reinforced his roster standing, which will become official Tuesday at 3 p.m.
On the cusp of breaking a curse, Juanyeh said he still thinks about the Crestview house “daily.” It never was rebuilt, an empty parcel today where it stood. Likewise, some folks read a newspaper every morning. Stephanie said her routine is to view a 2004 press clipping about the incident saved to her phone.
“It was a nightmare,” Stephanie said. “I’m not going to sugarcoat anything. I’m not going to tell you no stories to make nothing sound good. For us, it was a nightmare, and it’s something they will live with the rest of their life.
“But at the same time, they can laugh. They can smile. They can keep going, knowing they have progressed in life.”
Better days are here.
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