Getty Earl Thomas has been released by the Ravens.
Few Seahawks players have had the impact Earl Thomas had on the franchise during his tenure in Seattle. The safety was a key part of the Seahawks Super Bowl run but appears to have hit a rough patch. TMZ reported that Earl Thomas’s wife, Nina Thomas, allegedly held a loaded gun at his head after catching him with another woman.
Austin police responded to a disturbance at 3:41 a.m. on April 13. TMZ described the scene when cops arrived at the couple’s house in Austin.
“When cops arrived, they say ‘we observed that a black female wearing an orange sweater with a knife in her hand, later identified as Nina Thomas, was chasing a shirtless black male, later identified as Earl Thomas, with a pistol in his hand around a vehicle,'” TMZ detailed.
According to TMZ, Nina used Earl’s Snapchat account to track him down with his alleged mistress at an Airbnb rental. As for the alleged gun incident, it was captured by a woman in the house when Nina arrived. Cops told TMZ Nina took out the magazine hoping to use the weapon just to scare Earl, but did not realize that there was a round in the chamber.
Cops say one of the women in the house shot cell phone video of the incident … which they say shows Nina pointing the gun at Earl’s head “from less than a foot away and it can clearly be seen that Nina’s finger was on the trigger and the safety is disengaged.”
Earl Thomas Asked Fans for Prayers & Privacy
Earl posted a short video on Instagram after learning the TMZ story was about to break. The former Seahawks safety admitted to being frustrated by the report and asked fans for their prayers during this time.
“So, my agent just hit me and said that I’m gonna be on TMZ tomorrow from an altercation that happened with me and Nina,” Earl explained on Instagram. “Just wanna get ahead of it, it’s really not anybody’s business. It’s pissing me off that it got out but it’s the world we live in today. But instead of talking about us, just keep us in y’all prayers. Stuff like this happens, bro. We try to live the best life as we possibly can, but sometimes it don’t go as planned. So, just pray for us as we go through this stuff. We’ve been talking. I’m seeing my kids, so just keep us in your prayers.”
Nina was arrested for burglary of a residence with the intent to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon but later bonded out, per TMZ. Earl was not arrested, and Nina’s attorney Jonathan Goins noted his client denies the allegations.
Thomas Did Not Leave the Seahawks on the Best of Terms
Earl signed with the Ravens last offseason after spending his entire career with the Seahawks. The Pro Bowl safety spent his final season with the Seahawks in a contract dispute as he was seeking a long-term contract. Earl ended his brief holdout only to sustain a broken leg against the Cardinals which prompted him to give Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll the middle finger as he was carted off the field.
“I think my time just ran out,” Earl explained to ESPN after signing with the Ravens. “Pete and the front office didn’t value me like they used to, and I just talked to Coach Carroll, and he was saying how he was trying to get me in the plans of getting a new contract. But I got hurt the next week. I think I hurt myself too by my actions getting carted off the field…We got to walk with each other the rest of our lives because we won a Super Bowl together. But they’ll love you one minute and then hate you the next. That was our relationship.”