Clarence Thomas has witnessed some awful sports with billionaire pals

One key element of those vacations: sports. The most recent ProPublica investigation shows that Thomas, with some regularity, enjoys lounging on his friends’ private jets, followed by an afternoon or evening in his friends’ luxury suites at college and professional sporting events. Thomas appears to genuinely love college and pro football, although he’s not above an NHL or college volleyball game. Here’s a full rundown of Thomas’ attendance at sporting events, based on what’s been reported to date.

Thomas’ most sincere fandom appears to be for the Huskers, a once-great program that has fallen on hard times in recent years. In 2010, Thomas spoke to the team. He gushed about his respect for Tom Osborne, who won three titles as Huskers coach in the 1990s, and Bo Pelini, best known for spectacularly flaming out with two separate leaked recordings, one calling Nebraska fans “fair-weather” and the other calling the athletic director who fired him a “pussy” and “c—t.” Thomas told the team that he’d move to Lincoln when he retires from the Supreme Court — which does not appear to be coming anytime soon — and that he spends late nights trolling Husker forums. 

How awful were the games Thomas watched? Despite Thomas lumping the Huskers in with true powerhouses like Alabama and Ohio State during Supreme Court oral arguments, Nebraska absolutely stinks. The Huskers haven’t had a winning season since 2016, going a pitiful 23-45 over the past six years. ProPublica reported that Thomas has sat in a luxe box at no fewer than seven Nebraska games in recent years, although the only one named in the story is the Aug. 31, 2019, home opener against South Alabama. That game was a harbinger that Nebraska was hugely overrated as the preseason No. 24 team in the country. The Huskers hung on for a 35-21 win over the Jaguars in what then-coach Scott Frost called “as anemic an offensive effort I’ve been a part of in a long time.” The 2019 Huskers ultimately went 5-7 overall and 3-6 in the Big Ten.

Which wealthy benefactor hooked him up? Thomas has a natural connection to Nebraska because his wife, QAnon-curious Ginni Thomas, is from Omaha and a Huskers diehard. But the Thomases are not rubbing elbows with the masses, even at Ginni’s old college, which she attended briefly before transferring to Creighton. ProPublica reported that former Berkshire Hathaway executive David Sokol flew the Thomases in for the 2019 home opener and did the same thing at least five times. “The Sokols took four lucky couples to the first Nebraska footbal game of the season,” Ginni Thomas later wrote. The Thomases sat in Osborne’s box, which ProPublica said costs about $40,000 per year. (After his coaching career, Osborne was a three-term Republican congressman.)

How awful were the games Thomas watched? Thomas appears to be a hardcore Cowboys fan, first appearing in a PSA with the team in the 1980s, when he was running the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the Reagan administration. The dynastic highs and comedic lows of the Cowboys in the decades since are the best-documented story in American sports. It’s not clear which games Thomas was in Jones’ box for, but a representative sample would be some dominant wins and heartbreaking losses, with far more of the latter in the past few decades. He probably has strong thoughts about Mike McCarthy’s end-of-game play-calling.

Which wealthy benefactor hooked him up? Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. The New York Times reported that Jones has flown Thomas around the country on his private jet and even gave the judge a Super Bowl ring. Jones — who, like Thomas, has been accused of sexual misconduct — may be the only person in America who remembers Thomas’ confirmation hearings fondly. “It was always so special that when he had his hearing when he was being evaluated about being a Supreme Court justice he talked about his affection for the Cowboys,” Jones said earlier this year when defending his gifts to Thomas. He also said Thomas’s Supreme Court did a “pretty good job representing us all.”

Back in 2001, Thomas biographer Ken Foskett wrote, “Thomas receives daily team updates by e-mail, and he is a frequent guest in the visiting owner’s box when the Cowboys come to town.”

How awful were the games Thomas watched? So bad that it was the lead of a news story about Thomas in 2007. “I happen to be a Dolphins fan,” Thomas said, according to the Sun-Sentinel. “I like their uniforms. And they’re a wonderful team.” The newspaper added, “It’s hard to be a Dolphins fan these days: the team is 0-13 and skidding toward the NFL’s first winless season since Tampa Bay in 1976.” This was the Dolphins team that Nick Saban abandoned for Alabama before the season; it averted a winless season with a Week 15 overtime win over the Ravens. 

Thomas was also photographed addressing the Dolphins at “quarterback school” in May 2004. The ‘04 Dolphins weren’t much better, going 4-12. Head coach Dave Wannstedt resigned midseason.

“I love the Dolphins,” the justice once said, according to the Times. “I’m a Dolphins fan. Primarily a Cowboys fan, but a Dolphins fan also.”

Which wealthy benefactor hooked him up? H. Wayne Huizenga, the billionaire corporate titan who died in 2018. Huizenga made his billions at Blockbuster Video and several other companies, and he owned the Florida Marlins, Florida Panthers and Miami Dolphins. Like Jones, Huizenga befriended Thomas through the Horatio Alger Society, according to the New York Times. A 2003 story in the Tampa Bay Times has Huizenga flying Thomas on his private jet. 

ProPublica’s latest story has Huizenga as “Thomas’ first billionaire benefactor.” When Huizenga was alive, he and the Supreme Court justice were living large: traveling on his private jets and helicopters, partying, hanging out at corporate offices, and just generally doing rich guy stuff together.

One of Thomas’ college classmates from Holy Cross, Eddie Jenkins, briefly played for the Dolphins in 1972-73, although Thomas’ enthusiasm for the team appears to date to Huizenga buying the team in the 1990s.

How awful was the game Thomas watched? Not awful at all. That year’s Panthers won the Eastern Conference before getting swept in the Stanley Cup Finals by the Colorado Avalanche. The specific game Thomas was photographed at was a 2-2 tie with the St. Louis Blues. He was sitting with Huizenga and legendary Dolphins coach Don Shula. 

Which wealthy benefactor hooked him up? Huizenga. ProPublica cites documentary evidence that “Huizenga took Thomas to see the Miami Dolphins and Florida Panthers several times between the mid-’90s and mid-2000s.” The reporters of the most recent ProPublica story declined to say which other games Thomas attended.

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