Reflecting on the life of Demaryius Thomas and the…

Don’t get me wrong — Thomas was an outstanding football player, one of the best of his era. To date, he is one of only 18 players in NFL history with a 1,600-yard season in his career and one of just 16 players to record four or more seasons with at least 1,300 receiving yards. Of those 16, only Thomas and three others accomplished that in consecutive seasons.

But the most unforgettable moments for so many of us were the ones of him as a person, doing perhaps one thing he loved even more than playing football, which was making children smile. Running footraces with kids and pulling up near the end to make it close — or maybe just to showboat a little. Playing four-square, jumping rope with ones that were about 10 sizes too small. Giving a helmet to a Children’s Hospital Colorado patient on a spur-of-the-moment idea. Meeting with Manning’s children near the loading dock at Empower Field at Mile High after he was traded to Houston for tear-filled goodbyes, and then with children of other Broncos staffers who wanted to see him off, too. Even one of my last memories of him was something like that. In August, Thomas came back to the stadium for a FanDuel fan festival, and at one point, he bumped into the stadium’s assistant general manager, Scott Bliek, in the tunnel near the away team locker room. It had been several years since he’d last seen Bliek, and they chatted about how Bliek’s son was doing in baseball and high school football.

“The thing that amazes me is that as great of a player as he was — and some would say a Hall of Fame career — you know, nobody talks about that because he was such a better person,” Peter Wright, Thomas’ financial advisor, said in the tribute video. “All anybody talks about is how he made people feel.”

Even in death, Thomas will continue to have that impact. Pastor Carlos Jones, who emceed the celebration of life, told guests on Monday that before Thomas passed, he had arranged to buy gifts for children in need for the holidays.

“Anyone knows ‘Bay-Bay’ well knows that at the center of his heart was making children smile,” Jones said. “As a matter of fact, 600 children here in Atlanta, Georgia are going to be blessed here on Christmas because he had already had it set up to make sure that 600 children receive a Christmas this year. That’s just the type of person that he was. And out of all he relationships that he built, the relationships that he built with children will always be special. He changed children’s lives in the communities that he was a part of, and his impact will continue to live on through those connections.”

The same can be said for the rest of us. We can extend his impact through ourselves in how we move forward with our lives — in how we influence our community or how we simply try to go through everyday life.

“What I’m going to take with me,” Tim Tebow said in a video message, “is that every day, I’m going to live with that smile, I’m going to live with that joy, I’m going to live with that passion that he did every single day, because when he walked into a room, that room instantly got brighter.”

Born on Christmas Day in 1987, Demaryius Thomas was able to be a gift to seemingly everyone he came across. On what would have been his 34th birthday, we can look to who he was and remind ourselves that we can have the same kind of impact.

“D.T. was not just the type of guy to pass by,” Jones said. “He would stop to see about someone else in need. … This is the type of person D.T. was. He was the type of person that healed wounds — with his smile, with his love, by caring. If he could be there for you, he was going to be there for you.”

No matter the way we look to incorporate a part of how Thomas lived life, this will be the way we stop looking for signs and start living as one of them.

Like the clocks at McCamish Pavilion when electricity again surges through them, the display will change, but 88 will always be there.