These days, Tyler Thigpen spends his time getting good people into good houses in the Chapin area.
“My wife and I have been doing it together for six years now,” he said. “I definitely enjoy it. You can work as hard as you want. It’s always fun to see smiling faces of first-time home buyers at the other end of the table.”
Thigpen and his wife, Whitney, also have “two beautiful daughters.”
“Life to me couldn’t be any better,” he said.
Life recently gave him a little reminder of his former
career as a quarterback for Fairfield Central High School, Coastal Carolina
University, and four teams in the National Football League.
The South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame called him to say that he would be a
member of the 2024 class of hall of famers.
“It’s not something that I expected. It’s a cool honor, something that I thought I’d never be considered for,” he said. “To be getting that call… it was a shock. It’s something I would have never thought I would be getting, so it’s pretty special.”
Thigpen is one of 10 honorees this year. He joins basketball stars Allison Feaster (Chester High School, Harvard University, three WNBA teams), Ivory Latta (York Comprehensive, University of North Carolina, Detroit Shock), Clifford Ray (Sims High School, Chicago Bulls and Golden State Warriors), Anthony Johnson (North Charleston, College of Charleston, 7 NBA teams); football’s Marcus Lattimore (Byrnes High School, University of South Carolina, San Francisco 49ers); Golfer Lucas Glover (Greenville, Clemson, PGA Tour); and head coaches Oree Banks (basketball, South Carolina State, West Virginia State), Jack Leggett (baseball, Clemson), and William Parlow (Columbia area, Benedict College, San Francisco State Athletic Director).
Thigpen began his career for the Griffins shortly after Fairfield Central won back-to-back 3A state championships. His brother Chris Thigpen was on those championship teams as a tight end. The elder Thigpen went on to play in college as an offensive lineman, but injuries hampered his career and he played his final days at Louisville in the early 2000s.
Meanwhile, Tyler Thigpen was making a name for himself as an elite passer—except for his senior year. He went down with an injury in the jamboree and eventually became a backup quarterback. Out of necessity, head coach Charlie Macoluso moved Thigpen into the backfield as a wingback.
“Coach asked me if I could play wingback, and I told him that if I could get on the field, I don’t care where I’m at.”
That year he earned All-State honors as a running back, although at times he lined up as a slot receiver.
Thigpen’s desire to play—and his quarterbacking skills—interested the Coastal Carolina football program, then in its infancy in spring 2002. Head coach David Bennett got Thigpen to sign as a quarterback—the school’s first quarterback.
“We ran a more traditional offense, run the ball first and second (down), throw on third,” he said, noting that co-offensive coordinators Gary Smallen and Kevin Brown opened up the offense in 2006. “In my senior season we spread the ball out a little bit but not as much as they do now, and the rest was history. We put up some big numbers and I was fortunate to have a lot of others around me that made it happen.”
Thigpen went 30-8 as a starter for the Chanticleers, and in his senior year, 2006, passed for 3,296 yards and a Big South Conference record 29 touchdown passes. That year he was named conference Player of the Year, Don Hansen’s Weekly Gazette National Offensive Back of the Year, was a Walter Payton Award finalist, and was named a first-team All-American.
In the runup to the 2006 season, there came talk of the NFL Draft. Only Thigpen wasn’t talking, it was coaches Brown, Smallen, and Bennett.
“They said, ‘you’ve got a chance to go to the next level going into your senior year,” he said. “It’s almost like it clicked in me for that entire offseason. I worked hard with the wide receivers in summer workouts and it translated into the seniors upping the numbers.”
Once the season ended, Thigpen played before NFL scouts in the all-star game in Jackson, Miss., and later in a pro day at Coastal, where representatives from seven NFL teams visited.
“I didn’t know if I would get drafted but I knew I had the potential,” he said.
When draft day came in April 2007, the Minnesota Vikings selected him in the seventh round as the 217th overall pick.
“It was a pretty cool process,” Thigpen said of his pick that came on a Sunday. “I hit the ground running, and by the next Friday I was at the rookie minicamp. It was a whirlwind, trying to pick up an NFL offense. Coastal’s offense was pretty simple, but Minnesota’s was West-Coast and was much more about learning the formations and the protection schemes, play-calling. It was a whole different animal from a college offense.”
After that intense period, it turned out that his time with the Vikings was not meant to be. Minnesota placed him on waivers and put him on the practice squad some time after Thigpen played in the first preseason game. There, the Vikings could have put him back on the team, but Kansas City, which had taken note of him when Thigpen visted the team before the draft, snapped him up.
“I was familiar with the coaches and the whole coaching staff,” he said. “When I went on waivers, KC put in a claim and I found out, like at 4 in the afternoon that day, walking through a Best Buy.”
In that Minnesota store, Thigpen said he was looking for a Playstation. He found, in the call he received from his agent, an offer to play for the Chiefs behind quarterbacks Brodie Croyle and Damien Huard.
Thigpen made his on-field debut with the Chiefs Dec. 12, 2007 against San Diego. He filled in for Huard who was injured late in the game. He was 2-for-6 for 41 yards in the 24-10 loss.
That was it for Thigpen in 2007. He tore his MCL in practice and was no longer available.
The next year was his breakout year. Thigpen had a strong showing in the preseason, which led then-head coach Herm Edwards and his assistants to believe he could make a strong run for a starting position in front of Croyle.
Thigpen ultimately settled in as a third stringer behind Croyle and Huard again. When Huard again went down with a mild head injury Sept. 14 against the Oakland Raiders, Thigpen stepped up and went 14-for-33 for 151 yards.
A week later he made his first NFL start against Atlanta, which ended up as a 38-14 loss. Not long after that, Croyle’s and Huard’s seasons were both ended with injuries.
With Thigpen as the team’s best option to win, offensive coordinator Chan Gailey adjusted the offense to mimic the spread offense that Thigpen thrived in in his senior year at Coastal.
From there on out, Thigpen did thrive. He passed for 2,994 yards and 21 touchdowns to 12 interceptions, and had 386 rushing yards.
Thigpen’s success did not translate to wins. He went 1-10 with the hard-luck Kansas City team that finished 2-14, losing six of those games by a margin of seven points or less.
“That year I put up really good numbers offensively and had a great year as a stat line,” he said. “We didn’t have a great defense that year, I think we were 31st of 32 teams, with 0-16 Detroit being last. But Coach Bennett always tells a story that I threw for more touchdowns than Joe Flacco that year.”
Flacco, a longtime quarterback who won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens, is currently back in the league taking snaps with the Cleveland Browns.
Thigpen, on the other hand, has been out of the league for nearly 10 years.
His time in Kansas City came to an end once Edwards was fired and new head coach Todd Haley came in. The Chiefs released Huard, brought in Matt Cassel from New England, and once again Thigpen settled in as a third-stringer behind Cassel and Croyle.
Shortly afterward, Kansas City traded Thigpen to Miami, where he saw limited play as a third-stringer behind Chad Pennington, Chad Henne and Pat White in 2009 and 2010.
Thigpen signed with Buffalo in 2011 and played two seasons with the Bills, but only played sparingly in seven games. In May 2014 he signed with Cleveland, was released by August, but re-signed in December after Browns’ quarterbacks Johnny Manziel and Brian Hoyer were injured.
“It’s not something I wanted to see come to an end, but I always knew there would be life after football,” Thigpen said about finishing up with the NFL. “Just knowing and being able to face reality—the NFL is Not For Long—to play as long as I did, seven more years than I thought I would ever play, I’ll cherish those memories. I wouldn’t trade them for anything.”
