Panthers rookie Ian Thomas showed perseverance on path to NFL

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Ian Thomas was with his grandmother, sisters and brothers on April 27, all waiting for the phone to ring as the NFL draft went into its second day. They all wanted to be there to celebrate a moment that once didn't seem possible for the Indiana tight end.

Especially older brother Cliff Farmer.

Farmer legally adopted Thomas and two of his nine siblings when their father, Earl, died of a heart attack when Thomas was 9. It came a year after their mother, Martha, died from a kidney infection.

Farmer, 19 at the time, didn't want to see Ian or any of his brothers and sisters go into foster homes. He didn't want them caught up in the street life around their neighborhood in…