DENVER — Anyone familiar with Terrell Davis’ remarkable journey to Hall of Fame running back – and by now almost all of Broncos Country is -- can understand why he was chosen to serve as keynote speaker Wednesday for the 47th Boy Scouts of America Sports Breakfast.
The former Bronco great was approached about a month ago for the headlining speaking engagement at Ball Arena and was all for the opportunity.
“Really to help these young men take the next step,’’ Davis said in an interview with 9NEWS Mornings soon after arriving for his speaking engagement that was before about 700 people who feasted on quiche, sausage, potatoes, fruit and pastries. “Inspire them to be the best they can be.
“I remember growing up, I didn’t have a chance to get into the Scouts. But wanting to be a part of that, the things that they do are really impactful in terms of building character, allowing you to be responsible, have good ethics, have good morals. So they do a fantastic job of developing young people. That’s why I’m here, to support them and try to give them a little bit more juice to help these young men out.”
The way it often works at such events these days, keynote speakers don’t deliver a speech. They sit down in a large, comfortable chair on stage next to Susie Wargin and have a chat.
With a nudge from Wargin, T.D. told the story of his upbringing in the rough area of San Diego and how one man came into his life at the right time.
“We didn’t do Scouting,’’ said Davis, who was the youngest of six boys born and raised by Joe and Kataree Davis. “Couldn’t afford it. So one day how I discovered football and the Boys Club, we were at the park. … At the time, unfortunately, the relationship between brown and Blacks were really strained. And we would get in fights all the time.
“So one time we’re in the park and we’re playing in the playground, my brothers and I, and once again we get into a fight. And a gentleman comes out and he breaks up the fight. This gentleman’s name was Frank White.”
White talked to the kids and got the Davises to join the Boys Club, which later evolved into the Boys & Girls Club.
“That was the first time we were part of a community,’’ Davis said. “Where people cared about us. It was really impactful to my life.”
White was not only a Boys Club leader, he was head coach of a Pop Warner football team.
“Now we’re playing football, we’re going to the Boys & Girls Club – Boys Club at the time – and we have this community. We have these mentors. We have these father figures in our lives that are acting outside of what my mom and dad can do. [My parents] were limited because they worked a lot. We needed outside influence.
“And if I didn’t have that from Frank White and the other coaches that I had, I don’t know what would have happened to us.”
Davis wore his Pro Football Hall of Fame Gold Jacket to the Boy Scout breakfast. Another token of inspiration, as again, he wanted his Boy Scouts audience to understand difficult times can eventually lead to greater good. Like football immortality.
His first college team, Long Beach State, dropped its football program after his redshirt freshman season. He transferred to Georgia, where, in a Scouts-Honor-like admission, he told the young audience he was a disappointment. He didn’t get along with his coach Ray Goff.
A mere sixth-round draft pick of the Denver Broncos in 1995, Davis said he was the 7th string running back in his rookie training camp. He was ready to quit and go home from Tokyo, Japan, where the team spent the week for a preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers, but he couldn’t communicate with the front-desk person.
“Had he been able to speak Japanese he would have been gone,’’ John Elway mused last November.
Davis put his resignation off until the Broncos returned home. And then he was going to quit.
But after eating a hot dog on the sidelines with his veteran teammates just after halftime, Davis was summoned to go in on kickoff. He blew up returner Tyronne Drakeford with a full-speed, textbook tackle, a play that so impressed head coach Mike Shanahan, it led to Davis getting a chance to become the No. 1 running back.
“Coach Shanahan put his butt back at running back and I never saw him in a special teams meeting again,’’ star receiver Rod Smith said last November. “I said, ‘Ah, man, you abandoned us.’ [Laughed.] He didn’t even know how to line up. I had to line his ass up. He didn’t even tape his ankles.”
Davis rushed for 1,117 yards in 14 games as a rookie. In his second year of 1996 he had 1,538 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns. He added 1,750 yards and 15 touchdowns in 1997, then became MVP of Super Bowl XXXII despite a blinding migraine that caused him to miss most of the second quarter.
He was the NFL’s MVP in 1998 when he rushed for 2,008 yards and keyed the Broncos’ repeat Super Bowl title.
A knee injury cut his career short there, but in 2017, those four remarkable seasons from 1995-98 were enough for Davis to get inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“The lesson is we have to be prepared for opportunity,’’ Davis told the crowd. “It may not come – I’m a running back, I don’t know how to make a tackle. Why would I think that opportunity would have been the one that allowed me to be a running back? But it did. So that’s another little message for young people is you have to take every opportunity that you get. Don’t worry how it comes and how it looks. Just be prepared.”
Davis moved his family – wife Tamiko, sons Jackson and Myles, daughter Dylan – from Los Angeles to Denver in 2021. He coaches his middle-school sons in football. They were on a team last year where Peyton Manning was the head coach and Peyton’s son Marshall was the quarterback.
“Most of what I do is that, try to be a dad,’’ Davis said. “Helping out with sports, all the extracurricular things you have after school. Yes, my kids do play tackle football. That’s always a question, do they play tackle? They play tackle. First year for both of them this last year. So that’s really fun for me to be able to spend time with them, seeing them grow and help develop them again into the best young men they can be.”
Davis is also invested in two businesses. Frank White is one of his business partners. Prior to going into the Hall of Fame, Davis was moved to call Goff, and not only did they bury their past feelings over a seven-hour lunch, the former acknowledges his old coach and his tough coaching methods helped him become a Hall of Fame player.
As for the current Broncos who just missed the postseason for an eighth consecutive year, Davis is more optimistic than most. He is putting his trust in Sean Payton, who did improve the Broncos from 5-12 to 8-9 in his first year as Denver’s head coach.
“I think this first year you have to see what’s happening,’’ Davis told 9NEWS. “I think Sean Payton coming in, he’s just got to let things settle and I know everybody wants to make moves. But you can’t make moves until the dust settles. Until we get a clear understanding of what we need to do, how do we get better.
“So you can systematically point out those areas that we need to improve in. It's year No. 2, or at least going into year No. 2. It’s the second draft the Broncos [Payton] will have. Be patient, sit back and watch what Sean does.”
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