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Everyday Phil is Pro Bowl Phillip through football

Lindsay is the first NFL player ever to become an undrafted rookie all-star while still living with his mom and dad. If football didn't work out, he planned to become a police officer.
Credit: Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports
Denver Broncos running back Phillip Lindsay (30) before the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium.

Had professional football kept following the path of his NFL combine and draft, Phillip Lindsay was on his way to becoming the biggest-haired cop since Ron Glass.

“I would have been a police officer,’’ Lindsay said in a sit-down interview with 9NEWS this week. “I have a friend that’s a police officer. We were going to do it together. We started applying at the same time. I had to hold up on doing some of the application work because I was training for the NFL. Yeah, I would have been a police officer and try to help society out and do good in the world.’’

His friend, Andrew Bergner, was also a former teammate at the University of Colorado. Bergner made it through his police training and has been patrolling the streets for a couple months now. During a ceremony last week at the Broncos’ UCHealth Training Center headquarters, Lindsay presented one of the heavily armored vests to his close friend.

To think the 5-foot-7 ¼, 184-pound Lindsay could have chosen a more dangerous living than football. There was never a doubt he would make it, though, even if he wasn’t among the 32 running backs invited to the combine in late-February or among the 20 running backs drafted in late-April.

“There are a lot of running backs playing right now that weren’t invited to the combine and playing on teams right now,’’ Lindsay said of, most notably, Baltimore’s Gus Edwards (642 yards rushing) and Atlanta’s Ito Smith (315). “It just goes to show you that you’ve just got to keep going. And you can’t let things dictate what you can do. You’ve got to just keep going and when you look up, you never know where you’re going to be.’’

Lindsay made history earlier this week when he became the first undrafted offensive player to be named to the Pro Bowl as a rookie. He was leading the AFC in rushing, and was fourth overall in the NFL, at the time of the league-wide player and coach voting. Even with a two-game slump, Lindsay’s 991 rushing yards are second to Cincinnati’s Joe Mixon’s 995 yards in the AFC, and rank No. 5 overall.

“The NFL has been here for a long time. And for an offensive undrafted rookie to not be able to go and then to be the first one, I give a lot of credit to my teammates,’’ Lindsay said.

Despite his undrafted status, Lindsay said he felt like he belonged on the Broncos’ practice field “kind of right when I stepped foot here. I knew I had the mindset, the heart. I just had to go out there and showcase it. It’s about production in the NFL.’’

In the Broncos’ first offseason practice, he beat outside linebacker Von Miller to the edge. Defenders, even the best, are always surprised by Lindsay the first time they try to run after him.

“There was that, and there was a play with (linebacker) Brandon Marshall, I did like a stop-in-go and I wound up catching the ball and he kind of stated that I was going to be the third down back and he was proud of me,’’ Lindsay said. “And that was the first practice ever being out there. I’m just here, I really don’t know anybody. I’m trying to be quiet and kept to myself.’’

Give some credit to offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave and running backs coach Curtis Modkins. From the first practice, they gave all five running backs a rep or three with the first-team offense. Lindsay may have gone last – after veterans Devontae Booker and De’Angelo Henderson, and after drafted rookies Royce Freeman and David Williams – but he got his turns.

“We could tell right away that we were going to need him,’’ Musgrave said. “And obviously, we do need him, terribly. So, he’s done a super job for us of carrying our offense.”

Lindsay has discovered carrying the Broncos’ offense considerably more burdensome since star receiver Emmanuel Sanders tore his Achilles two weeks ago. After rushing for a combined 267 yards on 8.1 yards per carry in back-to-back wins against the Steelers and Bengals – with Sanders garnering attention on the flank – Lindsay has just 54 yards on 1.9 yards per carry in the Broncos’ last two games, both losses, without Sanders against the 49ers and Browns.

His season rushing yardage total has been stuck in the 900s each of the past three games.

“It comes with the territory,’’ Lindsay said. “This is the NFL, no one is going to let you run on them 16 weeks straight. For me, I’ve got to adjust now. They adjusted to me and I’ve got to adjust and go in my bag of goodies and I’ve got to do things to help my offensive line out, help my receivers out. And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m really focused on this week and getting back to normal and helping win games.’’

As the Broncos fly out to Oakland today and get ready to play the Raiders on Monday night, Lindsay needs 9 yards for the coveted 1,000 milestone, and 114 yards to break the league’s single-season, undrafted rookie record of 1,104 set by Dominic Rhodes in 2001.

“I didn’t really know until coming up to 1,000 there was a record like that,’’ Lindsay said. “If I get an opportunity to break it, would be an honor to be up there with Dominic Rhodes who I remember him playing with the Colts. (Number) 33. He was a thicker running back, and he was hard, and ran tough and it would be an honor to beat his record.’’

After the game against the Raiders, the Broncos will fly home at about the time Rudolph is leading Santa Claus into Colorado. In the wee hours of Christmas morning, Lindsay will walk into mom and dad’s home in Aurora and collapse into his basement bedroom.

He’s lived with mom and dad all his life and he’s continued to stay there during his Pro Bowl season. Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield, as the very first pick in the draft, got a $21.85 million signing bonus, plus a $480,000 first-year salary. Lindsay, as a selection somewhere after the last draft pick, got a $15,000 bonus. Plus, a $480,000 first-year salary.

“I always lived down in the basement,’’ he said. “There’s two bedrooms down there because there’s five of us (kids) in the house. For me it was just the smartest thing financially right now. Especially when you live 20, 30 minutes away from here, I can just focus on football right now and when the season’s over with, I’ll buy myself a condo and kind of get more organized with everything, other than just playing football.’’

He says he’s never pulled a Will Farrell and yelled up for meatloaf from the basement. Lindsay says he doesn’t even walk in the house and ask mom, ‘what’s for dinner?”

“Nah, she’s still working,’’ he said. His mom, Diane, has her own therapy business. His father, Troy, is an RTD bus driver. His younger brother Marcus rushed for 5.7 yards per carry as a redshirt freshman at Colorado State-Pueblo this season. “When I get home, everybody’s kind of tired and doing their own thing. I’m there but I’m doing so much. I’m here (at Broncos headquarters) at 7, 8 oclock at night watching film. I’m always doing something, but I have a place to stay and lay my head at night.’’

Merry Christmas to the Lindsays. A win against the Raiders, and a big game from their son against the No. 32-ranked Raiders’ rushing defense would tie a bow around this historic, Pro Bowl season.

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