Bailey’s nose for football made him special player
DENVER — From the moment he played his first pickup game on a summer day in the three-stoplight town of Folkston, Georgia, Champ Bailey had a nose for the football.
“I mean, he was greedy with the football,” said Boss Bailey, his younger brother by 16 months who played with Champ in high school, college and the pros. “He wanted the ball in his hands. He never said, ‘Nah, give it to somebody else.’ ”
Those ballhawking skills served Bailey well when he converted from running back and quarterback in high school to cornerback in college and the pros that included a 15-year NFL career in Washington and Denver that landed him in the 2019 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Bailey picked off 52 passes in the NFL, including one against New England that he returned for 100 yards in the divisional playoffs after the 2005 season.
“That moment was so big because of what the Patriots had done and the kind of run they had going on,” Bailey recounted.
Tom Brady had already won three of his six Super Bowls and all 10 of his playoff starts when he drove the Patriots to the Broncos 5 late in the third on an icy Denver night.
The momentum, if not the lead, was slipping from Denver’s grasp when coach Mike Shanahan called for a safety blitz from Nick Ferguson, who collected just one sack in his decadelong career.
Surprised, Brady rolled right and rifled an off-balance throw he’d regret, with Bailey making a clutch interception, going 100 yards and not scoring.
“The Broncos never blitzed me, so it probably surprised the hell out of Tom Brady and the offensive linemen,” Ferguson said.
Tight end Benjamin Watson raced from the far side, or, as Ferguson said, “from out of nowhere,” to knock Bailey out at the New England 1.
While his work ethic charmed teammates in both Washington and Denver, it was Bailey’s versatility that befuddled opponents, especially in 2005 and 2006 when he had 18 interceptions.
“One of the things that made him so good was his ability to match up on so many different types of receivers,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “He could handle speed guys, he could handle size guys. He could match up on tight ends. It didn’t really matter who he was on, he had a way to match up.”