Davis is back for one more HOF celebration
Terrell Davis looked out onto Sports Authority Field from a suite atop the north end zone, scanned the inner rim of the stadium stamped with the Broncos’ Ring of Famers, then let out a wide grin.
“Every time I came here you always think about playing,” he said that mid-october evening. “We always think we can play, like ‘Damn, that field looks good.’ You always go back to when you played and how much fun you had and we had a lot of success playing. Those memories will always be there. I guess I’m now getting to a point where it’s kind of, I don’t want to say closure, but it’s finally starting to settle in that the game is gone. You’re never going to play football again.
“I’m enjoying it from a different perspective now. I’m a fan of the game. I like watching the Broncos look good and win.”
Then he peered up and found his name among the Ring of Famers.
“There you go. Oh, they didn’t put my thing up there,” he said, referring to the Pro Football Hall of Fame logo that would soon be added next to his name. “It goes up there when I come back in another month. The Hall of Faaaaaame!”
Davis’ joyous moment of reflection was when the Broncos had a winning record and a defense that still ranked atop the league. They weren’t perfect, but they had hope and, finally, a run game and potential to get back to the playoffs.
Davis returned to Denver this weekend to a much different scene. Friday evening, while wearing his mustard-yellow Pro Football Hall of Fame jacket, he unveiled his bronze bust and updated Ring of Fame plaque, then received his Ring of Excellence from Hall of Fame president David Baker inside the Broncos’ locker room. The bling was the third piece of the signature collection given to Hall of Famers, and Davis’ return to Denver was the last stop in his year of celebration.
“It’s the gift that keeps on giving, I guess,” he said Friday. “Someone told me, I think Tim Brown said, ‘You won’t get any rest until August of next year.’ And I think he’s right, but here’s what’s great about it — it’s not like it’s a one-time deal. It’s been an event that’s been celebrated since February when I heard the announcement, and we’re still celebrating.”
The Broncos, however, have done little celebrating since Davis’ last stop at the stadium. Embroiled in a five-game losing streak and sitting at 3-6, Davis’ former team is in trouble and in need of answers.
“I can tell you where they are. They’re in a place where the minute something goes wrong, it’s not a great feeling,” Davis said. “Your confidence level just drops because you’ve seen that before, and fighting out of that slump is difficult. The only thing that can really take you out is you have to go back to the basic things that work. You can’t turn the ball over, you have to stay on schedule as an offense, and you have to make some plays that may not be there to be made. You have to do something beyond the X’s and O’s. Once that happens, as a unit you’ll start to see the work become cohesive.
“I’ve never seen the team like this the way they are now in quite some time. It’s really not a good place to be in.”
Davis, now an analyst for NFL Network, echoed the assessments of Broncos coaches and players, who admit to myriad issues in all three phases.
“As a defense, you’re confident. You go into the season thinking, ‘OK, we’re the best unit in football. We can carry an offense,’ ” Davis said. “But when the offense is putting the defense in situations where you’re getting turnovers on your side of the field, it’s hard to keep — every time you keep fighting and fighting. You go to the bench and get a drink of water and you’re back in there trying to stop the team from scoring. Listen, it’s not just one thing. I think you guys all know that. There are a lot of things that are ailing this team right now. I know everybody is asking what the magic answer is. What can they do? All you can do is keep fighting.”
Davis attended the Broncos’ walkthrough Saturday, their final tuneup before facing another 3-6 opponent that could either help to jump-start the Broncos or break their 2017 season. A pep talk, Davis knew, wouldn’t be enough to fix his former team.
“They’re coached. They have a good coaching staff,” he said. “Their coaches are preparing them the best way that they can be prepared to win games. It’s now up to the players for it to translate on the field. I don’t care what you say and what kind of pep talk you give somebody, they have to go and display that on Sunday. It’s a great opportunity for them. They have a team coming in who is 3-6. They’ve had their own struggles. To me, it’s a good time to get right.”