DENVER—It’s not exactly the Hall of Fame, which might elude Terrell Davis because of his injury-truncated career.
Yet, the former Denver Broncos running back who led the team along with John Elway to two Super Bowl championships will be the 21st player inducted into the team’s Ring of Fame.
His name will be displayed at Invesco Field on Sept. 23 during a game against Jacksonville.
Davis was a sixth-round draft pick out of Georgia when he burst onto the Broncos’ scene and reached instant stardom, helping the Broncos win consecutive championships in the 1997 and ’98 seasons. A series of knee injuries cut short his career. He got hurt making a tackle on an interception in 1999 and last played in 2001.
“What stands out in my mind is that his career ended way too early,” team owner Pat Bowlen said Saturday. “I’ve been around long enough to recognize that he probably was one of the best running backs in the game and if he had the opportunity to play a few more years, I think he would have broken a lot more records. We were lucky to have TD for 6 1/2 years, and unfortunately his career ended early. In my mind, we had one of the greatest running backs to ever play.”
Davis, 34, owns a dozen team records and is one of a handful of running backs in league history to top 2,000 yards in a season, which he did in 1998, when he won regular season and Super Bowl MVP honors.
“I don’t know how you get a better person and football player than Terrell Davis. We don’t win those Super Bowls without Davis,” coach Mike Shanahan said. “A lot of people talk about the system all the time, but people don’t realize how great a person Terrell Davis was to this program. To see him named to the Ring of Fame, it is very special.”
Bowlen said Davis deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, too.
“When I look back at the other running backs that have made the Hall of Fame and where he ranks with his accomplishments; MVP of a Super Bowl, MVP of the league, running for over 2,000 yards, I would be very surprised if he was not inducted into the Hall of Fame,” Bowlen said.
The only Broncos player in Canton is Elway, which Bowlen considers a travesty.
“I’m hoping our friends on the eastern side of the country will recognize that we had a great running back here in Denver. It has always been a thorn in my side that the team has played in six Super Bowls, won two and is a team that has had a lot of great players. We have one player in the Hall of Fame, John Elway,” Bowlen said. “I’ve made it clear as a member on the board of the Hall of Fame, that I think our process of electing players into the Hall of Fame is flawed for a number of reasons that I’m not going to go into here.”
Players are elected by a panel of sportswriters who have covered the league for a long time.
“I’m not in a position to judge who is worthy for the Hall of Fame. The only problem I have is with the voting process. I don’t have a solution to that, but I think that it is flawed and the Denver Broncos is a perfect example,” Bowlen said.
———
CAMP CHANGES:@ Training camp isn’t what it used to be. Teams used to work out twice a day, often in pads, for six weeks. Teams have gotten a lot better about keeping players cooled down in the hot weather ever since Korey Stringer’s death in Mankato, Minn., a few years ago and have adjusted with more offseason work spread out over the spring and summer.
The Broncos, who had their one minicamp earlier this month, will have two-a-days only until Aug. 11.
“Training camp isn’t as grueling as it used to be,” defensive tackle Sam Adams said. “Now I think they’re more aware of not necessarily beating you up during training camp but they want you to be here for 16 weeks (in the regular season). And I think we here in Denver do it a lot differently.
“We want to get into the season healthy and we’ll be ready for the first game of the year.”
Coach Mike Shanahan said the evaluation of players began during the offseason when the team gathered for three weeks’ worth of on-the-field workouts.
“We had 15, and you’re allowed 17 (days). It’s really a must now. You’ve got about a third of your football team that turns over every year, you’ve got guys who have to get used to your terminology and the system that you are using,” Shanahan said. “Every year, you have to play the games. The camps are a little shorter this year. We have to start later than most teams due to (the) collective bargaining (agreement).”
Because teams can only start 15 days ahead of their first game, the Broncos, who open the preseason on Monday night at San Francisco, are the last team to open training camp.
———
PADS OR PADDING:@ New defensive boss Jim Bates is going to want to see how his players hit, so there’s probably going to be more bumps and bruises in camp this year.
“Well, for me it doesn’t really matter if I have pads on or not,” said 350-pound defensive tackle Sam Adams. “Because I’m going to try to beat you up in or out of pads. So, I think some guys will like to have the pads on because it will protect them a little more.”
Safety John Lynch, who loves hitting as much as the next guy, got a kick out of Adam’s comments.
“I don’t think he needs pads,” Lynch said. “He’s got a lot of padding—muscle, of course.”
