Schlereth: ‘Little part of all of us’ elected to Hall with Terrell Davis
Feb 5, 2017, 11:00 AM | Updated: 9:38 pm
Coming into Super Bowl week in Houston, former Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis had eight times been a semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Three times he’s been a finalist.
It’s been a long, uphill battle for the prodigious rusher who, after perhaps one of the best four year stretches by a running back in NFL history, had had his promising career cut short by injury.
But on Saturday in Houston, ahead of the NFL’s title game and on the final day of the Broncos defense as Super Bowl Champions, Davis became what many Denver fans and former players already knew in their hearts: a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
During the NFL Honors ceremony, in which the 2017 Hall of Fame class was unveiled, Davis said he knew after becoming a finalist for the first time in 2015 it wouldn’t happen that fast.
“I knew I wasn’t going to go from a semifinalist and then a finalist and, same year, they let you take the next step,” Davis said.
But this year, Davis told 104.3 The Fan’s “Schlereth and Evans” earlier this week, he said he felt it could come soon, maybe even Saturday.
And Saturday, indeed, it came.
“I felt that it was getting close, but the one caveat was (LaDainian Tomlinson) being in the same class,” Davis said. “I knew he was going in so I really thought there’s no way they’re putting in two backs in the same class, especially a guy who’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer versus a special-circumstance guy, like me. I thought that’s what they saw me as. So when I got the knock, obviously I was shocked.”
Tomlinson and Davis, the first running back duo since 1977 to be in the same class, join Kurt Warner, Kenny Easley, Jason Taylor, Morten Andersen, and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones among those elected.
And just as sweet as it feels for Davis to finally be able to don the gold jacket, “Schereth and Evans” co-host and TD’s former teammate Mark Schlereth said it’s a win for all the fans and former players who played with him also.
“The thing for me is we all, as Denver Broncos fans and former players, get to celebrate Terrell Davis,” Schlereth said. “… I feel like a little part of all of us, as fans and former players, got elected with TD.”
Alfred Williams, co-host of “The Drive” and another former teammate of Davis, championed a similar sentiment.
“All the members of all the teams that played with TD are proud of him and the way he’s carried himself,” Williams said.
A sixth-round pick in 1995, Davis arguably had the best four-year span to start out a career.
In 1996, Davis claimed the NFL Offensive Player of the Year award. The following season, he helped fellow Hall of Famer John Elway and the Broncos to the franchise’s first Super Bowl championship in 1997 — and it’s second in 1998.
Davis would become a member of the exclusive 2,000 club in 1998 also, rushing for 2,008 yards at a clip of 125.5 yards per game, along with being named Offensive Player of the Year again and the league’s MVP.
He’d end up being named to three first-team All-Pro squads in a row (1996-1998) — along with three Pro Bowls in the same years — and named to the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team and the Broncos 50th Anniversary teams.
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.