Terrell Davis ‘overcome’ by emotions after Hall of Fame news

The first time, Terrell Davis got a phone call. “Not this year, TD. Canton will have to wait.”

The next year, it was a messenger behind the soft knock on the door who delivered the bad news.

“I said, ‘Should I give you a hug or should I punch you in the gut.’ And he put his hands over his gut, so I knew that I wasn’t in there,” Davis said of second time as a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“But I had already known that year it was almost impossible for me to go from being a finalist two years and them ushering me through the top-5. So, I was just patient.”

Davis, who had a prodigious but short-lived career as a Denver Broncos running back, told “Schlereth and Evans” last week that felt cautiously optimistic this year, but with LaDainian Tomlinson on the ballot also, he thought he might have to wait again for good news.

“I thought, just the way their process worked out, they would not put two running backs in the same class. So, I had already basically given up on 2017 and said 2018 looks promising, but there was no guarantee in 2018 I would be selected,” Davis said. So, I was kind of like, this year, hopefully, I just want to make it back to the top-10. If I make it back to the top-10, then that means there’s progress that’s been shown, and that’s a good sign.”

“But to get that knock, man …”

This year, the knock was different. It was about 45 minutes later than planned, a good sign in Davis’ eyes, and was much more forceful.

You see, the 6-foot-9, 400-plus pound president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, David Baker, packs a heftier punch.

“He knocks on the door and the minute my agent opens the door I saw him. And that’s when everything, it was just a rush,” Davis told “Schlereth and Evans” on Wednesday. “I was just overcome by all of those emotions, and I sort of bent over.”

On with “The Drive” also on Wednesday, Davis said he felt every emotion related to happiness or joy that anyone could think of in that moment — one in which he shared with family and close friends.

“It was a great moment. My family was there to witness, which was the best part about it,” Davis said.

And as he and his fellow 2017 Hall of Fame classmates prepare for enshrinement at the end of this summer, Davis said as of Wednesday he was still on “Cloud 9.”

“I’ve just been floating. A ton of emotions, gratitude, obviously, excitement, jubilation, joy, happiness, relief, a lot of mixed emotions that run through you,”

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.