BustedKnuckles
Footballguy
Mike Bell is living out a childhood dream with Denver
By Trent Modglin (tmodglin@pfwmedia.com)
Sept. 2, 2006
It was the promotion heard around the NFL last month. The undrafted kid who grew up with Broncos posters on his bedroom walls was getting his chance to live the dream and play for the team he adored as a boy. Head coach Mike Shanahan, who has proven capable of finding diamond running backs in the rough, was at it again, this time with Mike Bell, the fourth-leading rusher in Arizona Wildcats history, who was bypassed through all seven rounds in April’s draft. This is the stuff directors foam at the mouth over in Hollywood.
To say Bell was a huge Broncos fan while growing up in Denver would be like saying Paris Hilton knows how to pose for a picture. A move to Arizona when he was 10 didn’t do anything to quell his thirst for all things blue and orange. He loved John Elway. Steve Atwater, too. But then Terrell Davis, a little-known sixth-round pick out of Georgia, came along as the first and most prominent of Shanahan’s significant finds, and Bell’s fascination with the team went into another stratosphere.
“That’s when I became an absolute fanatic,” Bell said.
He wore Davis’ No. 28 jersey as much as he could get away with, often for days in a row, until the numbers started wearing off. His mother had to pry it off his back to get it in the wash.
A habit of fumbling and a lack of breakaway speed were two factors that diminished Bell’s stock when it came to the draft, which was a sore day spent sitting at home with his immediate family, “watching and watching and watching,” as Bell put it. They sat there, round after round, as other less-prolific college running backs from less-heralded conferences were snatched up, sending family rooms like his into an uproar.
Finally, in about the sixth round, Bell had to get out of there. So he went for a drive. A long drive.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘Is this really over? Does it all stop now?’ ” Bell said. “I was freaking out. I was in a weird state of mind, just really hurt by it all.”
When the seventh round started, he began fielding calls from teams interested in either drafting him late or having him sign as a free agent as soon as the draft concluded. Then came the call. The one that mattered. The one that made all the others seem like bothersome telemarketers.
“The process was definitely hurtful, but when I got the call from the Broncos, it just all went away because, ultimately, that’s what I’ve always wanted to do — play for the Broncos,” Bell said of the first time he remembers smiling that entire weekend. “I didn’t care about the money or any of that. I just wanted to play for the Broncos.”
But the shock value didn’t wear off there. At the first weekend of team workouts, soon after the draft, it really hit him. He got a ride with the rest of the rookie class in limos to Denver’s facility, where for nearly a week he was more like a starstruck child seeking an autograph than the future of the running game.
“Just seeing all the people, I was in awe that first week,” he said. “Seeing Jake Plummer, because I remember watching him in high school. Seeing Champ Bailey, and knowing John Elway used to be here, it was really crazy.”
Crazier still was the way Bell took to the Broncos’ offense. Fellow RB Ron Dayne, a Heisman winner whom Bell leapfrogged on the depth chart along with Tatum Bell, admitted Bell had been “killing practices.”
Shanahan has proven many times over that he has an eye for running backs who fit his distinctive zone-blocking system. Davis, Olandis Gary, Mike Anderson and Reuben Droughns are examples of him scraping the bottom of the barrel to find ingredients that work. All were afterthoughts by most teams’ standards. All turned out to be 1,000-yard rushers under Shanahan’s watch. And all got wealthy doing so.
Still, Bell isn’t taking anything for granted. In mid-August he was still staying at the team hotel like the rest of the guys on the bubble. He hadn’t even started looking for a condo or a house yet. Nope, the guy who’s first on the depth chart for the best running team in the league had decided to wait a couple of weeks to be sure he made the team.
“I’m never going to become content or complacent, because somebody told me early on that the NFL stands for ‘Not For Long,’ ” he said. “I’m going to keep working like I’m in last place, just have that drive and that hunger. I definitely don’t want to leave here, so I’m going to keep the attitude like I’m not No. 1.”
Before he was No. 1, when he was actually No. 3 or possibly even No. 4, behind Cedric Cobbs, he didn’t feel all that good on the lonely walk up to Shanahan’s office a few weeks ago.
He thought he had attacked practices with enough fervor to catch an eye or two, thought he had held his own in offseason workouts and to that point in training camp. But he was an undrafted rookie, and a nervous one at that. The head coach had asked to see him, and nothing good can come out of a meeting with the head coach on a day off. The stairs up to Shanahan’s office seemed like they lasted forever.
But instead of telling him he was a goner, Shanahan dropped news that was significantly better. Bell was vaulting to the top of the depth chart. The RB job for the Broncos was his to lose.
Bell couldn’t sit still after that. He squirmed in the chair in Shanahan’s office. The stairs he nervously dragged himself up minutes earlier he didn’t even touch on the way down. He immediately started calling friends and family and former coaches to share the news. He was on the phone all night, then back to work the next day, albeit with the first team.
“It’s hard not to look ahead because you’re always asking yourself, ‘What if?’ ” Bell said. “But I can’t get ahead of myself because it’s a constant, daily battle. I’ve got to keep myself in check and take it one day at a time.”
Sounds cliché unless you hear Bell say it. In a sports world littered with such overused phrases, it actually sounds genuine coming from Bell.
Before I hang up, I ask Bell if he’s had a chance to meet Terrell Davis yet, maybe ask him to sign that tattered jersey I’d be willing to bet a paycheck Bell still has tucked away in a closet somewhere.
He said he hadn’t yet, but last winter, before Bell had hired an agent, he did get a call from his idol. Davis was making a sales pitch on behalf of his agent, who was interested in adding Bell as a client. The call went to voice mail, and Bell hasn’t forgiven himself.
“I actually saved the message on my phone for a long time,” he said. “That was big-time.”
By Trent Modglin (tmodglin@pfwmedia.com)
Sept. 2, 2006
It was the promotion heard around the NFL last month. The undrafted kid who grew up with Broncos posters on his bedroom walls was getting his chance to live the dream and play for the team he adored as a boy. Head coach Mike Shanahan, who has proven capable of finding diamond running backs in the rough, was at it again, this time with Mike Bell, the fourth-leading rusher in Arizona Wildcats history, who was bypassed through all seven rounds in April’s draft. This is the stuff directors foam at the mouth over in Hollywood.
To say Bell was a huge Broncos fan while growing up in Denver would be like saying Paris Hilton knows how to pose for a picture. A move to Arizona when he was 10 didn’t do anything to quell his thirst for all things blue and orange. He loved John Elway. Steve Atwater, too. But then Terrell Davis, a little-known sixth-round pick out of Georgia, came along as the first and most prominent of Shanahan’s significant finds, and Bell’s fascination with the team went into another stratosphere.
“That’s when I became an absolute fanatic,” Bell said.
He wore Davis’ No. 28 jersey as much as he could get away with, often for days in a row, until the numbers started wearing off. His mother had to pry it off his back to get it in the wash.
A habit of fumbling and a lack of breakaway speed were two factors that diminished Bell’s stock when it came to the draft, which was a sore day spent sitting at home with his immediate family, “watching and watching and watching,” as Bell put it. They sat there, round after round, as other less-prolific college running backs from less-heralded conferences were snatched up, sending family rooms like his into an uproar.
Finally, in about the sixth round, Bell had to get out of there. So he went for a drive. A long drive.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘Is this really over? Does it all stop now?’ ” Bell said. “I was freaking out. I was in a weird state of mind, just really hurt by it all.”
When the seventh round started, he began fielding calls from teams interested in either drafting him late or having him sign as a free agent as soon as the draft concluded. Then came the call. The one that mattered. The one that made all the others seem like bothersome telemarketers.
“The process was definitely hurtful, but when I got the call from the Broncos, it just all went away because, ultimately, that’s what I’ve always wanted to do — play for the Broncos,” Bell said of the first time he remembers smiling that entire weekend. “I didn’t care about the money or any of that. I just wanted to play for the Broncos.”
But the shock value didn’t wear off there. At the first weekend of team workouts, soon after the draft, it really hit him. He got a ride with the rest of the rookie class in limos to Denver’s facility, where for nearly a week he was more like a starstruck child seeking an autograph than the future of the running game.
“Just seeing all the people, I was in awe that first week,” he said. “Seeing Jake Plummer, because I remember watching him in high school. Seeing Champ Bailey, and knowing John Elway used to be here, it was really crazy.”
Crazier still was the way Bell took to the Broncos’ offense. Fellow RB Ron Dayne, a Heisman winner whom Bell leapfrogged on the depth chart along with Tatum Bell, admitted Bell had been “killing practices.”
Shanahan has proven many times over that he has an eye for running backs who fit his distinctive zone-blocking system. Davis, Olandis Gary, Mike Anderson and Reuben Droughns are examples of him scraping the bottom of the barrel to find ingredients that work. All were afterthoughts by most teams’ standards. All turned out to be 1,000-yard rushers under Shanahan’s watch. And all got wealthy doing so.
Still, Bell isn’t taking anything for granted. In mid-August he was still staying at the team hotel like the rest of the guys on the bubble. He hadn’t even started looking for a condo or a house yet. Nope, the guy who’s first on the depth chart for the best running team in the league had decided to wait a couple of weeks to be sure he made the team.
“I’m never going to become content or complacent, because somebody told me early on that the NFL stands for ‘Not For Long,’ ” he said. “I’m going to keep working like I’m in last place, just have that drive and that hunger. I definitely don’t want to leave here, so I’m going to keep the attitude like I’m not No. 1.”
Before he was No. 1, when he was actually No. 3 or possibly even No. 4, behind Cedric Cobbs, he didn’t feel all that good on the lonely walk up to Shanahan’s office a few weeks ago.
He thought he had attacked practices with enough fervor to catch an eye or two, thought he had held his own in offseason workouts and to that point in training camp. But he was an undrafted rookie, and a nervous one at that. The head coach had asked to see him, and nothing good can come out of a meeting with the head coach on a day off. The stairs up to Shanahan’s office seemed like they lasted forever.
But instead of telling him he was a goner, Shanahan dropped news that was significantly better. Bell was vaulting to the top of the depth chart. The RB job for the Broncos was his to lose.
Bell couldn’t sit still after that. He squirmed in the chair in Shanahan’s office. The stairs he nervously dragged himself up minutes earlier he didn’t even touch on the way down. He immediately started calling friends and family and former coaches to share the news. He was on the phone all night, then back to work the next day, albeit with the first team.
“It’s hard not to look ahead because you’re always asking yourself, ‘What if?’ ” Bell said. “But I can’t get ahead of myself because it’s a constant, daily battle. I’ve got to keep myself in check and take it one day at a time.”
Sounds cliché unless you hear Bell say it. In a sports world littered with such overused phrases, it actually sounds genuine coming from Bell.
Before I hang up, I ask Bell if he’s had a chance to meet Terrell Davis yet, maybe ask him to sign that tattered jersey I’d be willing to bet a paycheck Bell still has tucked away in a closet somewhere.
He said he hadn’t yet, but last winter, before Bell had hired an agent, he did get a call from his idol. Davis was making a sales pitch on behalf of his agent, who was interested in adding Bell as a client. The call went to voice mail, and Bell hasn’t forgiven himself.
“I actually saved the message on my phone for a long time,” he said. “That was big-time.”
