Joniak's Super Bowl Journal: Demaryius Thomas Helps Mentor Kevin White Amid Injury Challenges
By Jeff Joniak--
(CBS) The Panthers and Broncos square off in Super Bowl 50 on Sunday evening in Santa Clara, Calif. Here are my observations leading up the big game.
First impression
Bears receiver Kevin White has a big fan in Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas. The two met last year at Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald's charity event and hit it off. Thomas busted his foot training for the NFL scouting combine before his rookie season, also aggravating it twice in training camp. Two months into his next offseason, he tore his Achilles tendon, then missed another six weeks with a broken pinky. He's an ideal example of the perseverance and patience needed to overcome early career injuries, which White experienced in sitting out all of 2015 with a leg fracture.
"I just said take your time, you're going to get back healthy and play ball," Thomas said. "Just don't go back too fast. All I was hearing was that I was a bust. You're going to hear the same thing, and you are going to let it get in your head and you don't want it to get in your head."
Thomas has given White the green light to get in contact with him anytime. White has taken him up on the invitation more than once.
Second thought
One of the best recruiters in the NFL is Bears coach John Fox, whose name is golden with those he's coached over the years. That will serve a purpose when it comes to securing some free agents in the next few years. Fox is direct with players and doesn't play games. They always know where they stand, and from my experience that's exactly how players prefer to be coached and recruited.
With Fox having spent four years coaching Denver, it's only natural to assume some of the pending free agents on the Broncos might draw interest from the Bears and vice versa. Several Broncos talk glowingly about Fox, and some were impacted by his approach, such as defensive end Malik Jackson.
"He was like an older brother to me," Jackson said. "He was definitely one of those guys who taught me how to be responsible. The way he treated me, he was definitely somebody you can learn lessons from. He taught me how to be a pro."
Many of the starters on the Broncos' top-ranked defense were coached by Fox, including pending free agents like Jackson, linebacker Danny Trevathan, linebacker Brandon Marshall and edge rusher Von Miller.
Third degree
I remember being on South Beach in Miami in 1999 when word started circulating that an Atlanta Falcons player was arrested for solicitation the night before Super Bowl XXXIII. It was stunning to hear that it was starting safety Eugene Robinson. Days earlier, Robinson was named the winner of the Bart Starr Award for leadership and character.
"It was painful man, I cried the entire night," Robinson recounted Tuesday in San Jose. "It's easy to lose your way when you're selfish. Hearing the word 'solicitation' is still painful for me."
Robinson was burned on an 80-yard John Elway touchdown pass in the Broncos' big win. Collectively, the Falcons struggled, and some pointed to Robinson's poor decision as the reason for their performance.
Robinson is now a radio analyst for the Panthers. After the Panthers' divisional playoff win against the Seahawks, Robinson asked coach Ron Rivera and general manager David Gettleman if he could tell his story to the current team so as to avoid any poor decisions this week in the Bay Area.
"When you look a man in the eye, and I want you to know how I felt and what it meant, and I want you to feel that experience so that if I can help you in just some small way that you don't make that same mistake, that's what I was doing," Robinson said.
"If a team beats you, that's different. But if you beat yourself, that's criminal. I allowed myself to beat myself and beat my team, and that was criminal."
Robinson chose not to tell his story the last time the Panthers went to the Super Bowl, in Fox's second year asd coach, but he felt moved to tell it now to the current Panthers.
Fourth-and-short
Seventy-six miles from Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, where Rivera's Panthers will try to win Super Bowl 50, sit Seaside High School, where he played football. From there he played in Berkeley at California. It's where he met his wife, Stephanie.
"It really is a neat experience," Rivera said. "I really do appreciate it".
Throw in Rivera's experience 30 years ago this week of winning Super Bowl XX as a Chicago Bears linebacker and this being the Golden Super Bowl, and I can't think of a better story this week if he coaches the Panthers to the championship.
Jeff Joniak is the play-by-play announcer for the Bears broadcasts on WBBM Newsradio 780. Follow him on Twitter @JeffJoniak.
