SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The phone call came from inside the Federal Correctional Institute in Tallahassee, Fla., not long after Demaryius Thomas had trudged out of MetLife Stadium a 43-8 Super Bowl XLVIII loser to the Seahawks.
“She just said, ‘Keep your head up, you’ll get another chance,’ ” Thomas recalled.
“We got another chance right now, we just got to take advantage of it.”
Thomas and the Broncos got another chance, and Katina Smith gets a first chance to watch her son play in a Super Bowl.
“It’s like a dream come true, man,” Thomas said. “As a kid, you always want to see your family watch you play in some big games and this is a very big game, and to have her finally out and is gonna be able to make my game, it’s a blessing. … It’ll make it better if we go out and win.”
Smith missed so much, missed her son signing with Georgia Tech, where he would be compared to Calvin Johnson and was forced to watch the Broncos draft him on a television from jail.
Thomas was 11 when his mother and grandmother were arrested in 1999 for running a Georgia cocaine ring. She was pardoned in July by President Obama and watched Thomas
play in person for the first time when the Broncos beat the Steelers last month in Denver in the divisional playoff round. His grandmother, Minnie Thomas, remains incarcerated.
“I never thought she’ll be coming to see me play in the Super Bowl,” Thomas said. “It’s not easy making the Super Bowl. We got a chance, and she’s gonna make it.”
After all those years knowing that there was no reason to look up into the stands for her, a burden has been lifted.
“You always wish she was around to see me play and stuff, of course,” he said. “The good thing about it, she always gave me a phone call before I played and after I played. And so now to have her out, it’s even better. To have her at games, I don’t have to think no more, wish she was at the game. Now I can go out and know she’s in the stands and just play ball.”
For too long, Thomas could not understand why his mother had taken the wrong fork in the road.
“Whenever I got a chance to get off in the offseason and sometimes on bye weeks I used to travel to Tallahassee,” he said. “Maybe three, four times in the offseason.”
The early prison visits were especially painful for him and his sisters.
“As I got older, it was better,” he said. “The first couple of times, it was a little more emotional because I knew I was going home and I was leaving them.”
The emotional breakthrough came when his mother apologized to them. Thomas was in high school by then, getting ready for college.
“That was big,” Thomas said. “When she told me about it and what happened, she apologized and I forgave her, whatever. Got a little something off of our shoulders.”
Fellow Broncos receiver Emmanuel Sanders has been a source of support for him.
“He’s been like a brother to me,” Thomas said. “He always said, ‘Just keep your head up and pray on it and everything’ll be fine.’”
Katina Smith had been scheduled to be released Christmas Day 2016.
“The biggest thing was not being able to see her once she got out,” Thomas said. “She couldn’t travel for 60 days, she was in a halfway house [in Atlanta] after doing 16 years.”
Finally, she flew with Thomas’ father to watch him play for the first time. Of course she wore his orange 88 jersey.
“She had a ball, man, she was excited,” Thomas said. “She was talking about it last week, how excited she was, and how excited she is coming to this game. She was excited to meet some of the players. She’s just glad to be home and ready for more.”
He had four catches for 40 yards against the Steelers and two for 12 yards against the Patriots and is overdue to have a big game. He had 118 yards and a touchdown on 13 catches in Super Bowl XLVIII but fell victim to a thunderous tone-setting hit over the middle early from Kam Chancellor.
“There’s some pressure there,” Thomas said. “ I haven’t played my best in the last couple of weeks. I ain’t gonna put a lot of pressure on myself because I can go out and not have a catch and if we still win, I’ll be proud, so … I’m gonna do whatever I gotta do just to help my team. If I gotta make a crazy play, I’m gonna try my best to do it.”
He was asked to describe his mother, whom he used to play basketball against.
“She’s a woman full of joy,” Thomas said. “She’s smiling all the time, happy about everything, wanting the best for everybody. She always wanted to compete against me for some reason. She’s just happy. She never got down when she was in prison. I never really saw her emotional much, it was mostly my grandmother. She was the strong one. She was there for my grandma to help her feel better. She’s a strong woman.”
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
More than Super Sunday for Demaryius Thomas.
Mother’s Day, too.