For Terps' Davis, a Family Celebration
San Francisco Chooses Tight End With 6th Pick
"Alex Smith was a guy who struggled last year but who can be great for that team," said former Terp Vernon Davis, after being selected by the 49ers. "He just needs the right weapons in there and I think I'm a great choice for that."
(Lucian Perkins - The Washington Post)
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Sunday, April 30, 2006
NEW YORK, April 29 -- His eyes misted from the moment the draft began and then Vernon Davis had to sit for more than an hour with the anticipation gnawing at his stomach. The mist grew to a trickle after the New York Jets picked D'Brickashaw Ferguson and it was clear that one of the next two teams -- Green Bay or San Francisco -- would be his NFL home.
His agent whispered in his ear that he thought it would be the 49ers and those around the table in the draft's Green Room watched as Davis's lip quivered. Then the phone was ringing and Norv Turner, the 49ers' offensive coordinator was on the line, and Turner was saying, "Are you ready to get down here?"
And all Davis, a giant of a tight end at 6-foot-3, 253 pounds who played at Dunbar High School and Maryland, could manage was a tiny "yes, coach," before he dissolved into a flood of tears.
His girlfriend, Janel Horne, held up a camera to capture the moment. In the photo there is a mass of braided hair, an enormous hand and a white handkerchief covering Davis's face as he blubbered like a child.
Across the table, the woman who raised him, his grandmother Adaline, began to cry, too.
This is the pact they always shared. If one cries, the other cries. And together Adaline and Vernon have cried many times. But never like this, never with the tears flowing so unrestrained that Vernon could barely compose himself for the walk up to the stage to shake the commissioner's hand.
"I was going to go to a team where I wanted to go to," he said.
That he was picked sixth by San Francisco was not a surprise. The 49ers were blown away by his workouts at the combine in February and had coveted him for the last two months. Davis had been out to meet with team officials last week and the 49ers coaches had filled his head with visions of big catches over the middle. He came to like Turner and was impressed with quarterback Alex Smith, who was last year's first-round pick.
"Alex Smith was a guy who struggled last year but who can be great for that team," Davis said. "He just needs the right weapons in there and I think I'm a great choice for that."
Saturday afternoon, he stood at a podium beneath Radio City Music Hall and someone asked what makes him special as a tight end.
Davis smiled.
"My speed, my ability to make plays," he said. "I'm explosive, I can just do things a normal tight end can't do."
