“I’m not who I am today if I don’t go play at Georgia.”

Nice Chip Towers story about Terrell Davis and Ray Goff burying the hatchet.

“I think of Ray a lot,” Davis said as he drove his 6-year-old son Jaxon to school Wednesday morning. “I get emotional talking about him right now. I learned a lot from him. A lot of times you don’t realize the effect somebody is having on you until years later. You kind of missed the message.”

Davis said he still proudly identifies himself as a Bulldog. He credits his three years in Athens as providing the foundation for his NFL career.

“I didn’t have the success I would have liked at Georgia, but Georgia is still the building block for me,” Davis said. “That’s where I got the confidence to know I could compete at the highest level. I look back on my career and every step of the way was important to developing who I am today as a person. So what I went through at Georgia, the good and the bad, I don’t wish it was different. It all makes you who you are. I’m not who I am today if I don’t go play at Georgia.”

Retrospectively, Davis said he’s glad he endured injury problems and sporadic playing time at Georgia.

“If I’d have gone out and had a 1,500-yard season or something like that, I may have gotten drafted by the Cleveland Browns or something,” he said. “Instead I ended up in Denver, which was the perfect place for me.”

That it was. And when Davis got the call for the Hall, one of the first persons he heard congratulations from was Goff.

“It worked out great for Terrell,” Goff said. “He ended up in the perfect place at the perfect time. He was a great player for us, but unfortunately he had injuries. I tell him, ‘if we had run you like Garrison you would have been worn out by the time you got the NFL.’”

All’s well that ends well…

10 Comments

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10 responses to ““I’m not who I am today if I don’t go play at Georgia.”

  1. Spike

    Very gracious comments Terrell.. A well deserved place in Canton and a DGD!

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Bright Idea

    I spoke to Ray Goff at the Texas basketball game. He looks like he could still play. I’ll never forget him shredding the Gators in 76. It would have been contrary to his nature not to reach out to Davis. Have we forgotten the narrative that Ray did not have much autonomy during his time as head coach? The DC coaching spot was his undoing. Never could stop any body playing smallish defensive linemen.

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  3. Atticus

    I have never seen him in Athens does he ever come back to games?

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  4. dawgfan

    If Goff had gotten about about five more years as an assistant under the right head coach, he would have had a much better chance to succeed. He wasn’t ready at the time.

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  5. Macallanlover

    Both parties seem to be taking a mature approach to the past, good on both of them. So many want to whine and moan about the woulda/shoulda this is refreshing. Davis in particular is taking the high road to one of those life experiences that had a silver lining if you examine it. Only loser in this is UGA who missed getting the full benefit of having TD play more, but it worked out well for him.

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    • Mr. Tu

      It is easy to say now that UGA missed out with him not playing, but he wasn’t going to take away too many snaps from Garrison Hearst who was simply a better back in college

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      • Macallanlover

        I am a big fan of Garrison Hearst, we certainly didn’t suck with him at RB. But I am a fan of multiple RBs and reliance on one stud back as a steady dose. And I don’t know if we didn’t miss something with TD out, perhaps without the injuries we would have seen something special as he blossomed. Hard to say, but we did miss out on something, even if in a supporting role after Hearst had worn the defense down.

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