Eric Berry & Malcolm Jenkins: Class at the Thorpe banquet
Malcolm Jenkins came in late to the Jim Thorpe Award banquet Monday. On purpose. He didn’t want to upstage Eric Berry, the man of the hour and the 2009 Thorpe Award winner. Jenkins, the 2008 Thorpe winner, knocked down a Peyton Manning pass in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. Some 22 hours later, he was at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, to help honor his successor.
That’s class. Honoring the commitment to return to the Thorpe gala, even less than 24 hours after one of the biggest victories in NFL history, the Saints’ 31-17 conquest of the Colts.
But the Thorpe Award generally deals in class. Classy winners. Classy production. Just a good all-around celebration of football, and I’m pleased to have a small part in it every year in presenting The Oklahoman‘s all-state team.
Monday night was a little different, because we had a fresh Super Bowl winner and a new member of the fraternity who received no visible support from his school. No one from Tennessee attended, and while event organizers said the weather prevented Vol athletic director Mike Hamilton from reaching Oklahoma City, I don’t buy it. The airport certainly didn’t close. Monday’s snow fell something short of a storm. No, much more likely is that Tennessee’s coaching upheaval has left the Vols scrambling to find some administrative footing, and an outgoing football player — even one of the greatest in school history — was low on the priority list.
University of Tennessee's Eric Berry poses with the Jim Thorpe Award prior to a banquet at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City on Monday, Feb. 8, 2010. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
But it remained a quality event. Berry seemed sharp, humble and funny. And big. He’s a big safety. I like big safeties. Looks like he’ll do just fine in the NFL.
Three previous Thorpe winners — Jenkins, Bennie Blades and Antoine Cason — joined Berry on stage, and they had some fun together. When the Thorpe committee presented Berry with a Rolex watch from B.C. Clark Jewelers, Jenkins feigned angst over not receiving one last year. Berry carefully placed the Rolex in his tuxedo pocket and declared that he needed state trooper Stanford McConnell, who annually sings the national anthem at the event, to “come back up here and escort me.” When Berry showed his new boots from Tener’s — “black ostrich, I’ll have to hide ‘em from my dad, he’ll probably hit me up for ‘em” — Blades dramatically complained that the Thorpe’s boots tradition started after he won the award in 1987. Good news: Tener’s sent word that Blades would receive a new pair of boots.
Berry ended his short speech by saying, “I look forward to seeing you guys next year, because I definitely will be here. This really does mean a lot to me.”
Obviously, the award meant a lot to Jenkins, too, who caught an early-afternoon flight from Miami after getting about two hours of sleep. (Funny, Jenkins could make it from post-Super Bowl revelry, but no one from Tennessee could get to OKC.)
“I’m still not down off the high,” Jenkins said of the Super Bowl. “I’m still trying to figure out who we’ve got next week.” The answer is no one. The Saints are champions of the football world.
Jenkins said Berry is probably like most Thorpe winners and wants to get drafted high, which means he’s likely to go to a struggling team. “Your first thought is not the Super Bowl,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins, interviewed on stage by emcee Bob Barry Sr., was asked about Oklahoman Jeremy Shockey, who caught the game-winning touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. “Jeremy’s an interesting guy,” Jenkins said. “I’m on his good side. You don’t want to get Shockey mad.”
As for Garrett Hartley, the OU alum who kicked 40something-yard field goals vs. the Colts, “I still think he’s on Cloud 9,” Jenkins said. “Garrett definitely is someone who helped us get where we are.”
The night had its poignant moments. The Thorpe Association had named Steve Owens the winner of its lifetime achievement award, but Owens underwent surgery in January and is still recovering. So his fellow Heisman winners, Billy Sims and Jason White, stepped in. Sims presented the award, and White accepted it on Owens’ behalf.
Sims said Owens would be OK and should be up and around in another four weeks. “When you say Steve Owens, all you have to say is Oklahoma,” Sims said. “What a great person. He’ll do anything for you if he can. I love him to death.”
White said that he grew up hearing his dad tell stories of watching Sims and Owens play. “Now, to think I hang out with ‘em…,” White said. A few days after White won the 2003 Heisman, he said he received a congratulatory voice mail from Owens. White saved it on his phone and keeps it still.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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