Kiszla: When encouraging Broncos to get COVID-19 vaccine, Ring of Fame receiver Rod Smith spoke to team from his aching heart – The Denver Post

With two Super Bowl rings to his name and NFL street cred to the hilt, retired receiver Rod Smith showed up at Broncos headquarters to impart lessons on how a once-proud franchise could get its winning mojo back.

But after Smith was introduced to the team on a recent spring day, something slightly unexpected and totally beautiful happened. One of the feistiest players to ever wear a Denver uniform revealed the pain and anxiety in his heart, then told the Broncos how a shot in the arm can be a powerful symbol of love.

With the same boldness Smith displayed every time he snared a pass in the angry teeth of a defense, the 51-year-old Ring of Famer told current players if they truly cared about team chemistry and the people outside football that matter most to them, the Broncos would put aside any fear or hesitancy about the COVID-19 vaccine, roll up their sleeves and get inoculated long before the upcoming 2021 NFL season began.

“I wouldn’t call it a sales job. He just spoke from the heart,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio told me during a telephone interview. “Rod shared with the team that he was terrified of COVID for the last year and basically locked himself in his room, in part because he didn’t want to pose any danger to his sick daughter.”

Every one of his 849 receptions hauled in for the Broncos were squeezed and secured with passion. Throughout much of 13 seasons in Denver, Smith’s eyes often burned with the defiance of a player who joined the league as an undrafted free agent out of Missouri Southern in 1994.

He took nothing for granted and took no prisoners. As a journalist caught more than once on the wrong side of the blow torch when Smith got worked up on a topic, I’m hear to testify when Brother Rod preaches, the congregation has little choice but to shout: Amen, brother!

As daily vaccination rates across the country decline, and President Joe Biden’s desire of inoculating 70% of the U.S. population against COVID-19 by July 4 now destined to fall short of the goal line, the Broncos have taken their medicine. For the good of the team. And to be good neighbors.

More than 80 players on Denver’s large summer roster have received at least one dose of the vaccine, ranking Denver among the NFL’s top three teams in the battle to snuff out a pandemic that has killed more than 600,000 Americans.

Yes, there are intelligent folks with strong reasons that make them reluctant to get the COVID vax. Professional football players, who can’t make a living in a dangerous game without their health, have long been wary of anyone sticking a needle in them.

When addressing the Broncos on May 24, Smith not only heard the doubts of skeptical Denver players, he shared some of their same fears.

“Rod admitted that he was kind of an anti-vaccine guy by nature, but there’s no way he wouldn’t get one for COVID. In spite of his stubbornness he saw the light and got the vaccine,” recalled Fangio, whose own daughter is a nurse who fell ill, but recovered during the early stages of the pandemic.

Shortly before his visit to team headquarters, the Ring of Fame receiver humbly stood in line at a grocery store with regular peeps like you and me, awaiting his date with the needle. Smith told Broncos players and coaches he got the vax with his grown daughter in mind.

Her name is Vanessa. She was brought into the world by Valerie Webb and a young football player at Joplin, Mo., hospital in November 1989. Despite a lifelong battle with sickle cell anemia, she grew up to be a phlebotomy technician and the proud mother of two boys.

In a too-often-told, gut-wrenching story that has touched millions of aching hearts during the pandemic, the dangers of COVID-19 drove a wall between a retired NFL star and his ill daughter. I’ve lived the same story as Smith with my mother, and I’m willing to wager you or somebody you know has experienced the anxiety of being unable to reach out and touch a loved one in need during the pandemic.

COVID-19 stole time none of us can ever get back.

Smith knows that pain all too well.

Vanessa Denise Webb passed away June 7, after her courageous battle with sickle cell anemia ended at age 31.

You get a COVID vaccine, if not for yourself, to be a strong teammate, a good friend or show a loved one we’re all in this fight together.

The Broncos have yet to play a game in 2021, but already are out-front leaders in the fight to snuff out this nasty pandemic.

“And hopefully,” Fangio said, “we will win some games. Then all messages carry more weight.”

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