So Utah's adopted team is out of the playoffs. The San Francisco 49ers went home early, and you've got no one to cheer for. No Steve Young, no Ty Detmer, no Greg Clark, no Mark Harris, no Tim Hanshaw. Think again. What about Hall and 'Mall?
What about the Atlanta Falcons?What could be better for Utah's NFL fans than Travis Hall and Jamal Anderson? One from BYU, one from the University of Utah. One plays defense, one plays offense. One makes the tackles, one breaks them. One does the Dirty Bird, one does the Mormon Maneuver.
When the Falcons meet the Vikings today for the NFC championship and the right to go to the Super Bowl, they'll be led the unlikely duo from Utah. Anderson ranked second in the NFL in rushing this season and set an NFL record for rushing attempts. Hall, despite playing inside at the defensive tackle position, was the Falcons' fifth-leading tackler.
Not bad for a pair of sixth-round draft picks.
Anderson has become an overnight superstar, which seems natural for a guy who had a chance to study super- stars up close and personal while growing up. He played with Muhammad Ali, the man he called "uncle." Michael Jackson stopped by the house. He slap-boxed with Mike Tyson. He once stayed at Sugar Ray Leonard's mansion. He visited the homes of Magic Johnson and Richard Pryor. He got free advice from Jim Brown (and later wore his number). He had his hair cut by Byron Scott.
This week Anderson has received congratulations from Leonard, Tyson and Magic.
Anderson's father was a personal body guard/security chief to the stars, and so he and his children were never awed by celebrity. Some of it seemed to rub off on Jamal, a cheerful, gregarious sort who seemed to share Uncle Ali's gift for gab and rhyme. "Give the ball to 'Mall," he used to say at the University of Utah.
The Utes played him at fullback, but Anderson could do anything, and if you didn't believe it, you only had to ask him. "I have vision like a tailback," said Anderson. "I can run over you or run around you."
He was so big that in high school his coach mistook him for a guard. By the time he arrived at Utah, he was 6-foot, 240 pounds, and had never lifted weights. With most of his weight located in his thighs and butt, he was virtually impossible to tackle.
Despite his low pick in the draft, his confidence was unshaken. On opening day at training camp, he noted his name at the bottom of the depth chart and drew an arrow from his name to the top of the list. He became a full-time starter in his third season and rushed for 1,528 yards, averaging 4.55 yards per carry. Last season he rushed for 1,002 yards, and this season he rushed for a club-record 1,846 on a league record 410 carries.
Along with quarterback Chris Chandler, he is the primary reason the Falcons are in to today's championship game (the Falcons led the league in possession time, thanks to Anderson). And, unlike so many of his peers, Anderson is clearly enjoying his time in the limelight.
When reporters seemed reluctant to ask him a question at the beginning of a recent interview, Anderson told them, "Don't be nervous, fellas. It's all fun to me. I'm never hostile. I'd rather you guys talk to me than anybody else in the NFL." At another meeting with the media, he said, "I'm glad you're here. You're not going to bother me."
He's comfortable with celebrity. He has had a lifetime to get used to it.
While Jamal was growing up in the big city, his teammate Hall was growing up in the back woods of Alaska. He lived in a remote log cabin on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula built by his father, Mark, a power lineman and hunting guide.
Each morning Hall got up early and tended the family's pigs, horses, goats, chickens, rabbits, turkeys and dogs before school and in the afternoon he chopped and loaded firewood on a horse-pulled skidder -- firewood for a wood-burning stove used to heat the cabin.. Hall camped, hunted, canoed and fished the Alaska back country. He spent his summers working as a commercial fisherman, setting and picking heavy nets that ran more than a mile out to sea.
When it came to recreation, Hall's first love was hockey. He played all the way through his school years and continued to play in a league in Salt Lake City even while he was playing football at BYU. He was good enough to be invited to play in prep all-star games, including one that was a showcase for pro talent scouts, but Hall decided his best chance for a pro career was football.
When his parents separated some 15 years ago, Hall spent the fall months each year living with his mother in Salt Lake City. He played football for West Jordan School, which is where BYU coaches spotted him. He was 6-foot-5 and maybe 230 pounds when he came to Provo.
"He was very light," says BYU defensive line coach Tom Ramage. "But then someone showed him how to eat right and he made himself bigger and stronger. He was a very hard worker and very confident."
He grew to 265 pounds as a senior, which was light by NFL standards, but the Falcons took a chance on him. He reported to the Falcons at 275 pounds and played just three snaps in his rookie year, but Atlanta's offensive linemen noted how difficult he was to block in practice. He had developed a unique pass-rushing technique at BYU that his teammates nicknamed the Mormon Maneuver.
"He was a good wrestler," says Ramage. "I used to coach wrestling, so I taught him to use his wrestling moves. It's a drag move. The offensive linemen are trying to punch and grab you, so you get a hold of their arms and pull yourself by. If they pull back, they pull you right through. When he went to training camp, he used that move and nobody had seen this thing. No one's been quite as good as he was at it."
In Hall's second season, the Falcons moved him from end to tackle and he rated second on the team in tackles (98) and sacks (6), despite missing two games. Meanwhile, he continued to grow, eventually reaching his current weight of 301 pounds.
One of the first things Dan Reeves did as the Falcons' new coach was re-negotiate Hall's contract, giving him $6.55 million for five years. Hall rewarded him by again ranking second in tackles (109) and sacks (10 1/2). This season Hall had 87 tackles, 4 1/2 sacks and 4 fumble recoveries.
"Moose meat and firewood build athletes," Hall's father used to tell him. And today Hall and 'Mall are one game away from the Super Bowl.