Holliday Finding New Life, Success in Denver

Following 11 seasons in the NFL, and coming off knee surgery, Vonnie Holliday faced the end of his football life last offseason.

Months went by without him signing a contract. Training camps around the league started over the summer, and he still didn’t have a job.

“It tries to creep in,” he said of thoughts of his career coming to a close, “but my confidence — and, I guess, the competitor in me — knew that wasn’t the case.”

Two days after the Denver Broncos completed their preseason schedule, they gave Holliday a job, signing him to a contract for this season.

Through 13 games, he has proven to be a valuable investment. The 6-foot-5, 285-pound defensive lineman has 26 tackles, three sacks and five quarterback hits.

“You always want to play better,” said Holliday, who turned 34 on Friday. “Would I like to be with 10 sacks right now, 100 tackles? Yeah. But in this scheme and on this team doing my job, yeah, I feel good about what I’ve done so far.”

The 19th overall selection in the 1998 NFL Draft, Holliday has been a productive player throughout his career. Playing for Green Bay (1998-2002), Kansas City (2003-04) and Miami (2005-07) before signing with the Broncos, Holliday has 58 career sacks, and he has started 87 percent of the games that he has played.

His impact on the Broncos this season goes deeper than stats, however.

“He is a guy that understands how to play his position in this defense,” said Broncos safety Brian Dawkins, who, in his 14th season, is one of the few players on the roster older than Holliday. “I think that has benefited some of the other guys who haven’t played in this (3-4) defense.

“He has been a tremendous, tremendous benefit for this team, and I’m so happy we were able to talk him into coming here.”

Considering that he spent eight months without a job, Holliday was pleased to come to Denver.

“This offseason was one of those offseasons where you really have to challenge yourself,” Holliday said. “At this point in my career, a lot of people counted me out and didn’t know how much I could go, or if I still had it.

“It was a big chip on my shoulder that drove me throughout the offseason.”

Living in Atlanta, Holliday said he had no trouble being motivated to work out.

He started 15 games in Miami last season, but wasn’t invited back. Once he became a free agent, he decided in January to have his right knee surgically repaired.

After that surgery, he worked out twice a day for a while, and then three times a day once he could run. He even added spin classes, core classes and yoga to his routine.

“I had probably one of my best offseasons, in terms of conditioning, in a long time,” he said. “My body got a chance to heal up.

“It was actually easy (to stay motivated) because it was all on me. You don’t want to be left in a situation where when you do get the call, you’re not ready to go. Then, you’ve proven everybody right. For me, it was easy to get up and go.”

Facing the reality that he might, indeed, be done playing football motivated him as well.

“I needed that outlet (of working out),” he said. “I was going through so much mentally at that time. Here you are, faced with 12 years in the league and you’re looking around the league at a lot of your peers who are also out of work. Some of them didn’t get called back and still aren’t on a team. (Working out) was my outlet.”

It paid off when he signed with Denver. He has had to change his mindset, however. Throughout his career, he got used to starting and playing most of the game. That’s not his role in Denver.

“There was a switch I had to make mentally,” he said. “OK, maybe I’m not a guy who goes out and plays 60 snaps a game, so I have to play 35, 40 snaps. So, I had to come to terms with that. Then, after that, yeah, I can play this game.”

At 34 years old and in his 12th season, Holliday has already had a longer career than most. Yet, after a long offseason and a productive season to this point, he doesn’t see the end in sight.

“Right now, if I had to guess at it, yeah, it’s still in me,” he said.

“I always told myself and anybody that would listen that I would play this game for as long as I was still enjoying it.”

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