Spotlight? What Spotlight? Falcons Tailback Unabashed By Stars Or Stardom
Donna Summer has been his baby sitter, and Sugar Ray Leonard once sang at his birthday party. So if anybody thinks that Atlanta Falcons running back Jamal Anderson will do anything but thrive in the Super Bowl spotlight, think again.
This is nothing. Hundreds of questions and hundreds of questioners and live TV shots here and hoopla there, and this is nothing but a walk in the Romannumeraled park for the Falcons’ sledgehammering, stiff-arming running back.
Why? Because Anderson’s father, James, is a professional bodyguard to the stars. It began in the early ‘70s as a working relationship with Muhammad Ali, and has built into a business that has included not only the protection of Leonard and, currently, Mike Tyson, but also Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor, Boyz II Men and more.
Spotlight? At the Super Bowl, where he is both a potential key to victory and a perpetual center of attention, Anderson doesn’t even need shades.
“I’ve always learned to relax in these situations and enjoy yourself and, if you do that, then the atmosphere won’t be a problem,” Anderson said. “I’m not nervous in this setting. This is like a natural environment for me. Being around people like Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard and Mike Tyson and other guys who were under tremendous media scrutiny are guys I was raised around. Most of the time, those guys handled the media really well and I had a great relationship with them.”
Ali. Leonard. Tyson. Different men, different ages. Not surprisingly, they all affected Anderson differently in the years his father let him and his seven brothers and sisters occasionally tag along on the great celebrity circuit ride.
“Ray was the one who sat me down and explained stuff, press conferences, how he handled this, how he handled that,” Anderson said. “I learned a lot.
“Muhammad, when he talked, everyone listened, whether it was a joke or a prediction. The first thing when you saw him, he would do a magic trick. Then he’d start messing with you.
“Mike? I got to take all his nice cars. He was very nice to me. I drove the Rolls. I drove the Mercedes. Yeah, boy, Mike was nice to me.”
Exposed to boxing and boxers almost from infancy, Anderson said he still never really considered trying to make his living in the ring.
“Every time I even thought about boxing, one of those guys would lose a fight or get really beat up,” Anderson said.
The moment he is living now is the culmination of all of those things Ali whispered in his ear after he magically pulled a quarter out of it. This is the pinnacle that Leonard made look so easy.
“You do picture yourself in those situations,” he said. “You picture yourself growing up to be Muhammad Ali. You try to imagine what it’s like to be them.”
His boxing buddies were renowned for big performances, heroic performances, even, in big spots. That is Anderson’s real challenge. He can make people laugh at press conferences, and he can do that Dirty Bird dance for the nation, and he can promise a secret new version of the dance for this moment, “a Super Bowl Around-the-World Bird.” That’s the easy stuff.
Matching the athletic performance will be much harder. It’s hard to believe the underdog Falcons can pull off the upset here without Anderson having a day that’s at least comparable to that of Denver’s Terrell Davis, whose 2,008 rushing yards this season made him the only player to top Anderson’s 1,846 yards.