SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The phone rang before dawn, because the bad news could not wait for the sun. Broncos defensive end Antonio Smith answered the call, and the joy of Super Bowl week was shattered. His father, incarcerated as Inmate No. 116277 in an Oklahoma prison since 1991, was dead at age 58.
"It's definitely heavy," Smith told me Wednesday. "My heart is definitely heavy."
We sat together on folding chairs inside a gigantic white tent pitched outside a Bay Area hotel, where the Broncos are encamped during preparation for a game against the Carolina Panthers.