Catching Up With Dre Bly

Denver Broncos cornerback Dre Bly is one of those laid back NFL players who only makes headlines because of his play on the field. He's not the type to go off to the club, make it rain, and then get pulled over on the way home. He's a family man with a work ethic that shows on the field. An alumnus of the University of North Carolina, Bly was drafted by the St Louis Rams in 1999 where he played for four years, winning a Super Bowl. In 2003, Bly signed with the Detroit Lions as a free agent and made the Pro Bowl twice.

When he joined the Broncos last season after a trade, Bly became part of the best two-corner tandem in the league alongside Champ Bailey. Of course, the season didn't go as he hoped with the team finishing 7-9. BV caught up with Bly to see how he's spending his offseason, what his foundation has been up to, what it's like to be a part of Team Jordan, and if he ever got over getting beaten by Greg Jennings and the Green Bay Packers on an 82-yard game-winning touchdown in that stunning overtime loss on Monday Night Football.

How have you been spending your offseason?

I just got back from vacationing a little bit. We started the offseason program on Monday so I'm back to work. I had two months to enjoy myself, travel and do some things and now it's back to work.

Where did you get to go?

I went to Turks & Caicos, that's in the Caribbean. I went there for a week. I went to Vegas for the Super Bowl. I went to New Orleans for the NBA All-Star Game. I went to North Carolina a couple of times to catch a few basketball games. So I got to travel a little bit.

What else do you like to do in your free time? Movies? Music?

I'm not really a big movie guy; I watch them with my wife. Music, I'm not a big music guy; I listen to whatever comes on Suite 62 on XM Radio. I'm an R&B guy; all I listen to is R&B. I'm kind of too old for that rap. My teammates tease me all the time because I don't know any of that new music. If it doesn't come on the radio or Suite 62, I don't know it. I got to hear it a few times before it grows on me. But most of the time, I'll be with my family, my kids; they're very active in sports so most of my extra time is devoted towards my kids.

At 30, you aren't THAT old. Didn't you listen to Dr. Dre or Snoop from back in the day?

Oh yeah! But I don't listen to that no more. I really don't, I'm keeping it real! I listen to R&B. I don't buy music anymore and like I said, if it doesn't come on Suite 62, I don't know much about it.

What is the Dre Bly Foundation about?

Basically my foundation is devoted towards kids. I grew up in an educational household. My mother and father taught grade school for 30 years, my sister is a biology teacher in high school. I grew up being around kids a lot, and my family having love for other kids, so that's what I studied when I went to school. I majored in sports science, which is in that same field in terms of dealing with kids and stuff like that. My foundation is me having a chance to give back and that's one thing as a kid I really didn't have a chance to do was interact with professional athletes or someone I looked up to. Just having a chance to give back, adopting middle schools and having a chance to go there and interact with the kids, letting them know they can fulfill their dreams. A lot of those kids think that what I do for a living is not reachable. It might be hard, but for me I dedicated myself and everything I did was directed towards being where I am today. I stayed focused and that's the reason why I was able to make it as far as I did, that's what my foundation is directed towards. I adopted a middle school here in Denver, Place Middle School, the first day we had an assembly and I announced that I was adopting the school and I let the kids know I was going to be here all year. I started a tutoring program for the school which was devoted to kids needing extra help, every Tuesday and Thursday for the entire school year. And I awarded the kids who did well and made progress during the season by giving out 25 tickets to every Bronco home game. During Thanksgiving I gave the kids the opportunity to sign up for Thanksgiving dinner and it gave me a chance to give kids turkeys and side dishes. That's what my foundation does. I just do it out of the kindness of my heart and try to reach out to the kids in the inner-city.

You also host a golf tournament in North Carolina. What's that about?

Back in Chapel Hill not very many football players comeback, not since Mack Brown, who was my college coach, left Carolina. We have a great tradition football-wise at North Carolina, but when people think of Carolina they think of basketball so no one has really done anything to reach out to those guys. It was a success the first year. Last year I invited the mother and father of Jason Ray, the North Carolina mascot who passed away, to the event and I invited a tutor from Carolina who had like five or six kidney transplants, and they had a foundation for her. She had a chance to interact with some of the athletes and that's basically what my event is – I invite Carolina athletes to come back, play some golf and have a good weekend.

So you're throwing it again this year?

This year it's going down on May 16 and 17. We're going to have a casino night, on Friday night it'll be at the press box of the North Carolina football field. We'll have play money and the top two people with chips at the end of the night win a plasma TV and we have other nice stuff to auction off. Last year we had a great time. It went from like 6 to 9:30pm and it was a great turnout. Then we golfed the next day, which we'll do again this year. Then I'll do my birthday party that night, but for the most part, it's to get those athletes back to Carolina. We're the guys that paved the way for the guys that are there now. So to give those guys a chance to interact with some of the guys there now, that's how you keep a family growing and to keep things a success.

You and the Denver Broncos reworked your contract so you'll get to stay with the team a little bit and get to play another season with Champ Bailey. How has that experience been?

It's good because in Detroit, me being the focus of the defense, it was the other guy in secondary they would pick on. But now having an all-pro guy and future Hall of Famer on the other side, someone who has been successful; it raises the play of the entire defense. He's the humblest dude that I've ever been around, with the amount of success that he's had in this league, he's just the humblest guy I've ever been around. We came in the league the same year and we've became good friends before I came to Denver because we made the Pro Bowl together as starters my first year in Detroit. Plus you're pretty familiar with the guys that play your same position, especially if you came out the same year. Even in college we were at the All-American banquets together so we've kind of known each other over the years. Then when I got traded here last offseason, he found out before I did. I didn't even know I was traded and he called me and told me I was traded. Everything has been good, even though last season didn't work out as a team for us. But secondary-wise we feel we're among the best in this league and there's no other tandem of corners that have done what we've done in this league, intercepting balls and having the success that we did. Last year didn't go the way we planned but this year we're going to get back to the Denver team you're used to seeing with the guys making plays on defense. We're going to make a lot of plays and we're pretty excited about that.

That's good because some of those teams were picking on you a little bit last season. On national television even.

What we do for a living, and everybody knows this as hard as you play, people are going to complete passes. There's no corner out there that's going to keep a guy from catching a pass. You know Brett Favre, he's a Hall of Famer, and he's going to make plays. But like I said, you're not going to make a living doing that. Green Bay may have been my toughest game last year. There's going to be a couple of times where I'll get beat but the organization was happy with what I was able to do last year and I was happy with what I was able to come in and do last year. Considering with what all went down, I led the team in interceptions. And if you look at it, we're still amongst the top as far as defending receiving yards. Like I say, anyone is going to give up a pass or two, or give up a touchdown ... it happens.

Yeah, I'm sure it's tough because both you and Champ get tagged with the "shutdown corner" title, and the expectation becomes huge. It's as if no one will ever be able to get a pass completed against you.

Yeah, them guys get paid just like we do, and you can't make a living doing that. No one did that last year. Last year Brett was able to complete a pass on Champ and then he got me. Of course, mine had to be the winning touchdown in overtime for the game, but hey, it happens. What we do for a living, you have to have a short-term memory and get over it. Nobody is perfect and if you look at my whole career, or anyone's career, no one has made a living off of doing stuff like that. I've been successful at making plays from the first day I've played football until the last. It happened but like I told you, my team was happy with what me and Champ were able to do last year as a tandem; it didn't properly go as they planned and defensively we've had some struggles. Besides Elvis Dumerveil, We really didn't have any stability on the defensive line, they were shuffling guys in and out so, not to make excuses but plays were made and that happens.

You're in the middle of your spring workouts now, what does that consist of?

We have pretty good attendance here; we go five or four days a week, so if you miss a day you can make it up. For most of the guys they have clauses in their contracts where they get bonuses if they make 90 percent of their workouts. We got great attendance and our offseason workout is pretty strong. They really get it out of us in the offseason. It's consistent running and lifting weights everyday.

What's your role with Team Jordan?

[Team Jordan] only picks a select few guys, they don't try to get everybody but after I made the Pro Bowl the second time, that was my key to get in and the fact that I went to Carolina like Mike. I advertise their stuff, they invite me to their events and I go. For the most part, they don't want knuckleheads. They don't want guys getting in trouble and in the media for negative things. They want good guys because Mike was a good guy and that's what I am. Football players don't get much advertisement, there's only a select few guys who advertise products in football. LaDainian Tomlinson is with Nike; actually I was talking with Champ today about that because he's with Nike and they don't really advertise him. How can you not advertise a guy who has been to the Pro Bowl eight times and has had the success that he's had? But football-wise, we don't get the shoe deals like basketball players and they're not big money deals for the most part. It's mostly the perks and the merchandise that comes with deals. I have no complaints with my deal, I'm happy; they take good care of me. There's actually a lot of guys that want to be on Brand and a lot of guys can't. So I make the most of it, I cherish it,

So do you have any ventures or businesses outside of football?

I have a big workout facility that I'm starting back home, but other than that, it's early and I don't want to talk too much about that. But I told myself I was going to wait until I retire before I get too deeply involved in anything. As an athlete, a lot of guys go sour because they invest and do some things, and trust people and don't really have the time to follow up with it. So I didn't want to be one of those guys. So I told myself that I'm going to keep stacking my money, wait till I retire and then try to venture out and do other things.