The first time I heard the rumblings that Terrell Davis might be a player in the NFL was during his first training camp. Bob Ferguson, then the Broncos general manager, raved about this 1995 sixth-round pick from Georgia who was terrorizing everyone on special teams plays and seemed to have a knack for running the football.

The Broncos and scouts around the league liked Davis' hands. Ferguson just loved the fact that Davis was all about football. He ran hard. He practiced hard. He was the ultimate overachiever.

Little did anyone expect that Davis would set a four-year standing for running backs that will be hard to match. Davis had a career in four years. He rushed for 6,413 yards -- second best in NFL history through four seasons. He also went to three Pro Bowls and won two Super Bowl rings.

Whether he makes the Pro Football Hall of Fame will be an argument that will linger more than five years past his retirement. What can't be argued is that he is one of great longshots in NFL history.

	Davis' running style was not conducive to a long career.

His story goes back to his playground days in San Diego. Davis was so good nobody knew who he was. He was an offensive lineman until he was moved to halfback in 1980 as a youngster. Davis dominated but because he was bigger than his opponents, few knew his actual name, they just knew him as Boss Hogg.

They knew that Boss Hogg -- Davis' nickname when he was younger -- was a Pop Warner legend around San Diego. Unfortunately, Boss Hogg was misplaced for a while. He didn't apply himself as well as necessary in the classroom and wasn't back on the football team until his junior year in high school.

Folks still remembered Boss Hogg but high school followers couldn't put the name Boss Hogg and Davis together based on what they saw on the field. Davis was a 195-pound nose tackle as a junior. Though he moved to the offensive backfield as a senior, Davis played fullback.

Davis didn't mind because he loved playing the game of football.

Broncos fans link him to a talented stable of running backs who came into the NFL from Georgia. They tend to forget that his college career began at Long Beach State when George Allen tried to resurrect the program from scratch.

Davis was one of Allen's first success stories at Long Beach State. He red-shirted the 1990 season, and Allen passed away at the age of 72 because of pneumonia. Davis got a chance to play running back and rushed for 262 yards in 1991. The program folded and Davis transferred to Georgia where he became Garrison Hearst's backup.

Maybe all of that was fortunate because Davis didn't get many carries in college or late in his high school career. As a runner, he was physical. He preferred to run through defenders instead of run around them.

Physical runners don't tend to last long in the NFL. Earl Campbell was that way. So was Larry Brown, the former Redskins great. Davis wasn't like Barry Sanders or Tony Dorsett who could make defenders miss by showing them the hip and letting them grab at air.

But flashy backs sometimes have egos. Davis didn't. His timing for coming to the Broncos couldn't have been better. John Elway was the franchise quarterback, but he never had the power running game that could get him to the Super Bowl and be in position to win it.

Though Davis became a star in Denver, he never forgot his place as far as being a teammate.

"If I'm running well," Davis said during training camp this summer, "and I'm coming in with 100-yard games and taking pressure off the passing games, we're getting third-and-2 and third-and-3s. We're moving the chains. When we are systematic like that, it's a lot easier on the quarterback."

The problem was that Davis was on a ticking time clock because of the way he played. Remember, he was only 5-foot-11, 210 pounds. Though he was chiseled because of good conditioning, he was trying to do the things that 230 and 240-pounds backs do every week.

Davis's first major knee injury came when he tried to make a tackle on an interception and a teammate clipped him along the side of the leg. The wear of the 392-carry 1998 season affected his other knee. He had foot problems.

Still, Davis knew his job was to produce 100-yard games and he could still do that. Over the final three years of his career, Davis gained 1,194 yards in 17 games, respectable numbers for that span of games. Three times he rushed for 100 yards during those three years, but bouncing back was difficult. He missed 31 of 48 games from 1999 through last season.

But Davis' presence in the huddle was a stabilizing force. He wasn't as much a vocal leader as he was a symbol for what hard work does for a team. Fitting, instead of having an end zone dance, Davis had a salute.

"Being on a team that won the Super Bowl twice, you know what you have to do," Davis said. "I try to lead by example by what I do on the field."

Everyone knows Terrell Davis was Boss Hogg, that legendary runner from back in the Pop Warner days in San Diego. In four years in the NFL, Davis made those kids remember the back that dominated them and this time he did it against bigger bodies.

Davis might have had a couple more 100-yarders left in his body. But it was time to move on.

John Clayton is a senior writer for ESPN.com.