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Boardman’s Vallos enjoys Super Bowl build-up
By Joe Scalzo
If you’re Peyton Manning, Super Bowl media day consists of standing on a podium as hundreds of reporters pepper you with 82 questions over a 60-minute span.
And if you’re Steve Vallos? Well, it’s a little different.
“If you weren’t on one of the podiums, they put you in this holding tank/cattle-herding pen, which was interesting,” said Vallos, a Boardman High graduate who plays offensive line for the Denver Broncos. “And there’s all these people dressed in costumes asking you all sorts of stuff. I probably did 15 interviews and they just ask anybody anything to try to get you to say something crazy.”
Did you?
“I did not,” he said. “One of our wide receivers went on one of those entertainment shows and sang with one of the girls from Destiny’s Child. He won an X-Box. That was kind of interesting. Other than that, it’s just fun, crazy New York, as outrageous as it is.”
Vallos, a former seventh-round pick of the Seattle Seahawks in 2007, will play in his first (and possibly only) Super Bowl today at MetLife Stadium, and he’s done his best to prepare like it’s any other game, media day aside.
“Once it gets going, and all the hoopla and all the other stuff is over with, it’s just another football game,” said Vallos, who spoke by phone on Thursday from New York. “Obviously it’s different because you’re away from home and there’s more time to prepare, but you try to make it as normal as you can.”
Legendary Vindicator sports editor Chuck Perazich liked to say “There’s always a Youngstown connection” and this year’s Super Bowl is no different. Vallos is one of several Broncos with area ties, along with defensive end Derek Wolfe (who is on injured reserved after suffering seizure-like symptoms in late November) and linebacker Danny Trevathan (who grew up in Youngstown before moving to Florida in middle school).
Seattle, meanwhile, boasts running backs coach Sherman Smith (who graduated from Youngstown North High School) and special teams assistant Nick Sorensen (who was a volunteer defensive quality control coach at Youngstown State in 2012).
“I don’t know if it’s the work ethic instilled in you [in Youngstown] or exactly what it is, but there’s got to be something special there,” Vallos said. “It’s kind of like nothing is given to you in Youngstown. You always had to earn it.”
That mentality has served Vallos well. Since coming out of Wake Forest, he’s played for five teams while starting just nine games. He played in 14 regular season games this season and both playoff games, earning his job out of training camp after the Broncos lost two centers to injury.
“To make it in the NFL, you have to be an athlete,” said Vallos, who was a state runner-up in wrestling and an All-Ohio selection who also placed third in Ohio in the discus as a senior. “But I think what keeps me in the league is my knowledge of the game. I’ve been able to learn things and learn it quickly and transfer it from the meeting room to the field.”
Vallos and his wife Lindsey have two young children, Teddy and Lucy, who flew into New York on Friday. Each Bronco gets two free tickets and can purchase up to 13 more, which covered most of their requests from friends and family. While his 1 1/2-year-old daughter is too young to grasp what’s happening, Teddy (who is almost 3) owns a helmet set of every NFL team and wore Broncos gear on the plane.
“He knows all the teams, which is crazy, hilarious,” Vallos said. “He loves going to the games. He’ll watch any football on TV and yell, ‘Go Broncos.’
“If they don’t remember [the Super Bowl], they don’t remember. But if they do, it’ll be great. You never know if you’ll get this opportunity again.”