The father sat in the basement family room scattered with memorabilia from his decorated NFL career, including the two Super Bowl rings he won while punting for the Steelers in the 1970s, looked at his two young sons and had a sentimental moment.
“These Super Bowl rings,’’ Craig Colquitt told 7-year-old Dustin and 4-year-old Britton, “are yours when I die.’’
The boys’ collective response did not exactly match their father’s emotional moment.
“Hey dad, can we watch cartoons now?’’
“I went upstairs to fix some sandwiches for lunch after that,’’ Craig recalled by phone this week, “and Britton came upstairs, tugged on my shirt and said, ‘Dad, when are you going to die?’ ’’
Twenty-four years later, Britton Colquitt, who followed his father, his uncle Jimmy and his older brother Dustin — who currently punts for the Chiefs — into the family business of NFL punting, has a chance on Sunday to get a Super Bowl ring of his own instead of waiting for his father’s death to get one.
Britton, 28 now, is the Broncos punter who does a lot more holding for extra points (75 this season) than he does punting (65) thanks to the prolific Denver offense. He has, in fact, punted just once in two postseason games entering Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVIII against the Seahawks at MetLife Stadium.
When a reporter introduced himself to Britton during one of the interview sessions earlier in the week, he playfully identified himself this way: “I’m Britton Colquitt, Denver Broncos holder and sometimes punter.’’
If all goes according to plan against the Seahawks, Colquitt’s right leg will not get much — if any — use. That would be fine with him — particularly because the Seahawks own the NFL’s No. 1 defense. In fact, the less he works, the better chance the Broncos have of winning their first Super Bowl in 15 years and adding a third piece of cherished bling to the family trophy case in Tennessee.
Despite appearances, the Colquitt boys were not pushed into the family business. Craig was not that overbearing father who demanded his kids do what he did. Britton and Dustin were soccer players who fell into kicking in high school, once the football coaches realized how strong their legs were.
“One of my disappointments prior to them getting into the league was they never got to see me play,’’ Craig said. “Dustin was just an infant and Britton wasn’t born while I was playing. Now, for them to be doing it themselves is something you can never have imagined.’’
Said Dustin: “The chances of something like that happening just doesn’t happen. We’re like the Mannings. We just happen to play just on fourth downs.’’
Punting and being a professional athlete were the norm for them boys, because it was all they knew. Dustin recalled going to family reunions where “punting was the topic of conversation’’ and all the adults did was punt footballs over trees.
“It is unique, but being a professional football player is just normal to me,’’ Britton said. “My dad’s hero is Jack Lambert. Seeing all the pictures of the Steel Curtain and Terry Bradshaw and all those Super Bowl teams just kind of gives you a belief that it’s normal to play in the NFL … but it’s really not.
“There are two of us punting now and our father has two Super Bowl rings. It’s not like we’re as significant a position as the Manning family of quarterbacks, but Dustin and I are two of 32 in entire world at our position. That’s extremely significant.’’
If Britton wins a Super Bowl ring with the Broncos Sunday it would make him and his father Craig the fourth set of father-son Super Bowl winners.
Dustin is beginning to think it’s his turn next.
“It’s killing me not being in this game, but having my little brother in the game is giving me new life,’’ Dustin said. “I know when my dad went through this, it changed his life.’’
Dustin said he never will forget that day when his dad told the boys the rings were theirs when he dies.
“For me, it went in one ear and out the other,’’ he said. “But with Britton, at his age he thought that was pirate treasure looking at that big ring, and he was like, ‘When you going to die so I can get that ring now?’ ’’
On Sunday he can win his own instead of waiting for a death in the family.