He should be fired up about playing against Dan Reeves, the man who once rejected him. He should be vengeful, his Denver Broncos jersey pulled extra taut around his shoulder pads, his muscular arms flexed even tighter from boiling intensity.
He should be, but he's not. Not Easy Ed.
Seeking redemption for damaged pride runs counter to McCaffrey's laid-back demeanor. His focus Sunday will be on a Super Bowl repeat for the Broncos, not on the Falcons' sidelines and the man who released him from the New York Giants nearly
four years ago.
Reeves might have a beef with Broncos coach Mike Shanahan and quarterback John Elway. McCaffrey, however, holds no grudge against Reeves. Instead, Reeves might have done McCaffrey a favor.
Following his release from the Giants, McCaffrey blossomed from an unwanted player tossed into the waiver pile into a top-of-the-heap Pro Bowl receiver who will play Sunday for his third championship ring -- and second with the Broncos -- in Super Bowl XXXIII against Reeves' Falcons.
"I use my adversity I've had to go through in the past as a motivating factor," McCaffrey said. "You work harder and play harder. It never feels good to be rejected. I'm no different than anyone else. It ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me, but I didn't know that at the time."
Seeing how far McCaffrey's stock has risen, Reeves has openly admitted his poor judgment.
"That was probably one of the biggest mistakes that I've ever made," Reeves said. "I don't know if I ever had a player who I released for whatever reason turn out to be as great a player as Ed McCaffrey."
McCaffrey, the forgiving sort, takes special pride in Reeves' kind words.
"It meant a lot to me, saying he made a mistake," he said. "It was obviously a statement he didn't have to make."
McCaffrey, a fourth-round draft pick from Stanford in 1991, led the Giants in receiving his second season. But Reeves arrived as head coach the next season and reduced McCaffrey to a reserve role.
During training camp in 1994, McCaffrey was dropped even lower on the depth chart and then released.
"When you release players, there's not a whole lot of things you can say," Reeves said. "But the one thing I've said to a lot of them is that I hope one of these days I look across the field and you're with the other team and can say, 'I showed you I was going to be a great player, or showed you I was going to be a better player than what you thought.' I can honestly say Ed McCaffrey has certainly done that."
The 49ers signed McCaffrey a week after his release. And although he caught only 11 passes as a Jerry Rice's understudy on the 49ers' championship team, he made a positive impression on Shanahan, San Francisco's offensive coordinator, who recognized McCaffrey's strong, 6-foot-5 frame, his sure hands and his precise routes.
And when Shanahan was hired as the Broncos coach soon after the Super Bowl, one of his first decisions was to sign McCaffrey as an unrestricted free agent.
"I saw how he performed against Deion Sanders and Eric Davis, two Pro Bowl players, on a daily basis (in practice), and I could see the
success Ed McCaffrey had against guys like that," Shanahan said. "So there was no question in my mind that he was a football player. He just needed the right situation and the right opportunity to shine."
McCaffrey validated Shanahan's assessment, immediately finding a home in the Broncos' starting lineup. He followed up 48- and 45-catch seasons with even greater success than he ever imagined four years earlier. His career-best results in 1998 -- 64 catches, 1,053 yards, 10 touchdowns -- earned him league-wide respect with a starting berth in his first-ever Pro Bowl.
He and Rod Smith form one of the top receiving tandems in the league,
becoming only the third duo in Broncos' history to each eclipse 1,000 receiving yards. But even though Smith had more catches and yards, McCaffrey received the Pro Bowl nod instead of Smith.
And no one is happier about it than Smith, who's both McCaffrey's teammate and good friend. After all, Smith is going to Hawaii next week anyway as McCaffrey's guest.
"That's my man," Smith said. "We do everything off the field together. My kids play with his kids. I can go to his house and play video games. He comes to my house.
"He is a great competitor, and I love playing with him because I know he is going to be on the other side busting his butt to make sure he gets the job done. And I have to be just as good or try to be better."
McCaffrey was better than Smith in one statistical category: touchdowns. He scored 10, tying with tight end Shannon Sharpe for the team and AFC lead. McCaffrey also showed a knack for clutch plays. None were bigger than his 47-yard reception on a busted play in the AFC Championship Game
as the Broncos rallied in the second half to beat the Jets.
"I'm really happy for Eddie," quarterback John Elway said. "He's had a great year. He's the toughest guy I've ever seen. I mean, he's 6-5, and he's a guy that when you knock him down, he pops up every time."
McCaffrey's survival skills have allowed him to experience off-the-field success as well. He's become a recognizable figure around Denver, not only for his football skills but also for his line of food products like mustard, horseradish and cereal. And his wife, Lisa, is now on demand from local TV and radio stations and the likes of "The Tonight Show" for her back-slapping sense of humor.
Funny how things turn out when you keep getting up -- first the Super Bowl last year, then the Pro Bowl, then a chance for redemption against Reeves ...
Well, McCaffrey could do without the latter. He's just content with where his football odyssey began, where it stalled in New York, and where it's taken him since -- to a Rocky Mountain high.
He should be.
"Four years ago when I was released, I was just trying to make a team," he said. "Neither (the Super Bowl nor the Pro Bowl) were my goals. I was just trying to become the best player I could possibly be, and it's turned out pretty well so far."
Ed McCaffrey