NFL draft profile: Georgia’s Davin Bellamy remaining humble in pro-ball preparation

ATHENS — If Davin Bellamy’s football ability proves as good as his marketing savvy, he just might be in for a long and profitable NFL career.

Bellamy won’t know his NFL fate for almost three more months until the draft finally rolls around. But in the meantime, he’s trying to earn himself some “walking around money” by marketing a phrase that drew attention his way after Georgia’s win over Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl: “Humble Yourself.”

Cameras caught Bellamy telling Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield “humble yourself” after the Bulldogs’ 54-48 double-overtime victory in the Rose Bowl. Turns out, that wasn’t a phrase carelessly thrown around within the Bellamy household.

Bellamy’s mother, Bridget, is a staunch Christian who had pointed her son to a passage of scripture in the Bible — James 4:10 — to encourage humility after he had become an elite college football prospect as a senior at Chamblee High School. Since then, Bellamy has used the phrase for himself and to counsel his Georgia football teammates.

And after the Rose Bowl, Bellamy felt compelled to use it on Mayfield, who had used a throat-slash gesture after his team built a 17-point first-half lead on the Bulldogs. Mayfield also had annoyed Georgia players by running pass routes through their drills in pregame warmups.

So after the game, Bellamy told Mayfield to humble himself. Three times, actually, punctuating the third time with, “if you don’t, God will.”

“I don’t care how he carries himself, he needs to be humble,” Bellamy said after the game. “I used to carry myself the same way and he needs to humble himself.”

Sensing an opportunity, Bellamy’s mother applied for a trademark for that phrase after the Rose Bowl. It was granted, and Bellamy began selling T-shirts and hoodies with three different designs incorporating the phrase.

“They’re going pretty good,” Bridget Bellamy said. “He’s gets an update every Monday, and he said it’s going good. He said he was going to leave the site up maybe another month.”

The T-shirts cost $24.99 and the hoodies $49.99, and they’re available online only at this website.

Of course, T-shirt sales aren’t Bellamy’s main focus. Since the week of the Bulldogs’ appearance in the National Championship Game against Alabama, Bellamy has been at the EXOS performance-training facility in Pensacola, Fla., preparing for the NFL combine and draft.

A three-year starter at outside linebacker for the Bulldogs, the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Bellamy is hoping to prove to NFL scouts that he’ll have the same play-making ability on the next level as he did at Georgia. Bellamy made some of the biggest plays of the year during the Bulldogs’ 2017 season, including crucial strip-sacks in wins over Notre Dame and Auburn in the SEC Championship Game and 1½ sacks against Alabama in the National Championship Game.

Bellamy finished his career with 135 tackles and 13 quarterback sacks.

“He’s doing well,” said his agent, Evan Rosenberg of Select Sports. “He’s really looking good. He’s on a strict meal for the first time in his life really and shaping up real nicely. He’s so long anyway, and that’s why people [believe] he has the frame to be a great NFL player. His film is awesome. He’s just got to get the numbers up [at the NFL combine].”

Bellamy chose not to participate in the Senior Bowl to focus on his training instead. He was one of 10 Bulldogs selected to take part in the NFL combine Feb. 27-March 5 in Indianapolis, and he will work out for scouts at the UGA pro day later in March.

Mock drafts have Bellamy being selected somewhere in the range of the fourth to sixth round, and unofficial pre-draft evaluations have him rated 15th to 20th among outside linebackers.

“We’re getting good feedback,” Rosenberg said. “It’s still early. The combine is going to tell us a lot. We’ll get more feedback after that.”

Bellamy’s certain to remain humble throughout the process. And he always has that modest apparel business to lean on.

“That’s something he’s been real excited about,” Rosenberg said. “He just saw the opportunity and went after it.”