The first football memory Andy Janovich conjures up about his friend Sam Foltz involves a candy bar. You don’t walk on at Nebraska and right into the NFL without stumbling across like-minded longshots.
During a cold game in Nebraska, Janovich recalled, Foltz joked about wanting to stuff a Snickers bar into his hand warmer, then take a quick bite before a snap.
“He never actually did it,” Janovich said with a smile. “But that always sticks in my head.”
Janovich, a 23-year-old rookie fullback competing for a spot on the Broncos’ 53-man roster, caught his breath Saturday long enough to think about Foltz. They were teammates with the Cornhuskers.
But just as Janovich settled into an NFL routine for the first time, Foltz was killed in a car crash last weekend in Wisconsin. He was Nebraska’s all-Big Ten punter and approaching his senior season.
“It’s a terrible thing to happen right now,” Janovich said. “He showed up every day and worked. He didn’t expect to get anything unless he worked for it.”
Foltz, 22, was in the front passenger seat of a sedan driven by former Michigan State punter Mike Sadler when it slid off a wet two-lane road about 30 minutes west of Milwaukee. The car hit a tree and caught fire. Sadler, 24, also was killed.
“One of the best teammates I’ve ever had. Even better person,” second-year Broncos wide receiver Bennie Fowler said of Sadler. They played together with the Spartans.
Janovich and Foltz grew up in small Nebraska towns — Janovich in Gretna, Foltz in Greeley — before earning roster spots as walk-ons with the Huskers. They were cut from the same red cloth, hunting coyotes and turkeys together because “that’s what we do in Nebraska, I guess, go hunting,” Janovich said.
Last year as a senior, Janovich was named honorable mention all-Big Ten. The Broncos drafted him in the sixth round in April. As the Broncos maneuver back toward a run-powered offense, they needed a fullback for downhill blocking in front of C.J. Anderson and other tailbacks.
The Broncos are not holding Janovich back. Including offensive sets and special-teams drills, he has been all over the field the first three days of training camp.
“Just the fact that they’re working me in is encouraging,” Janovich said. “But it’s early in camp. Nothing is guaranteed. You have to put your nose down and get to work.”
Foltz probably would have become an NFL punter. Saturday, his funeral Mass at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Grand Island, Neb., drew nearly 2,000 people.
“When he got a scholarship, he said, ‘Ah, I’m still a walk-on. That doesn’t matter. I’m going to come to work every day whether my school is paid for or not,’ ” Janovich recalled.
“It just goes to show, if you put your nose down and work, good things will happen. He was one of the best punters in the nation. But he never got cocky about it. He just kept working.”