GRILLO: Little Elvis plays big role for surging Broncos

Elvis Dumervil plays defensive end for the Denver Broncos.

You just don’t see players peforming along the front seven who range less than six feet tall.

Denver’s media folks have him listed at 5’11.

In today’s pro football world there is no place for anyone that short, at least not someone brawling in the trenches.

I had hoped to talk to the Bronco’s stalwart, but perhaps their first loss of the season to Baltimore, has everyone markedly reticent.

I couldn’t talk to Elvis, so I made up a conversation, and if you ever meet him and he says, “Grillo put words in my mouth,” he’s right.

First of all, I asked him about his famous first name.

“My mom, growing up in Haiti loved his music,” he said.

“She thought so much of him she reckoned, ‘Why not an Elvis of my own?’”

You’d think someone named Elvis might have some musical talent?

“Oh no,” he laughed. “Can’t sing a lick. I toyed with the guitar, but I’m no good. I’m about as good playing as you probably are singing in the shower.” (By the way, I sing very well inside and outside the shower.)

How about psyching up before a game? Do you have Elvis blaring in the locker room?

“Yes I do,” he said. “I like a lot of his up-tempo stuff — Viva Las Vegas, Don’t be Cruel, Jail House Rock. Unfortunately, Champ Bailey and Brandon Marshall think “the classics” means 2 Live Crew and Method Man.”

I’ll be forever fascinated by someone 5’11 playing on an NFL defensive line.

“You’ve got to turn a measurement like that into an advantage,” he said. “There have been some people who say, ‘He’s so short, a lot of offensive lineman lose sight of him.’ I’ve made that a plus. And down where I am, I have a definite advantage when it comes to quickness.

When you’re 5’11, people are usually telling you, ‘You’re too small to play football.’ They’ve been telling me that all my life.”

He entered the NFL from Louisville, where in 2005 he was tall enough to capture trophies named after Bronco Nagurski, Ted Hendricks and Bill Wills, he and was the Big East Defensive Player of the Year. And just to punctuate his career, he recorded an NCAA record six sacks against Kentucky that season.

Still, he was perceived as being too small to draft early.

Draft day 2006 was one of his worst days ever.

“Some had promised me I’d be in the NFL after Day 1,” he said. “They lied.”

One hundred and twenty-five others were drafted ahead of him before Denver nabbed him in the fourth round. “I’ve always played with a big chip on my shoulder because of my size,” he said. “After that day, it got twice as big.”

Elvis, who has 10 sacks already this season, and his 7-1 teammates play host to the Steelers tonight on Monday Night Football.

See for yourself how big he plays.