KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - As much as All-American Eric Berry has done for his team and the University of Tennessee in three years, by the time he got here, he’d already done more - a lot more - for another person.

See, sometimes guardian angels take on the form of a human being.

They’re not always the way you imagine, all golden with light shining around them. They don’t always have halos overhead and sing a beautiful tune.

Sometimes angels are shaped like mortal men, with flaws and problems and imperfections.

But, in those cases, they’re still needed to protect someone from harm.

Kevious Watkins wouldn’t have made it where he is - might not have made it at all - without Berry, now the Vols’ star defender, as his angel.

Watkins is an offensive lineman at South Carolina, redshirting this year after transferring in from Georgia Military College.

Berry and Watkins first met in middle school, in the Atlanta suburbs.

In seventh grade, Berry tried to block the much larger Watkins on an interception return by a teammate. Watkins flattened Berry.

For some reason, that moment made them bond.

Well, that and the blood.

Berry and Watkins literally became blood brothers as youngsters. They were that close.

‘We both cut our hand and shook hands,’ Berry said this week.

Right around the time they got to be friends, Watkins life hit the deck and shattered.

Watkins’ mom was bouncing in and out of his life (out of it more than in it).

Watkins and his father were evicted from apartments, houses. They were in full-blown survival mode.

‘I was trying to make money to feed the household,’ Watkins said. ‘I was 14, 15 years old.’

Then came the news his junior year that his dad had throat cancer.

It was rock bottom for Watkins’ spiraling existence.

‘I hate to say it,’ he said, ‘but I joined the street life.’

Watkins was in millions of pieces, all over the place. He responded in anger.

‘He was beating up grown men when we were in middle school,’ Berry said. ‘He was like beating up grown men.’

Berry worked to provide a positive example for Watkins, showing him that athletic talent could be a road to a better future.

The darkness and light fought inside the teen-age Watkins.

Five days after Watkins graduated, his father died. Something clicked at that moment, perhaps with Berry’s example in mind.

‘I was like, ‘I want to take that road,” Watkins said. ‘’I want to do the right thing.’ Ever since then, he’s backed me up on anything.’

But just as much as Berry shepherded Watkins through those tough times, it also went the other way around.

Everybody wants to be popular in high school, but there’s a price for it. Others are jealous, and Berry was the recipient of that envy.

Watkins was literally the gap between those negative voices and Berry. He stood in between trouble and Berry.

‘I was like his bodyguard, and he was like my little superstar,’ Watkins said. ‘They’d talk smack, but when they see somebody 6-5, 340 pounds in high school show up, a lot of guys are going to back down.’

While Watkins is waiting for his turn to play in the SEC, Berry has sure taken advantage of his.

Berry has earned the reputation as one of the best safeties in the country. There’s a 99.9 percent chance that he’ll enter the NFL Draft after this season, cashing in on his college success.

Berry was a freshman All-American after his first season and a unanimous All-American following his sophomore season, which included 72 tackles and seven interceptions.

This year, he’s tied for eighth in the SEC with 7.9 tackles a game (55 in seven games). He has only one interception, but that’s just as much about teams throwing away from him than anything else.

Berry and South Carolina’s Eric Norwood might be the most versatile defenders in the league.

‘They move him around on every play,’ South Carolina quarterbacks coach G.A. Mangus said this week. ‘One play he’s at linebacker, the next he’s at the line of scrimmage, the next he’s playing deep. If you can gameplan for where he’s going to be, you’ve done something.’

There are some things in life you definitely can’t gameplan for. Berry and Watkins never had any idea how much they needed one another when they met. Now they get it.

‘We pretty much just tried to take care of each other, no matter the situation,’ Berry said. ‘That was just a part of the pact that we made that we’ll never leave each other behind.

‘There was no way I would feel right letting him slip by the wayside. And I know he wouldn’t let me do the same thing.’

 

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