For Deon Grant, playing former Vols in NFL 'like a family reunion'

Photo by Bill Kostroun

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press New York Giants safety Deon Grant looks to throw a pass during practice on Friday in East Rutherford, N.J. The Giants face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.

The routine is the same each week for Deon Grant.

And even when the stakes start rising and nearly the rest of the league has fallen out of the championship picture, the New York Giants safety still has no trouble flipping through the opponent's roster and finding somebody with a similar background.

In the divisional round against Green Bay it was Chad Clifton and Scott Wells.

The next week, with a spot in the Super Bowl on the line, he bumped into Parys Haralson in San Francisco.

And this week in Indianapolis he'll share the biggest stage in football with New England's Jerod Mayo and Shaun Ellis.

"It's funny, and I love it — every time I play a team, this is the first thing I do," Grant said on "The News Sentinel Sports Page" this week. "I look in the little media book and check and see what guys are on the team from Tennessee and see if we are continuing to live on with this tradition with guys in the league.

"It's been a great look knowing that I can go up against my former Vols week-in and week-out."

Thanks to one of the deepest pools of alumni in the nation, the chance for Grant and others to square off with former Vols hasn't slowed down at all, even as the playoffs progressed.

Running back Arian Foster and cornerback Jason Allen helped lead Houston to its best season ever, and the former will play once more this season tonight in the Pro Bowl after another hugely productive campaign.

Clifton and Wells, another pick for the Pro Bowl, helped protect prolific quarterback Aaron Rodgers on the offensive line as the Packers raced to the best record in the league.

And if it weren't the Giants and Patriots playing for the Lombardi Trophy, Haralson and Baltimore's Morgan Cox would still be carrying the flag for the Vols at the Super Bowl.

But for all that depth of talent already in the league, there is at least a chance for a slight hiccup given the recent struggles at the source. The well isn't dry, but it hasn't been sending much down the pipeline over the last couple years.

For the first time since 2005, the Vols didn't have a first-round draft pick a year ago. In 2009, they had the only draft class in 47 years that only included one player — though it certainly should have featured Foster, who has since made general managers pay for the oversight.

In April, the Vols figure to have a couple more players selected with Malik Jackson and Tauren Poole turning the heads of scouts at all-star games this month.

But the Vols didn't establish themselves as a presence on NFL sidelines year after year by sending just a couple guys each season to the draft, as they did last year with Luke Stocker and Denarius Moore.

When Peyton Manning was the No. 1 pick in 1998, he was joined by seven other UT rookies the next fall.

The following season included six picks, starting with another first-rounder in Al Wilson.

When Grant was a second-round choice at No. 57 overall by Carolina in 2000, the Vols already had a staggering six players taken by then — and two more would come off the board behind him.

As Manning's ongoing injury concerns linger and as guys like Grant creep past a decade in the league, the Vols are going to need to crank up the assembly line again to keep making themselves at home in games like the Super Bowl.

And obviously, the results in the SEC figure to improve in the process.

"It's going to be like a family reunion," Grant said. "I love going against the old Vols.

"I think (the tradition) travels throughout the league."

For now at least, it remains alive and well. Among other responsibilities, it'll be up to the guys on campus now to eventually keep it that way.

Austin Ward covers Tennessee football. Follow him at http://twitter.com/Vols_Beat and http://blogs.knoxnews.com/ward.