University of Georgia Athletics
A Quick Chat With ... Davin Bellamy
November 23, 2016 | Football
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
Davin Bellamy is probably happiest when he's bringing down an opposing player behind the line of scrimmage, something the Georgia outside linebacker has done a team-high 7.5 times this season. He might be most content, however, watching a BBC nature documentary.
Bellamy and his teammate and buddy Lorenzo Carter, who has a team-best 4.0 sacks this season to Bellamy's 3.5, are a lot alike. Their interests coincide in a lot of areas, though Bellamy will pass on the adult coloring books that Carter (see his Q&A from September here: http://gado.gs/6b0) often enjoys.
On Tuesday night, following a day of preparing for Saturday's regular-season finale against rival Georgia Tech, the 6-foot-5 and 240-pound Bellamy, from Chamblee, Ga., sat down for a quick chat about documentaries, Thanksgiving, Twitter and much more.
Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: I do one of these with a player every week and one of the questions I ask is, who's the funniest guy on the team? Your name has come up several times. What do you think of that?
Bellamy: I try to pick everybody's spirits up and I believe in positive energy, so once you get one person laughing and smiling, it's contagious. I'm also just kind of a goofy person.
Frierson: Who do you think is the funniest person on the team?
Bellamy: I'm going with Keyon Brown, yeah. Keyon Brown is definitely up there, he's just so quick off his head [claps his hands]. He has a comeback for everything.
Frierson: If you could change the ending to any movie, what movie would it be and how would you change it?
Bellamy: Oh man ... [long pause]
Frierson: We can come back to it. ... Here's another one: What's the hardest thing to do in sports?
Bellamy: Be patient. Being patient is the hardest thing to do in sports, especially when you're changing levels. You've got to be patient.
Frierson: How do you manage or develop that? Or is it just something you have to do?
Bellamy: You have to, and also the people around you, you see other guys not being patient when things aren't going their way and they don't know that good luck is right around the corner. And then they give up before it gets there.
Being here for four years, especially out of that 2013 class, when there were a lot of folks brought in and there's not a lot of us still here — patience.
Frierson: This will be posted the night before Thanksgiving, so let's talk about the holiday a bit. When you think Thanksgiving, what immediately comes to mind?
Bellamy: Family time. Everybody goes to my grandma's house and eats, and you see cousins you haven't seen in a long time. But now when I think of it, I think of work — we're always practicing on Thanksgiving, so my mindset's kind of changed.
Frierson: What's the most creative thing you do? Or what's something creative you wish you could do?
Bellamy: I have a lot of deep tweets on Twitter. People think I Google them, but I just think about them. I have a very creative mind and I'm a pretty deep thinker — very creative mind and I think outside the box all the time.
Frierson: When you're an athlete on Twitter, or any public figure, there's that good and bad of Twitter. How do you balance the good and the bad, because it can be wonderful and it can be cruel?
Bellamy: It is, and it's all about how you use it. You've got to find a balance. You want to be professional on it, but the way I look at it, you also want to show people that you have a different side than just football.
You want to be professional and then by not going too far show people that you have a nice personality, and that everything about me is not just football.
Frierson: What do you do during the quiet times, away from football and school?
Bellamy: I'm watching some documentary on Netflix, probably "Planet Earth" to "Cosmos" to some other documentary — I love documentaries.
Frierson: When I did this with Lorenzo he had the same answer and we started talking about "Planet Earth" and those BBC nature documentaries.
Bellamy: We watch them together, as a matter of fact.
Frierson: Those David Attenborough-narrated nature specials, with him and his perfect British accent.
Bellamy: Love it. That's my favorite.
Frierson: Did you see there's a "Planet Earth 2" coming out soon?
Bellamy: It is, I saw where they said it took like 12 years to make. I can't wait.
Frierson: Did you see the clip that was on social media last week or two weeks ago, of the iguana or something on the beach trying to elude the sea snakes? I knew it would give me nightmares, because of my fear of snakes, but it was also the most compelling thing I've seen all year.
Bellamy: It was like they kept coming from everywhere to try to get him.
Frierson: Part of the magic of watching those shows is wondering how they film it.
Bellamy: How do you? Those things are great, I love them.
Frierson: What's something from your childhood that you really miss?
Bellamy: How simple life was, that's something I definitely miss. Just coming home after football practice, playing with my dog and doing some homework and watching TV. Life was so pure back then and I definitely miss that.
Frierson: Do we want to circle back to a movie you'd like to change?
Bellamy: I've got one: "Boyz n the Hood." I always wanted Ricky to go get that scholarship. I always think about that, if he had just survived another week he'd have had it. You can kind of relate to it, like, gosh, that was so close.
Frierson: That was what made it such a powerful ending. The guy who was doing everything right was still a victim of his situation. It was tough to watch.
Bellamy: That's definitely one I wish I could change.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
