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3 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Jackson County assessor signed $28,531 severance pay agreement ... Oregon Senator Bates seeks expansion of dredging moratorium ... Crash snarls I-5 during Monday rush hour ... Jackson County assessor signed $28,531 severance pay agreement ... Oregon Senator Bates seeks expansion of dredging moratorium ... Crash snarls I-5 during Monday rush hour ... NFL For Broncos' Anderson, grandma knew best Barbara Gaddies helped keep running back on track Comment By Daniel Brown San Jose Mercury News MailTribune.com By Daniel Brown San Jose Mercury News Posted Feb. 6, 2016 at 6:37 PM By Daniel Brown San Jose Mercury News Posted Feb. 6, 2016 at 6:37 PM --> SUPER BOWL 50 WHO: Denver vs. Carolina WHEN: 3:30 p.m., today. TV: CBS RADIO: ESPN (96.1 FM/580 AM) (11 a.m.)... » Read more X SUPER BOWL 50 WHO : Denver vs. Carolina WHEN : 3:30 p.m., today. TV : CBS RADIO : ESPN (96.1 FM/580 AM) (11 a.m.) » Social News VALLEJO, Calif. — A few miles from the Six Flags amusement park, a handful of quick turns off Highway 37, there’s a street far from the glamour of Super Bowl week. An angry voice echoes into the street. A few glazed-looking faces wander the sidewalks. The smell of marijuana is strong. It is 11 a.m. But halfway down the block, at a neatly kept one-story house the color of butterscotch, a woman answers the door in a Denver Broncos jersey and a smile as wide as the end zone. This is C.J. Anderson’s first lead blocker, the woman who paved the way for his run to daylight. Barbara Gaddies, 72, is Anderson’s grandmother. She helped raise him in this house and helped steer him out of the dangerous Country Club Crest neighborhood. “My grandmother is a strong woman,” Anderson said this week. Anderson kept on running. To Cal … to the Pro Bowl … and to Super Bowl 50 today against the Carolina Panthers at Levi’s Stadium. “And he’s my baby,” Gaddies said. “I admire anyone who has a goal and reaches that goal regardless of the bumps and hurdles. But for him it’s, like, unbelievable.” Gaddies recounted Anderson’s upbringing from her living room, where pictures of the running back adorn the walls. In the driveway outside, there’s a maroon 2015 Honda CR-V EX with a Broncos decal in the rear window — a gift from her grandson. (That moment, and Gaddies’ explosion of tears, is captured for posterity on YouTube). This is the house where the alarm clock used to sound at 3:45 a.m. Gaddies would dutifully rise and take Anderson to the bus station so he could catch BART to Laney College. Weightlifting sessions started at 6:30 a.m. “And he was never late,” Laney College head coach John Beam recalled. This is the house where Anderson, as a 10-year-old boy, once stumbled across a white rock in a plastic bag. Baffled by the substance, he brought it straight to his grandmother. It wasn’t until he was older that Anderson looked back and realized he’d been holding rock cocaine that belonged to his uncle. Grandma never told him. “He just said, ‘Here, I found this,’” Gaddies recalled. “I said, ‘OK, thanks.’ He gave it to me and I flushed it down the toilet.” No big lecture? No words of warning? “We forget: Young kids, they hear. They see. They understand,” she said. “Sometimes, you don’t have to explain anything to them. “And as you’ve seen, they’re still selling drugs out here. But they don’t mess with me. I’ve been in this house for 50 years. I went out there and laid down my rules and they respect me enough to follow them.” Gaddies, a Detroit native, is not someone to be messed with. She spent 27 years working for the former Pacific Bell in San Francisco and took early retirement when Cortelle Javon Anderson was born. While her grandson grew up to be a Super Bowler, she herself was a super bowler — posting a 182 average and competing in tournaments around the country. “I won quite a few,” she said. Neva Craig, C.J.’s mom, also lived in this house, and raised her three boys here before finding a place of her own. Craig worked for 17 years at Burger King, mostly as a manager, before getting a job in an elementary school lunch room. She lives about 10 minutes away, and they remain a tight-knit family. Anderson, who turns 25 next Wednesday, needed guidance as a kid but not much discipline. Gaddies said the kid’s biggest youthful transgression was a mouth that ran faster than his legs. “From the fifth grade to the sixth grade, he never stopped talking,” she said with a laugh. But even then, Anderson was on a mission: He was going to play professional football, and he wasn’t afraid to say so. For almost everybody else, including NFL scouts, his career was a surprise. Though Anderson was a sensational player at Jesse Bethel High School, he was lightly recruited because of his grades. He wound up at Laney, a junior college, where he finally figured out that the classroom mattered, too. (Anderson eventually graduated from Cal with a degree in interdisciplinary studies.) “Educationally, that was his turning point,” Gaddies said of Laney. “He realized, ‘I need to get this education before I can go into sports or get into college.’ “ On the field, though, Anderson was always a force. During his sophomore year at Laney, he rushed for 1,644 yards and impressed Beam with his football IQ. “The one thing that people don’t understand is how smart he is,” Beam said. “He understands the game, so he’s with the right quarterback, Peyton Manning. He gets that. He’ll never mess up a protection. He might get beat, but he’ll be in the right place.” Anderson led Cal in rushing his senior season while splitting time with Isi Sofele. But the NFL ignored him in the 2013 draft. So he signed with Denver as a free agent and waited for his chance. By Daniel Brown San Jose Mercury News MailTribune.com By Daniel Brown San Jose Mercury News Posted Feb. 6, 2016 at 6:37 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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