Demaryius Thomas' mother will watch the Super Bowl from the stands at Levi's Stadium, decked out in an officially licensed orange No. 88 jersey.
The last time the Denver Broncos played in the Super Bowl, Katina Smith and her mother wore jerseys that they had crafted from strips of tape as they watched the game on their prison TV.
Smith was released five years early from that minimum-security prison in Florida last summer as part of President Barack Obama's push to reduce the prison population of non-violent drug offenders.
She'd been serving a 20-year sentence after refusing to testify against her mother, Minnie Pearl Thomas, who is serving life.
The first thing Smith asked Thomas for when she got out was a Sony Walkman.
"I don't even know if you can find a Walkman right now," Thomas said.
He got her an iPhone instead and soon she was texting like a teenager and calling all the time.
"She's getting used to things a lot faster than I expected," the star receiver said. "Oh, she knows how to text now. She uses emojis and all that, FaceTime and all that. She caught up quick. The funny thing is she still turns off her phone to charge it."
Thomas still worries about his mother as she navigates modern life outside the lockup.
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