"Farmland surrounds Cold Spring, Minn., a town with three stoplights and about 2,500 people when Eric Decker was growing up. There is a large quarry of granite and a brewery that makes such good microbrew, the Minnesota Twins baseball team sells some of its brands at their ballpark.

Say, Eric, before reviewing that 90-yard punt return Monday night against Oakland for the Broncos' first touchdown of the season, and those two 15-yard catches that set up the second touchdown, about those beers made at the Cold Spring Brewing Co.

"I'm proud of it," Decker said. "We'd go back home and pick it up for $7 a case and bring it to college for the weekend."

Every day, from the time he was 5 years old — and every day is no exaggeration — Decker and his neighbor David Sauder, his best friend and high school quarterback, would play a sport in the backyard. Usually football and baseball. Decker wound up playing both at the University of Minnesota.

Dad still works as the facilities manager of the St. Cloud convention center. Mom is a sales manager at an auto glass company.

"Middle class, hardworking," Decker said. "There was nothing glamorous about my upbringing. But at the same time, my parents gave me and my sister whatever we wanted, whether it was going to camps, snacks at night. It helped me really appreciate what I have now."

Decker is now a big, strong Broncos receiver with gifted hands and the kind of instincts that can only come from someone who has been playing the sport since he was 5.

Unlike so many NFL receivers, Decker is more Midwest than Hollywood, more sack lunch than five-star restaurant, more touchdown than touchdown dance.

Then again, there was that cover shot in GQ Magazine last year, and the "Lambeau Leap" after scoring in the third quarter of the Broncos' 23-20 season-opening loss to Oakland."