So how do you scare Terrell Davis into a little boy, under the covers, afraid of every little noise or twitch?

With Ray Lewis?

Nope.

How about nine-man fronts?

Not that, either.

No, this is how you scare the bejesus out of Davis: Take him to Kruger National Park.

For those of you who skipped geography in high school, Kruger is in South Africa, and, no, it's not named after Freddie. In fact, a safari ride through Kruger will show you everything rural South Africa has to offer -- lions, hyenas, gorgeous sunsets. You'll be far away from civilization, which, for Davis, was just the problem.

Before training camp Davis flew his mother, Kateree, and his old Pop Warner coach, Frank White, to South Africa for two weeks. Eager to see wildlife, they piled into a minivan and took the tour of Kruger. At one point, the car stopped 10 feet from a lion, Terrell twisted his body out of the window to get pictures.

"Terrell, roll that window up!" Kateree said.

Davis laughed and snapped away. The day got away from them, and pretty soon, it wasn't so funny anymore. As the sun dripped down below the horizon, Davis & Co. found themselves in the middle of nowhere, with no streetlights, no roads, no way to know where they were.

The tour guide knew a little, though, so they drove to a set of bungalows that the tour uses for emergencies. So everyone divided up, and everyone had a roommate for their bungalow.

Except Terrell.

"You mean I'm alone?" he said.

"Yes," said the tour guide. "And you also understand it's the animals' right to walk through the grounds."

"It's their what?"

She explained that the camp isn't closed to animals -- they wander through all the time. Night is the best hunting time.

Davis didn't really appreciate hearing this. As he walked to his bungalow, through pitch-black dark, he started to get nervous.

Alone, with no electricity, no phone, in the middle of nowhere, Davis went to lock his door.

No lock.

This was particularly disconcerting. The tour guide warned the crew to lock the doors because hyenas have figured out how to open them. A hyena might look at Davis and think, Midnight snack.

With no lock, Davis stuffed his luggage against the door. Geckos darted from every corner. Terrell Davis, former All Pro running back, crept into bed, afraid to blink, sleepless all night. The next morning, when Davis explained how scared he was, Kateree and Frank laughed so hard they could barely breathe.

"Not funny," said Davis.

Days later, as he walked around Johannesburg without anyone following, when he went on a date with a girl who had never heard of him, life started inching better. Between knee injuries, ankle injuries, leg injuries, and psyche injuries, things had gotten a bit heavy for Davis. When he returned to Denver, he was recharged. "That trip," White says, "was the happiest I've seen him in two years."

When Davis got back to camp, third-and-two didn't seem so big anymore. When everyone asked him about his knee, whether or not he would play, and every other question Davis didn't want to hear, he had an easy response: "I control what I can. There are things in my life that I can't control, so I don't worry about those things."

One night, a radio guy said, "TD has been taking things in stride this summer."

If he only knew.

Seth Wickersham covers the NFL for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at seth.wickersham@espnmag.com.