Eagles Legend Brian Dawkins on Super Bowl, Philly vs KC, Andy Reid, HOF Career & Family | The Pivot

well guys it's that time and we are headed to the Super Bowl I remember where the pivot was about a year ago when we just got to the Super Bowl we're only a month into filming our show but we're back this is year two and happy Dad is still with us we want to say thank you for your partnership and also the DraftKings thank you for being a sponsor now we have a Super Bowl Extravaganza for you today lock in for Brian Dawkins out there dancing thing hey I remember when uh when we played y'all in Denver when you were when you were there yeah you know I couldn't play by that time by that time I'd had uh my Sickle Cell crisis there and everything so the whole week I was just you right so I had to play B Dog yeah they gave me a jersey because they knew I wouldn't go play so they gave me a jersey and I was like ain't no way they draw the plays up for him like this I was like I stay in the Pro Bowl too hey but then but after I like they let me Blitz you know I'm saying I get in you know you can't hit the quarterback but I sack Ben I'll be running bro best week in practice I ever had dude hey that was the first time they didn't care if you picked the quarterback off you know the scouts you not supposed to pick them all I will flip I studied that week Limitless [Music] [Music] hey man first of all just thank you so much now it's my pleasure thank you for having me bro I've never been been a fan of you guys and the growth seriously been a fan huge fan thank you we appreciate it Channing Freddie T I'm RC uh welcome to the pivot this is a Super Bowl edition of the pivot uh we got one of the greatest of all time Brian Dawkins Hall of Famer nine Time pro bowler five-time All-Pro I mean just did it all they just gave you nicknames there was Weapon X it was it was Wolverine no matter who the coach was idiot man it is man don't forget about idiot man that sounds like media man but it's crazy though I do a show every week feels like every day with two Gators and you come right out of Jacksonville and you didn't want to go to Florida I absolutely 100 I wanted to be a gator brother absolutely I had listen I had practice my Chomp and you know going all the way back to uh Lewis Oliver at safety you know I mean way back in the day you know what I'm saying uh with that will white another safety back in the day so looking at those guys how they played the game and so I wanted to be a gator but that wasn't it wasn't it wasn't in the colons brother so basically you know short story so I wanted to be a gator they off they actually offered me a scholarship they were one of the only schools that offered me a scholarship I wasn't highly recruited and so by my GPA going into my senior year wasn't high enough so I remember it's Ron Zuck coming and sitting me down in the Dean's office and said you know we love you but we're going to have to take the scholarship back Connie's arm at the time I was she's my wife not my girlfriend but what what that did and here's the other the the other side of that is that later on in that day uh my good friend Anton Lott who was my other safety um you know he was hyped and I was like hey man what's going on he said yeah man the gator just offered me a scholarship so basically the way I saw it they took the one that it was supposed to tell me and they gave it to my teammate but here's here's what it did for me seriously though it made me do something that I probably wouldn't have done without it I asked one of my coaches my defensive back coach coach black to help me because I needed help I I was not going to get my GPA where it needed to be in order for me to get a scholarship from somebody else so I needed help and here's what he did he tutored me he let me come in his class and basically um off on during his off time he would tutor me on stuff and he showed me that I learned differently so I killed it for the next four nine weeks and I was a b honor roll so what that did it actually blessed me that when I then went to Clemson I knew I can do it yeah so had I gone to Florida the way that I was about to go to Florida not knowing I can do it I don't know about him being able to survived there at Florida with my grades so again that looking back over that it was such a blessing for me to go through that painful experience because it made me as a man Step Up ask for help I got it and I killed it when I went to Clemson you know you mentioned Connie already and we're definitely going to speak about your wife and just how much she supported you and maybe some lessons you learned along the way about the things that she had to do to enable you or to allow you to be the Brian Dawkins that the whole world Philadelphia Denver all the football grew to love but you met Connie in high school high school high school sweetheart you guys get married at Clemson I think you got a hundred dollars from her grandfather to get rings but there's a story that without Connie and without her understanding you loving you and knowing you we don't get to see the Brian Dawkins that ended up being a Hall of Famer that in your rookie season just the pressures of being what you thought you had to be and taking care of family and trying to excel in all these different places drove you to a dark place that when you see Brian dock as the believer when you see Brian Dawkins the Father the coach the husband now you weren't that man can you explain a little bit of what you were going through and how Connie Emmett Thomas uh helped you out of that yeah wow powerful so growing up where I grew up in Jacksonville Florida um you know you rub dirt on everything so if I don't care if it's cut deep room you rub dirt on it like suck it up man up don't let them see you cry and there's there's an element to that in the neighborhood obviously we're gonna have to be fighting at some point I knew that so that's the mindset that I had in life period so I talked to nobody about nothing so whatever's going on whatever toxic situations I've been through whatever traumatic situations I had seen I talked about none of that stuff so all of that stuff was basically just being put in little folders inside of me and I'm thinking I'm being able to contain it and I couldn't so when pressure other pressure is applied to that you only can White Knuckle or that's what they call it things so much I Can Only Hold on and grip a weight in my hands so long like this at some point it's going to drop but the way that I explain this is that because I was not talking to anybody it's like you put a hot pot of water on a stove and you turn the heat up all the way and there's no room for any steam to get out at some point that thing is going to explode on somebody and it takes one person to let that lid off and all that Steam and that's what began to happen with me I was a very angry young man I was had fits of rage and one episode in particular is when I ran my head through the wall after argument me and Connie as when we were newlyweds um didn't didn't have any necessary help up in Philadelphia for us my son Brian doing was colicky so we weren't getting a whole lot of sleep I didn't know how to communicate I didn't know how to know how to talk about my feelings so all of that stuff just exploded in me doing that thing and then in that moment Connie basically called Emmett and they basically tagged teamed on me and said are you going to get help and I did because I need to because what I was doing was not working I was miserable I was literally walking around putting on a mask every day pretending to be something else pretending to be what other people thought that I should be because I was in the NFL having success of success but I was absolutely miserable and it's for those who have gone through anything like that it's in those times that you're by yourself that it's the worst when I'm out doing stuff you're cool when I'm playing football cool but when you get in the car you know I'm on the way home and I'm thinking about ways of of not being here anymore I see it like that wow how much of that stem from the actual pressures you know football of trying to be what you end up being trying to be the best of the best how much of the pressure you put on yourself that eventually carried into the house that was that was into it as well so I'm not I'm not talking about anything I'm not letting anything that I'm going through out to nobody so whether that be things that I've saw I've saw growing up with losing a couple of my best friends one of them at the age of in the ninth grade to the streets one of them um when I was a sophomore in college to the streets like and I'm talking to nobody about these things now I gotta get into the league second round pick a lot of expected from me right a lot of pressure on me in a city like Philadelphia is a lot of pressure on them okay and again I'm talking about nothing with nobody I'm letting nothing out and I'm just trying to hold on to everything and so all of those pressures and the way that I also talk about it now and I understand it now is that pressure reveals what's when what's really in your heart you know out of the abundance the mouth speaks is what the word talks about right so that pressure will show you what you are good or bad right and what that pressure showed be is that I needed help yeah that I dog won't need help and I finally got it as you speak about like those fits of rage and things that can come over you um does it they talk a lot about like guys turning on and off a switch on the field that competitiveness that go get them and then you got to go be in the real world you got to communicate with your spouse communicate with people in the world like to have that and know that but the way you played was rage full so have you ever thought about you know what was your switch not working where you couldn't turn it off and would you be who you are if that rage wasn't in you the rage that you speak of so the rage basically is energy is what it is how you use it is up to you so the way that I was given to this and this is me this is me going into now my second and third year when I really began to study and read the word of God this is what came to me and helping me do exactly what you're talking about use that in a different way so when you have water and it comes in a flash flood it destroys everything in its path if you have a dam up and you have vets to be able to allow some water to come when you want it to that same flush of water now gives that engine that you've opened those gates up to more power so in my mind I now have a way to direct this extra energy that rage you're talking about now I can use this thing to destroy this dude come across the middle I can I can yeah I could use this rage when I go into the weight room to really get that last couple of reps in to make me you know you feel me yeah so me being able to understand the significance of that and I still apply those same thoughts today like just because that I'm feeling a specific way does not make me the thing that I feel I can choose to use that energy in a different way does that make sense yes yeah so again so that Enlightenment for me to be able to think about things in this way allowed me to go take the field differently and later in my career when I went to to Denver um when I went to Denver I was so angry with a couple of people that went to with the Philadelphia Eagles I'm gonna say no names but a couple of people I was so livid but here's the thing I wasn't in a power position by the way that I was thinking because I had so much like anger towards and I'm gonna go sew them I'm gonna go show them then again in that same study time we still getting down and praying about it it hit me go show yourself right don't go prove them wrong go show yourself to be right that's an empowering place so now I don't I'm not doing it to impress you or to make you think that you made a mistake even though I did what I did to you know I did actually do that but the point is I'm doing it to go prove me right it's no longer giving you the power so I'm taking my power back does that make sense yeah a lot of the things that I see in my life now I recognize that perspective is the key to it all it's your perspective of how you see the thing that's what drives the thing and it can even Empower you or it can take power from you you mentioned proving yourself right and I think that's a different approach because now your your life or your self-worth or the way you appreciate what you've accomplished has nothing to do with outside voices it's all about you it's all about saying I put this work in to get to this certain point and I did what I needed to do for me and mine yeah and I think that's just such a different perspective but once Jim Johnson becomes the the defensive coordinator this is when we realize that Brian Dawkins is not just a second round pick from Clemson this is a third Olympic first pick of the third round he's first pick of the third round no I was the last pick in the second round but in my mind I was the first to hit the third round but go ahead go ahead I did all that stuff yeah so that was a motivation for me to use that way but go ahead you know and so you weren't just that guy you become the premier strong safety in the entire league and it's all pros and it's Pro bowls and when you are now starting to see the fruits of your labor what does that feel like for you man before I get to that let me give you the reason why I was able to do what I did with Jim it was because of Emmett Thomas see Emmett Thomas saw something in me that I could not see I just saw a hard-working dude I saw a dude coming out of Jacksonville was too small everybody thought couldn't do nothing do this do it do that the other and I was just using that anger to just make try to go just just just to make the team I didn't know as a second round pick that you're not likely going to get cut in the first at least the first couple of years so I'm literally I'm serious I'm literally going into my locker doing training camp peeking around the corner to see if I got one of them slips I'm serious in my mind said you can cut me at any time so I just didn't know what Emmett did though is Emmett never let me settle for good so even when I was doing good in practice good in the games he kept like like getting on me I'm like man I thought I was doing good he said no you should have done that with your talent he would always say they can do that you should be able to do that you should be doing this so here's what here's what I had to do I had to believe in Emmett's vision of me and go after that for a little while and once I recognize what Emmett was saying because he was putting me in the in the same sentence as Ronnie lot and that's the dude I looked up to so I'm like are you serious so when I finally understood that and I understood what I can do Emmett unleashed the beast inside of me he Unleashed everything I thought that I could a lot of the things that I didn't know I can do and then Jim got that he got that dude ready then Jim just Unleashed me in every way so I want to go back to Emmett because that start started a question in my mind when I heard you say that how much of Emmett's words meaning so much to you was the fact that he and Connie took you out of that dark place that he showed you that it was more than about the Ronnie lot or the Ronnie Lott type player that you could be and it was about no let's make sure Brian is all right because I feel like when you have that sort of relationship now when I tell you you should be doing this those guys can do that those words hit different to me because I know you really care about me so how much about Emmett's vision of you did you take to heart because he cared about Brian dock as the man and that was the thing about it when I got to Philadelphia you got to understand that Emmett was there you know African-American defensive coordinator Ray Road was there African-American Mr Wooten was the general manager at the time not general manager he was a player director player Personnel at the time you know African-American so basically I had a bunch of my uncles the way that I saw it so my so the way that some of my uncles talk to me in the neighborhood and sometimes the way that they would talk to me you feel me so so when I trusted Emmett and I knew that he cared for me outside because he would always talk about me and Connie and talk about the things that I needed to be doing as a man even in my household so I knew that he was talking to the to the person so and the way that I say it that oftentimes in society in the workplace and even on the practice field everybody's talking about coaching the player you know if you coach the person first though if you help that person first you will have a you would get a better player you'll get a better employee but we don't look at things that way and that's what Emmett did so when he came to me and began to say those things to me I believed him I 100 believe now I didn't think I I didn't know how it would go to the point of me being a Hall of Famer I did not dream that big but I believed in his vision of me and I chased it and once again once I saw what I can do to your point what how did I touch the field right there was nothing on the field I didn't think that I can do like when I touched the field dude like like I was freed it literally felt like there's nothing that I could not do whatever Mass to do I can do it and I'm excited to be able to do it so I don't know if any I don't know if people would have that experience in their lives at at any point in any area but I'm telling you when I touched the field so the reason why I was so crunk and yelling and all that stuff was not to Get Hype it's because I was hype because I knew what I was about to do y'all they just didn't they just did it seriously and Brian saying that and when people would see you away from you when people would see you away from the field goodness it's a it's a totally different person so uh the dichotomy between Weapon X and Brian Dawkins like how did you balance that and and keep Weapon X tucked away you know so the people out in the public they don't see that they see a very faith-filled approachable loving human being growing up I was a stutterer I was a stutterer people don't really know this but I was a stutterer so that that in itself caused me to be more introverted because I didn't want to say so that if people pick at me now you know so I was always I was always an introvert in that way but when you really look at the thing that when I became when I became a Believer when I accepted Christ into my life in in 1991 I was looking for an example of what I can do playing football because in my mind you you know on the football field you you know you you causing damage right you can't so you can't be this image that people have about you know turning the other cheek all the time and being passive and all that stuff and then I watched the Philadelphia Eagles back then and there was this dude by the name of Reggie White and I saw Richard play I saw him dominate on the field I saw Reggie actually dominate on the field heard a person and then pray over him I was like that's it I see it I see it I see it I can go out and act it I can't wait I call it though I can go out and act the fool on the field but then if something goes down in that moment I removed myself from it and I can pray for that individual so that means off the field I need to handle myself in a way though that reflects the God that I serve so that was that that was that dichotomy I knew that my I needed to be able to reflect um in everything that I do I need to be able to point people to the God that I serve and on the field the Bible says that you do everything as unto the Lord right so if I didn't go out on the field and just do what I did the way that I played the game if I didn't do it then I'm not praising God that's the way that I saw it right and so that allowed me to play it on the game but now off the field I took responsibility for put it this way you as my teammate you would have never had to worry about me not being ready for game day you would have never had to say I hope he's not out doing something late at night I hope he won't I hope he can give me everything that he got not just what he has left that's that's I wanted that and from a fan standpard you would never read about me in the paper anything other than something exemplary exemplary right so and that was my mindset so that's how I approached that thing you know just to say this really quick man in preparation for this I reached out to a few of your former teammates and what they speak about is love the way they love you and Connie they speak about the impact that you've made on every player in the locker room and they just speak on how grateful they are for everything that you that you all have done so I can I see the the transparency and the vulnerability and I totally believe it but I also want to go here and ask you uh uh how how many times did you pray to God when you were going home to Jacksonville to the 2005 Super Bowl the first Super Bowl in your hometown an opportunity to win it in front of your coaches your family you know your your your your church people everybody that you've ever seen a touch growing up take us to that night man there was so many emotions coming back going back at that time for me coming back to Jacksonville so many emotions and people have to recognize that at that point we had lost three straight NFC championship games to get to the Super Bowl so when you go back and look at that celebration of the fans and us on the field finally getting past Atlanta to go to the Super Bowl like we celebrated almost like we want a dog on Super Bowl because again we had lost three in a row so going to Jacksonville to play you know one of the things that I took from a veteran I can't remember who it was that you try to do everything like you've done it before so you keep your preparation the exact same and so that's what I tried to do when we went to Jacksonville I didn't do I didn't go visit family a whole lot I did exactly what I would do it was out if I was in in in Jacksonville and in my mind I was literally thinking we're going to win that game man there was nothing in me that we weren't going to wins that win that game so um definitely heartbroken we talked about it you know I did I shared some tears after we lost but in my mind we were coming back like in my mind if we if we had people that you know kind of stick to that I stuck to their account guns a little bit and you know said they were sorry and you know came together and we would have been back but that didn't happen and it took a couple more years took all the way into my my last year for us to get back to another NFC Championship Game Boy still ain't apology yeah but like just listen you talking that passion and then like being there because uh losing the Super Bowl Ryan got a Super Bowl but he got carried by footy and and he got carried by peasy don't forget Troy Troy Troy carried him every place but I also lost one I wish they'd carry me that night then when Aaron Rodgers was carving us up that's what he was supposed to pick himself [Applause] but for you to be all world everything we all knew you man you know everybody at that age I ran out the little tunnel crawling and all like it you know the impact you have I'm sure you've heard of it but the not having that control because I thought about when you just said yeah we're supposed to do the next year and then some people like like I wouldn't know all pro Hall of Fame type player to be that good and to not know these guys can't play with me or not doing what it takes to get on my level what's what's that like because I can't even speak what I was to do I'll be honest they know it I was to do what you talking about I was to do Friday night I'm going out yeah I'm getting to practice on Friday we ain't got but a little quick practice right right I guess look out then we fly to Buffalo Saturday I'm going straight to Toronto to go to the strip club you know I was that guy yeah speak to me if you're on my team oh man well like what do you tell those dudes that don't have that love and passion like you have so the only thing that I can do is the example that I gave and the way that I prepared myself and the results coming from that so the results that I was blessed to then do does not allow you to see that maybe I need to try this out maybe I need to test this out maybe me giving just what I have left is not enough maybe if I try if I just try what he doing maybe it'll work out maybe I would be a better player I would be actually able to earn more money that can bless my family for a longer period of time you see what I'm saying so all of these things so it was always about the example I can't make I can't make a grown man do nothing yeah I can't I can urge you I can I can I can um ask you I can um again I give you the example now if you've asked me to be an accountability partner that's different I can I can help hold you accountable in that way but other than that I can't make you do nothing the third IV that I had to get we'll let you know just how much winning was yes but how much you mean to me does this make sense so yeah the way that I always looked at it when I go out and play the way that I played to help us win more games more get more games on your record will help you earn more money as well so I wasn't just doing what I was doing to make me more money I'm doing yeah we can all eat off this showing you how to eat my man is that Tom that's my big brother to the Dolphins yeah he was my accountability partner but it was accountability for him to wake me up because I was sleeping my truck every morning before practice because I go straight to the facility we did we different bro but here's the thing man I understood that and that's why and I'm not gonna call like call guys out like there's certain guys that I would maybe nudge just a little bit I would just have a car and I would never I'm never doing stuff out in public it was always me sitting down beside you we'll be in the steam room together or you know we hot or whatever getting warmed up together and I mentioned a couple of things man you see what I'm saying to get you to just think differently because if I can help you think differently you have an opportunity to do different yeah that was always my thought process if I can get you to just think differently to do this thing just a little bit more or to stop doing that a little bit more then you'll be able to give a little bit more and so on that fourth down that you needed that extra off to get that big dude off you you will have that extra off and then we'll get off the field instead of giving up that first down the offense run down the clock and then we on the defense sitting on the other side and just watching them kneel the ball up yeah does that make sense yeah yeah you know the teams that people see us play on aren't necessarily the most important team not even aren't necessarily they aren't the most important teams in our lives it's our families it's our wives it's our children and in 2007 the Twins were born and that wasn't just about the normal everyday births that we see you know they say when a woman is pregnant or giving birth it's the closest thing to death on Earth and you actually had to live that and then having one of the twins who was struggling and you having to be on alert and shake her leg just to make sure she's moving but also trying to still be Weapon X and prepare to be Weapon X in the season while being not only the man of the household but the caretaker the provider what was that experience in year like for you man first brutal number one brutal heart-wrenching um test the heck out of my faith but it also let me see the plight of my wife the responsibilities that I just didn't I just didn't know like and some of it was from a place of selfishness I will admit that but otherwise it's just I didn't know when we go off to work man we go off to work we're going into the you know office excuse me you're going into meetings you you you're preparing to go you know do stuff on the field and so you have to learn these things learn these plays you were we were talking about Fred a little earlier some of the tips that you would have to come up with to help you you know be better be able to play so that's what we're all in we're all into that and so I'm not necessarily understanding all that she had to do until I had to be mom so she was on bed whereas Connie was on Brad West for a couple of times and so that had to be Mom and Dad especially when the when she was about to give birth to the twins so they were born too much prematurely um the youngest has something called Brady Carter bradycardia which means that she would stop breathing and her heart would stop just for a split second so when you're feeding her she would stop breathing and you would have to shake her and she would and then she would come yeah yeah yeah so when they were born two months premature they had to stay another extra month in the hospital and Connie had to spend that another month because of complications as well in the hospital and um so testing my faith because now I have to trust that the doctors are going to make sure that she's breathing the whole night right so it's completely out of my hand but here's the other thing the the other two didn't stop being Brian Jr and Brianna I had to then cook for him the best I could uh do uh do hair the best I could with my messed up Fingers um and so a lot of that I wasn't able to train the way that I was normal training but again I got a chance to see all of the things that she had to do and then I was trying to do all the things that I had to do and consequently you know that's the year I hurt my neck and so I knew I listen I knew in my mind I was going into training camp like I used to do back in the day to get ready for the season because I wasn't ready I knew it I knew I was not ready uh it was to the point that when they came home from from the hospital dude I had to basically spend take the night that was Mother's Day when they when they came home right so but I had to take the night shift so what I would do is I would take the night shift trying to feed one twin while the other one sleep but one of them would take so long that she's crying so I have to try to so the whole night and I would go to bed around six o'clock in the morning sleep to about 11 to 12 and then try to work out and then go pick the kids up from school you see what I'm saying so that was my I couldn't do it okay so again I literally told Connie if I've ever um not giving you the appreciation for what you what you do around this off if I've ever um disappointed you in any type of way when it comes to these things I apologize because I see what you do not I'm so thankful to have you I'm so thankful so thankful kind of comes up in all your stories your football stories your life stories your religious story like everything is Connie y'all y'all man in high school what did Connie do to you so so so here's the thing though I actually saw Connie on a in a basketball game in the ninth grade I was going to one school she was a cheerleader for another school so you know we're playing the game and I saw her at that time I didn't know I would then meet her in the 10th grade at range coming together and the short story there was I'm not a talker I'm someone that's laid back so a good friend of mine Maurice told her that she I wanted to meet her and um that's how we met up and and the rest is history but she has blessed me in so many ways because there's certain things I had to stop doing to be with her in the first place so it's a certain lifestyle that the neighborhood would try to present that if I had if I was going to be with her I had to stop so that was a blessing in that way the church she went through went to was different from how I grew up and they were doing things in that church that I would I had never seen before so that helped me grow spiritually so it's so many things that I've been blessed to have in Connie and then ultimately be going all the way back going you know to to my rookie year you know she was one of the main reasons that I went and got help and I understand the power of getting that help you see what I'm saying so she's been so influential in so many aspects of me growing into the man that I've become when did y'all uh start watching film together [Laughter] so I would come I'll be on the way home and she would be told why you didn't make that play now what what you what happened on this play what happened like well you're supposed to be on my side why'd you didn't make that why you didn't do that but so again so she all she's always been that type of person in my life to encourage me to push me to not let me settle either so I've been so blessed in so many aspects to have someone like that to not just be someone that smiles and say everything is okay but now I said now you now that was bad she would like she was she would literally say now that was bad that looked ugly she was at the Rival school and I saw the cheerleader I'm an athlete now we meet up real and now y'all together this this much longer y'all together through all of this I want to ask what was the hardest point because I make fun of everything man he was a stuttering little kid you ain't gonna get the bad one I'm real real talk so in my mind there's no way since she talks to someone like me yeah yeah you see what I'm saying man I'm stuttering that's why you ain't want to walk up to him hey [Laughter] but from that the start of it but through becoming a star in college in college to become drafted to becoming what you are to all the way through Hall of Fame like bro it's a lot of benchmarks in there that I would say aren't advantageous especially early on for a relationship that deep were there any hurdles there what was the hardest part of being married since she was or being with your lady since before you could even if you didn't even pay taxes bam for me because this this this phenomenon in my life was the thing that blessed me the most that let me understand that what I was going after should be what I saw in front of me and what I mean by that is my parents I saw him together I saw them work through stuff I saw them work through stuff sometimes at a loud pitch right sometimes but they worked through stuff and so I saw that as the example that I wanted to have in my relationships so when me and Connie again I didn't think that she would go out with a dude like me so when she said yes and she was my girlfriend and here's the thing people people will now be me being in the league be like so when did you get with him right when he got after he got his money listen she had a car I didn't she would come pick me up for school to drive us to school because of her I've started eating sushi right so she introduced me to so many different things bro but but but the point is is that I knew in her I had something special and I was not doing gonna do something stupid to jeopardize that like seriously yeah like one of the things that when I went to Clemson she stayed in Jacksonville and um that was a tough that was a tough first year in a lot of aspects how I got to Clemson people don't recognize this and realize this how I got to Clemson was basically they wanted dude named Patrick Sapp I don't know if y'all heard no sap so sap was big in Jacksonville Florida so Clemson wanted him so bad that they told him but he told them that if I come to Clemson don't got to come with me I didn't know that I thought they wanted me right but this is again this is after Florida's yank back the scholarship um but once I got to Clemson I recognized that yeah I was not wanted there I can feel it you can just feel it like yeah yeah you can tell man like I was not wanted there but in my mind there's nobody you can't break me physically because my mental conditioning you can't break me physically so whatever you put in front of me I'm gonna crush it and I'm gonna outwork everybody around me that was my mindset that I developed in high school and so when I went to Clemson that first year it was absolutely miserable and Connie wasn't there and there was no fault we didn't have them things there to pick up and fall so we I'm writing letters bro love stamps can you get a roll of stamps we writing letters back so I got to wait a couple of days to get the answer back you see what I'm saying so we we didn't have no money to be having no cars and paying extra money we just didn't have that type of money so you know one of the blessings that happened is what she came up to Clemson that next year and and that was a blessing and then soon after that we got married so and I wasn't done I'd have done that so much differently too we elope we elope we're doing 100 and yeah I'd have done that so different but again I just knew in my mind you know I just knew that she was going to be the person I was going to spend the rest of my my life with man that's I think those type of stories are inspiring it's not about taking the leap to doing it it's about doing the work to keep it those are the things that people can look at and say it's not about perfection though it's about the pursuit the pursuit of it and in your career your life it seems that that's what it was always about 13 years in Philly three years in Denver retire at 38 and whenever people put your film on they put the film on and the first thing you think is he couldn't play like that now yeah you know what I mean that's the first thing they think and then you also look and say I wonder what he's like now I wonder how his mental is I wonder how he is emotionally and we were talking earlier about how you really started to study and learn about the brain because you want to help the next generation of athlete the next generation of player how have those studies though helped you in coping since you retired so not necessarily coping it's understanding understanding how a dude from Jacksonville Florida not really expected to do a whole lot being small as I was at the time how that individual changed his mindset and went after something a whole lot bigger than what his neighborhood suggested my neighborhood only suggested that I was going to be able to do specific things right it's going to be able to if I sold dope the right way I'll be able to get me a Jeep Wrangler Jeep Wranglers with a thing at a time get you a Jeep side kick Jeep side kicks put some not put some knock in the back right you know what I mean I'm just being real with you right so you know that was that's what I saw in my neighborhood but but but the pursuit of what it is that I went after these stories keep coming back of I had a vision somebody blessed me to have a scholarship at FCA camp and I went to North Carolina this person I would never ever meet allowed me to see something in that FCA camp in the neighborhood the neighborhood was a plush one similar to this one and I said to myself after leaving that I said me and my family gonna live into a spot like this me and my family my wife and my kids are going to live in a neighborhood like this or whatever I gotta do whatever I got to become I'm gonna become that wow and that's that's the vision so I began to drop off with some of the dudes I was hanging out with and I if they weren't going to help me be able to get reach that Vision I'm giving you some real stuff here now and that changed the outcome into the trajectory of my life because I began to pray on that thing to believe in that thing and to chase that thing chase that vision of me living in a in a plush environment and having my kids be able to to grow up in a place that was not like my own and so that was an empowering tool for me that allowed me to see the end to see the end and then go back to the beginning and work my way to it as Vision visionary as I begin to learn about how the brain operates I understand how I was doing what I was doing I didn't know I was programming my brain to think the way that I was thinking but I was doing that I was creating new neural pathways I was um prep priming myself to have success in a lot of ways and these some of the things that I'm saying is some of the terminology that is used in these realms but I I begin to do things and go after something that I believe had already happened in my life because I can feel I can feel what it was going to be like to live in the neighborhood I can feel what it's going to I can feel in that moment when I begin to dream about that how it's going to feel to pull up to that gate and and just be able to pull right through with no I thought I began to write out my autograph saying that someday somebody gonna be paying me for this thing I begin to do that all that stuff around in 11th grade 12th grade having these Visions having these Concepts having these dreams again I didn't know I was programming my brain I was something called a reticular activating system in your brain when you for instance before you got those shoes you probably didn't notice a lot of other people wearing them but once you got those shoes you begin to see a whole lot of people wearing the exact same shoes why because the reticular activated system in your brain recognizes those things that you've made important those were important to you so now you see so many and it's the same thing in our lives when you begin to go after that thing that you have already seen yourself have success in and you begin to pray on that thing your brain begins to operate in such a way as to help you recognize those things to help you get to it so for those dudes that wouldn't help me get to it I was like nah we good and so I and I wasn't like rude I was like no I'm good so y'all gonna go to the stove don't none of us have no money no I'm good right because I know yeah I know what y'all about to do I'm serious I'm just we ain't got nothing yeah we ain't got no money so no I'm good I'm good y'all go ahead oh you trying to be funny no I'm not I'm good I'm serious y'all go ahead again they weren't uh they weren't going to help me get where I wanted to go right and so ultimately Rhonda you know this about me when I discover something for myself I don't believe that that thing that I've discovered is for me is for other people so I'm supposed to share what I have we're supposed to share the victories in our lives that we've had that God has given us we're supposed to share them with other people to allow them to receive their versions of the same Victory maybe it's not Hall of Fame in the NFL maybe it's not playing 16 years in the National Football League maybe it's something completely different maybe it's you know having your own uh trucks uh uh food trucks or something maybe it's something but but but it's something it's something inside and again if I have something that I've done in my life that can help you reprogram the way that you're thinking to get out get out of that stinking thinking to be able to achieve something great in your life man man I'm selfish if I keep it to myself so that's that's the role I'm on now hey man it's the big game week and the number one seeds made it Philly KC it's time for everything for all the marbles and so is DraftKings and it's still the same old sweet deal any new customer signing up with the promo code pivot you bet at least five dollars on the big game and you get 200 in additional bets and now being the big game you know what these teams are consistent and I'm gonna stay with my consistency of the same game parlays the anastina had a little run now in the big game but I'm telling the afcs taking it this year same game parlays that multiple bets on the same game and have a chance of winning even more money hey and chance even though it's the big game nothing really changes on my side RC mentioned the promo code pivot no you guys go pivot from the sports book to daily fantasy they got both because the sports book not everywhere just use the promo code pivot and get that money or she'll tell you the rest absolutely get out your devices Freddy T showed you his download the DraftKings sport book app any Five Dollar Bet on any of these games wait it's actually only one game because it's the big week and you get 200 in additional bets that's DraftKings sports book out people want to know how you're doing now because you're such a physical player and hard hitter um was there ever a moment you were afraid because we've seen players like former Eagles great Andre Waters you know we've seen commit suicide um Junior set out you know a lot of other players and I know I was scared because people tell you you should developed this do you ever have those moments so so here's the thing for me and this is before all of these things came out and we began to talk about these things this one individual told me something my Rook going into my second year that blessed me to see my life and do things completely differently early on in my life in my career then I probably would have had I not had that conversation with him we were walking into the uh in the vet at the time I was walking into the restroom he was already in that shaving and um and for whatever reason he just said Rook Rook if you take care of your body now it'll take care of you later this is urban fryer and at that time herb was like year 13 still making Pro bowls and he was balling right and I took that to heart and so what I began to do is I began to do things different than to eat differently I began to take look into supplementations I've been taking fish oil ever since so I've been taking things that helped the the the the brain function better I've been taking those things for a long long long long long long time now to your point fear absolutely you have you have some trepidation sometimes right because I I look at some of the hits man like yeah it yeah it it was and in the moment it's hard for my wife to understand this and it's hard for me to understand a little bit too now because I've I have more sense now I didn't care about my body right playing the game I didn't I didn't I wasn't thinking in that the realm of me getting hurt I just knew that I needed to do this thing my teammates were counting on me and I gotta do this thing so I'm gonna do whatever I need to do to get it done that's that was my mindset but because I've been doing these things for so long and you know the way that the supplementations I've been taking for all of these years I believe that I've been helping myself help myself obviously I said like that for a long time and I did again I didn't know I was doing it now that we step into this realm of me understanding how the brain works a lot more I understand that what I was doing for so many years was literally doing that was helping me help myself in life after football thanks Sam you know when you speak people listen and it's been since you played and even now I think your voice carries more weight because you could hear the wisdom and everything you say and sometimes it's the experiences that we have that we try to give people so date so they don't have to have them right so they don't uh don't have to go through them and so for you though you never got that winning experience of that Super Bowl and and 18 and when you know the Eagles and the Pats play and now you're a part of the front office you get the the weapon x ring and I thought it was dope that it didn't say Brian Dawkins yep right because that wasn't the dude who played on game day never played a snack okay Brian Dawkins never played a snap never played a snap and then Andy Reid gets an opportunity to go to the Super Bowl as well in 2020 and you actually said before he they played the game that you'd probably shed a tear if and be won that's a that's a large statement for another man who is not quote-unquote or or not blood family what was it about your relationship that made you feel that way man so it's first of all it's a it's the it's the fact that I I'm comfortable doing that yeah so I'm comfortable crying I have I wasn't for a long time but yeah like men oftentimes we as men think that the the the only emotion that we should readily show is anger like you're tough angry you know ball up your ball up your fist you know we're gonna let's do what we need to do but understanding that we are we have emotions where we are not built or uh we are not our emotions I'll say it that way but we do have emotions and being tearful is one of those dollar one emotions that we need to be able to show now I'm not saying you cry about everything no I'm not saying that but my point is is that if if my brother and the Bible talks about it like this if my brother is having problems issues I need to step into that space to feel what my brother is feeling so that I can hopefully help them in this situation so if you Ryan you call me up and you told me something you're going through you are now lifting a lot half of the thing that you're going through because I'm lifting the other half so that's a little bit less and then we both play together and get it completely off of us both but it's that same respect when it comes to Elation so if my brother is winning and he's won I'm man I'm I'm jumping around just like it was me right I'm more happy I'm happy like so so when Andy won like I literally got because it wasn't just Andy it was Andy and spags so spax was my defensive back coach at the time back in the day and went on to be with the Giants and so forth and so on so I'm happy for them to do so I'm literally tearing up and like jumping for joy and like I'm a fan of low but I couldn't you feel me but that's what I'm supposed to do and I don't do it because I'm supposed to I do it because I want to you feel me because that's what that relationship meant to me of watching Andy come into the Philadelphia Eagles kind of ride the ship and then let's go on that magical run year after year right you got I mean and not everybody I I got this and it really hit me when we went to the Super Bowl in 2004 and we had Jeff Blake on our team Jeff Blake had planned I think at that time had played like 15 years and had never went to a playoff run wow never been in the playoffs and here we are year after year after year and you mentioned something when we were talking earlier when you first came into the league you thought you're going to go to the championship game year after year after the Super Bowl year after year after year but so that perspective was it's like this for everybody and it's not so the Catalyst for that but and said the Catalyst for that was Andy Reid coming bringing him and Jim Johnson bringing what they bring so I'm I'm eternally grateful for them coming to Philadelphia and doing what they did so you're gonna have the split jersey no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no yeah love him and it's a little different from me now because as a player like if me around we don't you know we know each other we boys I'm not I'm not talking to you during that week though right I'm not even calling ain't no Texas and I know some players do that me during that week I don't know you I don't know you I don't know your mama I don't know none of y'all I don't I don't wanna I don't want no feeling short that that week that's just me now that's just me so yeah so but as a I'm no longer a player like that so obviously I can I can indulge but when it's all said and done this is Eagles dog be quickly just because me and Freddie got something we always talk about we played each other in the preseason game and I took cheap shot on him is that too far preseason yes that's too far okay you know when even texting and trying to catch up with you this year the NFC Championship Game you're you're a part of the celebration and not I'm just let's be real they don't invite everybody back beat up like that's not the way it works there are there are some great players who don't get invited back there are actually more good men that don't get invited back because they want good players and so you do have that connection and so now having that connection to the Eagles and still being so much a part of the fabric of what that organization is because like you said you Andy spags oh you guys y'all built that but then having a we'll say a smaller connection to the Kansas City Chiefs right now how much pride is it though to see so many people that you are affiliated with meat in Glendale Arizona to decide who the Super Bowl champion man you know first of all going to see your first comment it still baffles me and I and I do this purposefully too I I see my success in my life through my 16 year old eyes so I always take myself back to myself when I was around that age and how I would see myself now when my 16 year old self sees me being called by the Philadelphia Eagles to come be the captain in an NFC Championship game and the City of Philadelphia love me the way that they love me are you serious so I'm still blown away I'm like you guys to be kidding me like how how does that happen right I'm not I don't see myself as what they see right and so like that's an emotional thing for me so to be that was an honor for me I don't take that for granted and for a split second when we were taking Captain's pictures I actually thought I was about to go to battle like for a split second for a split second I was bold well you still saying what I'm saying but once we take we got the first couple of steps I had no no no that's them literally that's them but but but so I love the fact that both organizations um Andy has gone from one and I'm so proud I'm proud of big red man I'm I don't know he don't need me to say this but it's just to watch him what he's done in two different spots now the same thing that he did in Philadelphia he's doing the exact same thing and then some in Kansas City I think he's the First Coast to go from one for two different teams organizations and go to uh I think 10 plus years or something like that of something something years some some crazy records yes only his only his and again not only him but but to have spags there and so many other coaches on the coach's staff that were coaches in Philadelphia it's it's it'll be a well warming place when I get there before Game Day game day is not going to be warming but before then it's going to be a lot of warming conversations had so if I had to guess your pick we're going oh come on now no I'm just saying like it's a and um take off you got to take off take off your Eagles helmet right you you're sitting there Sunday watching the game how do you see this going man you know that I'm a defensive guy right I do see a lot more points being scored than was in that 49ers game on both for for both sides well we're not for both sides excuse me I I believe it's going to be in the 30s I believe it's going to be in the 30s but I believe the Eagles will have just a little bit more in the tank than Kansas City I think it's gonna be a good game I think it's going to be a high scoring game sadly as a defensive players I don't necessarily like to say that but I think that that was going to be the case um I saw I did see a stat that the record they have the same records and the exact same point totals these teams that's how equal they are right so it's going to be a good game it's going to be a good game and if you had to put yourself back in that Captain's position playing in today's game and they say all right B we got 87 this week Travis Kelsey with your best secondary how do you match up with him oh wow and you're a prime so in my Prime well that would have been my responsibility in my Prime and people don't notice that they think that all I did was hit people hard which I tried my best to but I was literally the sometimes the fourth Corner when Emmett got me there so I was a lot I was a cover guy as well so that would have been my guide to cover but that's not a responsibility just for one guy like he does so much and he means so much to offense that you you have to you have to have a bunch of touch points I'll say it like that different a whole lot of different touch points as he goes into I'm serious right and what that does is over the game it may not affect him in the first quarter it may not affect him so much in a second but into the third and fourth if you continue to touch him along the way a whole time right by that fourth quarter he made hopefully if you're doing it right he won't be that have that same energy that same Breakaway ability in the fourth quarter right so it's a it's a long game kind of thing that's what the Pats did to Marshall in that 01 Super Bowl they beat him up so bad at the line but yeah that's another story then there's going to be some doubles from time to time it's going to be different way but you have to you can't just do one thing the whole game is what I'm saying if you do one thing the whole game they're smart they're gonna watch it they know what teams have done in the past but if you constantly are throwing different things at that combination again knowing that he is the guy right now he's kind of spy yeah yeah he he's that dude you wanna I can't touch him in many different ways as possible you know I was extremely excited about this I was like man be dog's gonna be I'm getting on beat dog nerves but I'm just I was so he's like you know we could do it next week or see now I think we need to do it this week like I think this week would be nice but every off-season I'd pick two or three guys to watch and say I want to take pieces of their game and try to add them to mine you were always in that rotation no there were other guys who went in and out of it but you for my entire career always in that rotation and the one thing I always got to was was Reckless abandoned and I think people look at that the wrong way they see Reckless abandon as not caring and you said yourself I didn't care about myself I saw it differently when I watched you I saw Reckless abandon as caring too much oh yeah you care too much about making the play oh yeah you care too much about winning you cared too much about your teammates to care about yourself and I think that's why all of your teammates all of the people who you have touched throughout your life love you so much and when we have a great guest or a guest with as much to offer as you I want to give them this opportunity if you wanted people to take something away from being around Brian Dawkins listening to Brian Dawkins or having an opportunity to watch him play what would that be in the show's open man somebody asked me a similar question and it was more about what would be on your grave Stone right the thing that I would love people to speak about me in terms is my passion in which I live my life and that I can be counted and trusted so if you talk about me and those two two aspects so when I when I speak of passion I means the the lengths that I'm going to go to be there and when I'm when I'm there you know I'm there I'm going to be there not just in physical form but I'm going to be there spiritually I'm going to be there mentally I'm going to be I'm going to be everything that I need to be in those moments to help not just myself but and Mom I had to conduct myself even in my most emotional moments in the game I know my teammates are watching me so I had to conduct myself and control myself control my emotions as only to give them what they needed in those moments because I know again they're watching me so that passion of how I live my life how I'm willing to listen to you when you're going through different things to pour into you if I can if I can't find if I don't know the answer then we're going to go and we're going to find out together that's how I'm gonna walk with you we're going to I'm going to be that type of teammate to walk with you so the way that I begin to communicate this to myself is excellence to live with excellence in mind to chase Excellence so my Excellence will be different from Your Excellence will be different from yours and so forth and so on so I was chasing excellence I stopped comparing myself and I stopped competing so much not not against I'm going to compete against other team but what I'm saying is that I stopped comparing myself to people and competing and I started creating I started creating the way that I saw safety us through my land safety was different a safety was someone that could touch the field and and be a game changer in every statistical category not just one or two not just three but in every statistic and if you look at what I was blessed to do in every statistical category I was blessed to be a game changer that's because I was studying film that way so for those young people that are watching this and you want to be something yes follow the examples of those who've said some right because success leaves Trails we've heard that before but you got to go past that you got to say to yourself and I said to myself what does safety look like to me how does a safety dominate the game can a safety dominate the game and if so how does that look that's the and that's how I then approach playing the game plan to say this does that make sense and so I know this is supposed to be a short it's a short thing so Ryan I I studied pass rush moves because I blitzed a lot I studied the shot clock of when this team stabbed the ball because I needed to be able to tie my blisses I studied cornerbacks I studied Troy matter of fact if you looked at me and Troy sometimes you couldn't tell the two of us apart sometimes because I mimicked some of the things that he did because I was I was studying every aspect I studied how to get the ball out causing the punching the ball out different angles and different things to do so I went from someone that just made tackles to someone that I know I can make this tackle with a ball net um so that's the confidence I went to when you look at it from that lens you're no longer just playing the game you're creating man so and that's the joy I took in like watching film because I knew what I was creating I knew I was creating something different and I was doing something at a different level and I was blessed to be able to do it and so ultimately if I didn't go out and I didn't approach the game the way that I approached it then I was not giving giving God the glory he deserved does this make sense because when you look at me and you see the way that I play I'm going to point you to where my strength comes from and that's Ramon High right and so that's how it always boils down everything that I do in this life from Excellence to creating all those things I want to point anybody who's listening to me right now I want you to point you to my source and my source is my heavenly father I'm just a resource that's it all right my dog I'm sitting here I'm like I'm outside [Music] [Music] [Music] get me

Channel: The Pivot Podcast

Views: 679,666

Keywords: the pivot, the pivot podcast, new podcast, football podcast, channing crowder, channing crowder podcast, fred taylor podcast, fred taylor, ryan clark podcast, nfl, football, super bowl, super bowl podcast, full send podcast, fullsend podcast, nfl 2023, nfl podcast, superbowl 2023, Eagles Legend Brian Dawkins on Super Bowl, Philly vs KC, Andy Reid, HOF Career & Family | The Pivot, brian dawkins, brian dawkins highlights, brian dawkins interview, brian dawkins podcast

Id: 0AD2GZEHvtY

Length: 64min 1sec (3841 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 07 2023