DT Antonio Dixon, who just returned to practice after suffering a concussion, has made his mark on the Eagles. He has gone from the sidelines back to the swing of things without missing a beat. He has been lining up with the second team defense alongside DT Trevor Laws on the inside. The two have been stuffing the run and getting some good pressure on a consistent basis. The Eagles defensive line could be one of the deepest in the league with Dixon and Laws stepping up.



(eaglesmix.com)

Defensive tackle Antonio Dixon, sidelined with a concussion, said he still isn't sure when he'll return.

Dixon went down Monday after being sandwiched between two blockers and seemed barely conscious as he was loaded into the cart.

"I just remember running a stunt. I think I fell, face first," Dixon said.

The next thing he recalls, he said, is the voice of head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder.

Dixon, the third tackle much of last season, is in much better shape now, having been persuaded by his girlfriend to eschew McDonald's double cheeseburgers, he said. At 6-3, 322, he is the Birds' heaviest d-lineman.

“He’s a big guy to handle inside, 320-some pounds and that’s tough to stop," coordinator Sean McDermott said. "So, he does give us a tremendous push inside.”

The defensive line rotation remains among the more intriguing story lines at camp, as the Eagles continue to try different combinations.

“We’re trying to find our best four out there, obviously, and you guys know that," McDermott said. "But the push up the middle, with our speed on the edge is important, where we can cut [DE] Trent [Cole] loose, or [DE] Brandon [Graham], or [DE Daniel Te’o-Nesheim], whoever it is on the outside, [Darryl] Tapp, whoever it might be, but have a push inside, so when the quarterback does feel like he wants to step up, he’s got somebody in his face all the while.”



(philly.com)

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Antonio Dixon ran back to the sidelines, leaned over and told one of his coaches, "I feel dizzy."

Moments later, Dixon was lying motionless on the grass at the Lehigh University practice fields being attended to by several trainers.

Dixon, who emerged last year as the Eagles' No. 3 defensive tackle after being claimed off waivers from the Redskins, had suffered a head injury on a routine play 75 minutes into the two-hour afternoon practice at training camp Monday.

"He got hit in the head," head coach Andy Reid said. "He got dinged."

Reid had no further information on Dixon after practice, and the Eagles did not release an update on Dixon's condition Monday evening.
Dixon, 25, played in all 16 games last year, finishing with 17 tackles, one sack and a blocked field goal in Chicago that led to the game-winning drive.

Dixon was on the ground for 10 minutes before trainers called for a cart. Because Dixon was so groggy and weighs 320 pounds, the trainers had difficulty lifting him into the back of the cart. Dixon appeared barely conscious as the cart took him to the Cuddey Fieldhouse, where the team's medical and training facilities are located.

He was held in place by a trainer on either side of him as the cart slowly made its way across the fields.



(phillyburbs.com)

Antonio Dixon hasn't even been an Eagle for 12 months, but he's our #3 DT and a player the coaches like. He got in better shape in the offseason, but didn't wither away. He was 327 pounds back in March. The big question on Dixon last year was conditioning. If he's in better shape now that could offer a nice boost to his game performance. Dixon got by last year on raw ability. If he's in better shape and starts to understand how to play he could become a very good #3 DT.



(igglesblog.com)

PLYMOUTH – Antonio Dixon was a soft-spoken giant of a defensive lineman trying to make it to big-time college football when he attended Milford Academy in New Berlin.

He spent a year at Milford in 2004 before moving on to play Division One ball for the Miami Hurricanes. Dixon was quiet young man when The Evening Sun interviewed him six years ago, and he had a good reason to use as few words as possible during his interview. Dixon’s struggles have since been well documented in the Florida media. That Dixon has now ascended to play in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles makes his story one of the most inspiring triumphs among Milford Academy graduates.

Growing up in a poor family, Dixon spent time in six homeless shelters living in Miami and Atlanta. His father was in prison for drug trafficking, and his mother abused drugs for a period of two years. During his mother’s drug use, Dixon and his siblings were pulled from their mother’s home to live in foster care.

It was a rough start to the young Dixon’s life. Add to it his issues with dyslexia and a pervasive stuttering problem. He was unable to read until the sixth grade, and was expelled from school two years later for fighting and belligerent behavior.

When Dixon returned to school as a freshman in high school, he found football and his life turned for the better. As a senior, he was ranked among the best college lineman prospects in Florida, but needed to get his grades up. He spent a year at Milford Academy honing his skills as a football player and gaining the tools to become a good student.

Through hard work and perseverance, he graduated from Miami with a degree in Liberal Arts. Not only that, he was among five other students in the nation to win the Wilma Rudolph Student Athlete Acheivement Award. The award is given annually to collegiate athletes who overcome great personal adversity to achieve academic success.

“College was tough,” Dixon said, who said it was an eye-opening the first three months, especially just getting into proper football shape. “I used to go to study hall sometimes 18 hours a week. Other people were going eight or 10 hours, but they had me on this ridiculous schedule. Seniors, they don’t have to go to study hall, and I was the only senior there. It was worth it; I was proud of graduating.”



(evesun.com)

As if stuttering wasn’t a great enough challenge, Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Antonio Dixon grew up facing homelessness, dyslexia, illiteracy, and a father in prison. His story is an inspiration not just for those who stutter, but for anyone who faces seemingly impossible odds.

Did you ever feel nervous starting a new school? Antonio attended over a dozen elementary schools. He stutters when he’s nervous, so he constantly dealt with being the new kid who stutters. To this day, when Antonio stutters, he slaps himself in the chest or arm to get the words out (AIS does not recommend this technique).

Antonio could have crumpled under the weight of so many burdens. Instead, he fought and persevered. After attending various elementary and middle schools, he attended one high school, where he flourished. He entered high school barely literate, but he learned to read and excelled in class and on the football field.

He graduated, played for the University of Miami and then, after a brief stint with the Washington Redskins, signed with the Philadelphia Eagles as a rookie free agent. He’s played in 11 games this year. NFL scouts believe that with training, his size and speed could make him a dominant force in the league for years to come.



(stuttergintreatment.com)

NONE OF IT was all that bad.

And he never expected to have it this good.

Antonio Dixon has been in some strange places. An orphanage. Homeless shelters. Bunking with his big brother, Darrell.

Dixon never thought he would be here, on the goal line, stringing out a Redskins running play, the first defensive tackle off the Eagles' bench as an overweight, undrafted rookie.

Not here, hands in his blocker's chest, feet churning, technique perfect, suddenly, reading the Bears' running play and stopping it. Twice.

Read the play?

Shoot, not long ago, Dixon couldn't read, period.

In college, he couldn't digest defensive plays on paper. Still can't. His speech impediment has mostly disappeared. It only surfaces when he's nervous, when he's talking about his mother's rehab, or his drug-dealing father's 17-year jail stint, or his . . . well, that very speech impediment.

Dixon pauses, and kind of stutters, and his hand pats his chest, and his foot taps the floor. But he gets it out.
Without self-pity, and without self-consciousness, he gets it all out.

"I think about all of that a lot. A lot of people go through different things. I ain't the worst case," Dixon said. "Somebody in this league has been through worse than me."

He has no self pity. He is not self-conscious - his gift, said one former coach.

One current coach agreed.

"I'm speechless," defensive coordinator Sean McDermott said. "It's . . . I probably can't even fathom where he's come from, and where he is now in his life, and the type of person he is . . . that's what great stories are all about."

It is a great story. It's only getting better.

Dixon was always fat. He was never cool. He seldom had a real home.

He didn't play pee-wee football. He was never on a track to play in high school, which he fell into, or in college, where he was only lightly recruited, despite his prodigious size. For that matter, size always was an issue. By the time he finished high school he weighed more than 350 pounds, way too much for a 6-3 frame.

He lost some weight while at the University of Miami, where defensive line coach Clint Hurtt supervised his every move, but he gained weight, too. Even after college, Dixon, who sometimes tipped the scales at 370, still weighed too much to interest the Eagles. But when they saw him with the Redskins in the preseason, playing effectively at a lumpy but acceptable 320 pounds, they were impressed. When the Redskins waived him in August, the Eagles snatched him up.

"He was able to lose some weight and he was very effective with the Redskins in the preseason," said Eagles coach Andy Reid, a weight-control expert. "He's really just carried that over to what he's doing now. You never know when you bring them in how they're going to fit into your system."

Dixon, 24, has done more than fit in.

His blocked field goal set up the winning touchdown in a 24-20 win in Chicago three games ago. Last week, just after starter Brodrick Bunkley was injured, Dixon was inserted as part of the goal-line stand against the Redskins that saved the Birds from a terrible loss.

And to think: For Dixon, simply learning the playbook is a serious challenge.

"I've got problems with reading long words," Dixon said. "For me, to learn plays, I've got to see them. I can't just talk about them. I have to see them."

After Dixon's dyslexia was diagnosed at Miami, Hurtt realized that he needed to make things easier for Dixon. Hurtt cut game film so Dixon could see how players at his position correctly executed plays. Hurtt repeatedly called out the play during the film sessions. Then, still in the film room, he would quiz Dixon. Then, he took Dixon and a couple of other defensive linemen out on the field to practice the play against garbage cans.

They did this every week - remedial coaching, remedial learning. Dixon never resented it, was never embarrassed. He accepted this to be his lot - like the stuttering, and the fractured family, and the shelters, and the weight.

"I believe he has a gift," Hurtt said. "A lot of people can't be humble enough to accept what he has to accept. Antonio is very aware of what his limitations are. That's a gift that goes unrecognized."

It is a gift that has evolved.

Like any kid, Dixon had his pride, and his shame. Unlike most 12-year-olds, he could pulverize other kids who made him feel worthless and ashamed.

"I stopped fighting like, around, seventh grade. I was bigger than everybody, but they'd always laugh at me anyway. I used to hate people laughing at me," Dixon said. "So, I used to fight a lot. I used to get suspended. Expelled. Had anger problems."

Eventually, he matured.

"I just got used to it. And I figured, 'I can beat this guy up. I don't have to prove myself,' " Dixon said.

Street-corner teasing didn't approach the other issues in his life.

When he was 6, his father, Frazier Hawkins, went to prison for selling crack.

When he was 11, his mother, Corenthia, then a cocaine addict, went to rehab.

It split the family. The state of Georgia sent Antonio, Darrell, 13, and Jarvis, 5, to the Carrie Steele-Pitts Home in Atlanta. Mikesha, 2, went to a foster family.

Corenthia saw a crash coming. She sought rehab in order to keep her kids, she said; "The state was fixing to take them."

For years, this sort of end seemed inevitable.

Corenthia's mother died of AIDS-related issues in 1989, leaving Corenthia, at 21, without an anchor . . . and without a second income.

An Atlanta native, she routinely shuttled herself and her family between the cities, sometimes living with her sister, Patricia, in Atlanta, but always returning to the allure of Florida's most lurid town, Miami, never with much more than a fast-food job to support them.

"I made mistakes, I know. I was confused. I had all these kids, work . . . it was too much for a single mother," she said.

She fell into the cycle of homelessness and drug addiction, and, in 1996, she knew she needed help.

She stayed in rehab 3 months longer than the prescribed 9 months, she said, to make sure her cocaine cravings were fully gone.

Corenthia - called "Peaches," she said, because her father couldn't pronounce her real name - was excused from rehab every weekend to visit her children.

Antonio enjoyed the orphanage. There was stability. There was familiarity.

"Being there was fun," Antonio said. "Except when momma had to go away again."

Corenthia completed the program and got her kids back, but the hard times continued. She took on two jobs, but that wasn't always enough. Darrell quit high school to help out, she said. Now, with a family of his own, he's a cook in Miami, 5 minutes from where Antonio played at the university.

Jarvis went to live with his father from the age of 9 until he was 15. The money problems always bothered Jarvis, Antonio said, so Jarvis stayed away from school. Now Jarvis, 19, is pursuing his graduate equivalency diploma, and Antonio reflects:

"He got so consumed with trying to look good, but he didn't have certain things, and didn't want to go to school because he didn't have things. He's got no excuse now."

None has gone to jail. All are alive. That, Corenthia said, was her chief goal: Keep them clean, keep them living, and, foremost, keep them out of the prison system.

"I scared them," she said. "I told them, 'Look at your friends in jail, or dead. Look at me. I'm broke. You go to jail, I can't get you out.' And if they did something wrong, I'd tear their butts up."

Antonio laughs. "She would beat us for doing something bad . . . but not for me fighting. And I didn't get in trouble, not in high school. I didn't go to jail or nothing. I didn't ever sell no drugs. I wasn't going to use all that as an excuse."

He never uses excuses.

He couldn't read when he got to high school, he said, but, like any kid, he had dreams. Like few kids, he had uncanny resolve - and unusual detractors.

"Early in high school, I told one of my teachers, 'I'm going to go to the University of Miami.' She was, like, 'Your [butt] ain't going to no University of Miami. You can't even read,' " Dixon said.

It took a year of prep school, but Dixon became a 'Cane.

"When I did get a scholarship, and was admitted, she came up to me and was, like, 'I was just playing,' " Dixon said. "I was like, 'You weren't playing.' "

Dixon is playing now, every game, in the NFL.

Peaches, now 43, is in her 16th month as a cafeteria worker at the homeless shelter in Miami where the family often stayed. She and her three youngest children - Jarvis, Mikesha, 15, and the youngest, Michael, 11 - keep an apartment, with Dixon's help. She has been with the same man for 7 years, she said. She does informal, over-the-lunch-counter counseling of young mothers: "They remind me of myself."

Hawkins is out of prison, back in Miami, working as a personal trainer in a health club. Dixon speaks daily with his father - hourly, sometimes - making up for years of lost time. Peaches admitted that Hawkins, before he was locked up, provided not only for Antonio but also for Darrell, who is not Hawkins' son.

There is no animosity . . . but there is little familiarity.

"When he got locked up, we lost contact," Dixon said. "We kept moving back and forth, and he kept getting shipped from one prison to the next."

The moving wasn't all that bad, Dixon insisted.

"I never didn't have a roof over my head. I always had enough to eat," Dixon said. "We all did."

His dream, of course, is to make sure his mother and his siblings always have a roof over their heads. That is his first goal.

He will put off marriage and children for a few years. He hopes to establish himself in the league, to significantly increase his salary - he's making the rookie-minimum $310,000 this season - and to find a regimen, and the discipline, to control his weight for good.

Considering Dixon didn't really learn the game until college, and that he's a painfully raw rookie, everyone who watches him is eager to chart his progress.

Said Hurtt, "Antonio has not remotely come close to reaching his potential."

He is on his way, unimpeded by his past.

Dixon returned to Atlanta this past weekend for the first time since Miami played in the Peach Bowl in 2005. It is not a happy place for him.

He seems to be happy in his independence.

He spent Thanksgiving alone, in his Philadelphia apartment, suffering from a stomach virus. He hasn't seen Peaches since July 29, when he left Miami for the Redskins' training camp, just after he graduated, on time, with a degree in liberal arts.

Yes, he misses Peaches, and her sinful macaroni and cheese. He might fly her to Philadelphia for Christmas. He might not.

He can't wait until the offseason, when he can see coach Hurtt and his family and their new house.

For now, though, there is business - the continued business of being where he has no business being.

He has 10 total tackles, seven solo, a blocked field goal and a sack, of Giants quarterback Eli Manning. He'll be gunning for Manning again Sunday night.

Incredibly.

"I ain't going to sit here and say 'I always knew.' I ain't no psychic," Dixon said. "I never thought I'd reach this point, this fast."

If ever. *



(philly.com)

Antonio Dixon has beaten the odds so many times that he's lost count.

A severe stutter was the least of Dixon's troubles. One parent was in federal prison, the other hooked on drugs. Dixon shuttled between homeless shelters and foster homes. He attended more than a dozen schools and, because he suffered from dyslexia, didn't learn to read as a child.

Dixon surmounted all of that to earn a football scholarship to the University of Miami, graduate in four years and become one of six NCAA athletes to win the 2009 Wilma Rudolph Award for persistence in overcoming hurdles and achieving on and off the field.

The 6-foot-3, 322-pound Dixon didn't play much in his four years with the Hurricanes, starting just 10 games and recording only 71 tackles and 2.5 sacks. Still, the Washington Redskins signed him as a rookie free agent in April.
The trouble for Dixon was that the Redskins already were loaded at defensive tackle with All-Pro Albert Haynesworth, longtime starter Cornelius Griffin and veterans Kedric Golston, Anthony Montgomery and Lorenzo Alexander.

The only spot for him was on the practice squad, which is where he was headed after being one of the Redskins' final cuts. But the Philadelphia Eagles liked what they had seen of the Miami native and signed him to their roster.

Eagles coach Andy Reid, who worked with Redskins defensive coordinator Greg Blache in Green Bay, said the fact that Blache liked Dixon was important to him.

"Greg Blache is one of the finest defensive line coaches in this league, so if he liked him that's a pretty good player," Reid said.

Dixon made five tackles, four of them for losses, in the preseason opener against the Baltimore Ravens - enough to impress the Eagles when they scouted the Redskins.

"He was a player who we liked in college [though] he was a little on the raw side," Eagles general manager Tom Heckert said. "He's obviously a gifted player with good athletic ability for a big strong guy. We thought that he had improved, even in his short time in Washington, to where we thought he was good enough to make our [roster] and help us in our defensive tackle rotation."

He certainly has done that. Dixon plays 10 to 20 snaps behind starters Mike Patterson and Brodrick Bunkley. He made his first tackle in Week 2, sacked the New York Giants' Eli Manning in Week 8 and kept Philadelphia within three points in the fourth quarter Sunday by blocking Chicago's field goal try.

"I told Bunkley I was going to block it," said Dixon, who thought he should've blocked Robbie Gould's 49-yarder in the third quarter.

"Antonio Dixon, I can't say enough about the guy," Reid said after the Eagles followed the block by driving for the winning touchdown. "He came through bigger than big with the blocked field goal. He's developed into one of our favorites here. He's a great kid, a pleasure to be around."

Quarterback Donovan McNabb said his teammates love Dixon's attitude.

"It's always good to see him with a big smile on his face," McNabb said. "[He's] happy about his opportunity, and he's taking full advantage of it."

Dixon, who faces a constant battle to keep his weight under control, is thrilled to be on a roster, especially on a team that might be playoff-bound.

"I had made a lot of good friends on the Redskins, and I was looking forward to being on the practice squad," Dixon said.

"Griff and the guys helped me out so much with my hands and my footwork. But my agent told me that he thought some [other] teams were interested in me, and then the Eagles called. I was really nervous the first game because I didn't know I was going to play, but I've been fine since then. Looking back at some of the things I had to go through, I'm very proud to be where I am. I just had to fight. I'm still fighting."

Dixon's success makes Griffin beam like a proud papa.

"Dix is a great guy who's been through a lot," Griffin said. "He works hard and he's coachable. There are guys on the street who wish they had the opportunity he had. I didn't want him to let that opportunity be wasted, and he's making the most of it."



(washingtontimes.com)

Antonio Dixon blocked the Bears’ Robbie Gould's 48-yard field goal try with 11:01 remaining. The Bears were leading 20-17 when Dixon blocked a 48-yard field goal by Robbie Gould. McNabb then led the Eagles (6-4) on a 62-yard touchdown drive that McCoy capped with a neat 10-yard run, sending Chicago to its fifth loss in six games and delivering another big hit to its playoff hopes.

Dixon is the first Eagle to block a field goal since Trent Cole on Dec. 7 last season against the Giants.



(suntimes.com)

In the Eagles 40-17 blowout of the New York Giants Antonio Dixon got plenty of playing time and recorded his first career NFL sack when he took down Eli Manning. Dixon also recorded 2 solo tackles and 1 QB hit.

Antonio Dixon is a regular now in the Eagles lineup beating out the Eagles’ second round draft pick for playing time. He has accumulated 3 tackles already and has shown the ability to take on double teams and help stuff the run. Congrats to Antonio.

Antonio Dixon has been a bright spot along the line all season long, but it's yet to be seen if he can keep it up for an entire year. If he can, he was a major steal and if he can't, the Eagles picked him up off the waiver a week before the season, so they certainly aren't banking on his progression.



(2minutestomidnightgreen.com)

Trevor Laws got himself a wake-up call today.  During the game, I noticed I wasn't seeing him out there, but I just figured I'd been missing him.  Nope.  From Reid's press conference after the game:

On the decision to activate DT Antonio Dixon while deactivating DT Trevor Laws Andy Reid said: "It was a matter of numbers there. We had a couple of things in for Dixon where his size and push were going to help us. That's not necessarily the way it's going to be every week, but for this game we went that way."

Dixon made a couple nice plays inside. He has flashed more the last two games than Trevor Laws, which probably explains why Laws is on the outs.



(igglesblog.com)

Antonio Dixon played 16 snaps at defensive tackle for the Eagles the Sunday before last, in their victory over Kansas City.

Not much, but something. Something to savor. Something to build on.

“I was real happy about that,” he said of his workload Wednesday, as he sat in the locker room of the team’s practice facility.

The 6-3, 322-pound rookie, acquired Sept. 6 after he was waived by the Redskins, has grown accustomed to making the most of things, because for so long he had so little.

He didn't have a dad; he was in prison from the time Antonio was 7 until six months ago.

Nor did he have a mom; she was strung out on drugs for a year or two when Antonio was young.

And not a home, either; when he and his four siblings weren’t shuttling between the homes of relatives in Miami and Atlanta, they were staying in homeless shelters. They also spent time in foster care, when their mother’s substance abuse was at its worst.

Antonio, who once estimated that he attended 15 elementary schools, was found to have dyslexia when he was in the sixth grade. He didn’t learn to read until four years later, and along the way developed a severe stuttering problem, something he still battles. When he can’t quite produce the correct word, he slaps himself on the thigh or midsection.

But things are getting better, he said. His dad, Frazier Hawkins, was released in April from federal prison after serving 17 years on a drug-trafficking charge. He is now back in Miami, working at an LA Fitness. Antonio’s mom, Corenthia, is also in Miami, working in the kitchen of a homeless shelter.

And Antonio has been given an opportunity by the Eagles.

“I’m grateful,” he said. “I’m real happy. I’ve just got to stay focused.”

Here he slapped his thigh once, twice, a third time.

“I can’t be satisfied with where I’m at right now,” he said. “I’ve got to be real mature. I’m hungry right now. I’ve just got to get better and better every day.”

Dixon was on the field for a handful of plays in the Eagles’ first two games, against Carolina and New Orleans. But against the Chiefs he and Trevor Laws frequently rotated into the game in place of starters Mike Patterson and Brodrick Bunkley.

Dixon has no idea if that will remain the case Sunday, when the Birds host Tampa Bay. But as always, he is grateful for the opportunity. As always he will try to make the most of what he has.

Looking back, he said, “There were a lot of low points.”

Too many to count, almost. His parents’ travails. The rootlessness. His struggles in school.

Things would slowly improve. Corenthia got herself straightened out. Antonio reestablished contact with his father when he was a teenager. And while Dixon has admitted that he lashed out when his peers made fun of his stutter, his mom has said he managed to avoid many of the other problems that ensnare so many kids.

Instead, he found football. And at that, he said, “I did my best.”

“I never quit,” he added. “There were times I wanted to quit, help out my mom and get a job. But she’s like, ‘You’re not going to quit. You’re going to stick to football and you’re going to graduate. You’re going to get your degree.’ I did that, so I’m real happy about that.”

He finally learned to read his sophomore year at Miami’s Booker T. Washington High, and on the field excelled as a two-way lineman. After a year at a prep school in New York State – to which he traveled by bus, because the family’s finances were so tight -- he landed at the University of Miami.

He started only 10 of the 40 games he played for the Hurricanes, but was dogged about the books, spending hours on end in study hall while his teammates were exploring South Beach. And in the end he not only earned his degree in liberal arts, just as Corenthia said he would, but also became one of six athletes nationwide to be presented the Wilma Rudolph Award, given to those who, according to the award’s entry form, “have overcome great personal, academic and/or emotional odds to achieve academic success while participating in intercollegiate athletics.”

Dixon went undrafted in April, but was signed by the Redskins as a free agent. The preseason saw him make eight tackles in four games, which was not enough to earn a roster spot.

But now he’s here, making the most of what he has.

“It’s been rough so far,” he said of his life, “but it’s getting better.”



(examiner.com)

All of the Redskins players who attended Lorenzo Alexander's Big Play Back To School Giveaway today had good reasons for being there. Most of them, though, were fairly general: a desire to help kids, for example, or to give back to the community.

For some of the guys, it was a little more specific. Chris Wilson, for example, still remembers what it was like to be a kid and encounter an NFL player.

"I remember going to Lions camp at Saginaw Valley State University as a kid and watching them practice," he told me. "I remember personally running into Barry Sanders at the mall, not at an event or anything. He was out with his kids and I just happened to be in the same store. I was just kinda following him and peeking around the corner; I think he knew I was following him, but I thought I was bein' slick."

(I asked at this point if Sanders had eluded him by running backwards ten yards and breaking into an elaborate spin move, but Wilson was trying to make a reasonably serious point and wisely ignored me.)

"If you can see somebody and touch 'em and really size them up," he continued, "I think it gives you a better sense of reality. Cause when you see someone on TV all the time, you kinda hold 'em so high. And even though it does take a lot of work to accomplish being in the NFL, once you see them in person, you realize, 'I could do that,' because he's a human being."

And that's a lesson that holds particularly true for undrafted rookie defensive tackle Antonio Dixon, because around fifteen years ago -- during a part of his difficult childhood that he was spending in Georgia -- Dixon was on the other side of one of these "athletes take underprivileged kids shopping" events.

"Growin' up," he told me, "me not really havin' much, I did the same thing as these kids. It's good for these kids to see players that play in the NFL -- it's real big. I went to one with the Falcons when I was in Atlanta. They just chose some of the kids from the school who really didn't have that much. They picked us out and everybody went to the T.J. Maxx -- I still remember that T.J. Maxx -- and we got toys and stuff. I think each kid was given a hundred dollars."

Dixon doesn't remember which Falcons players were in attendance, but it doesn't seem to bother him much. "I forgot -- it was a long time ago, but I remember going to the store," he said. "I just remember being real excited to meet some of the Falcons players. It was for Christmas gifts -- it was real nice."

As a result, Dixon knows exactly how important these events are. "They do [make a difference]," he said, " A big difference. As a kid, I liked football a lot, so I was really happy to meet some of the football players, see what they were like."

He laughed, looked around like he was realizing just where he was and why he was there. "It's real cool to see me, like, I'm doing these now. In college we would go to a homeless shelter and play some ball with them, but this is the first time I'm doing something like this. It's crazy how time flies."

Dixon is considered a longshot to make the team, but he didn't do anything last night to hurt his chances. "I feel like I did good," he said. "I played two quarters, and I had no mental mistakes, so that was good."

Plus he earned a half-sack with (coincidentally enough) Chris Wilson, albeit in a play that was negated by penalty. "[Wilson] hit him, then I finished him off," Dixon said of the play. "He said that I tried to take his sack, but I think he was just playin'."

When I asked Wilson about the play, he laughed. "Yeah, guys do that all the time, man. You get a sack and guys jump on top of the pile. I'm guilty of it too at times. It doesn't matter, 'cause it's the preseason and really doesn't count anyhow, but a regular season game we would've probably argued over that one."



(blog.redskins.com)

Antonio Dixon has received some praise and could be a man to watch in the final 2 games of the preseason.     





(dcprosportsreport.com)

DT Antonio Dixon. Had back spasms so couldn't work, but that's a bad sign for him. His lack of conditioning hurt him during the preseason opener and now he missed a practice because of the back. He needs to be in better shape.



(washigtonexaminer.com)

Many times Antonio Dixon wondered how so much could go so wrong for one kid.

"I would always question God: 'Why are you doing this?' " Dixon says. "Stuff would get good and then it would turn bad, and when it turned bad, it would turn real bad."

As bad as losing his father to a federal prison. As bad as seeing his mother develop a drug problem. As bad as calling homeless shelters home. As bad as not learning to read until the 10th grade.

Foster homes, dyslexia, a severe stuttering problem, more schools in a few years than most people attend in a lifetime. The trials never seemed to end.

Yet Dixon overcame it all and in doing so gave himself a chance to realize a dream playing in the NFL.

Now the 23-year-old defensive tackle faces one more daunting challenge to make that happen: Earn a spot on the Washington Redskins' roster at the team's deepest position.

Dixon didn't know his father, Frazier Hawkins, for much of his childhood.

When Dixon was 3, Hawkins, then a high school wrestling coach in Miami, was charged with drug trafficking and sentenced to 25 years in a federal prison in Jesup, Ga.

With her husband behind bars and without a high school diploma, Dixon's mother, Corenthia, couldn't secure steady employment that would have allowed her and her five children to afford to rent an apartment.

So they shuttled for years between homeless shelters and relatives in Miami and Atlanta.

The pressure of being her family's sole provider got to be too much for Corenthia.

By the time Antonio was 11, his mother was so deep into drugs that a social worker took the children from her and placed them in foster homes for nine months.

The constant moving around took a toll on Antonio's education. He estimates he passed through some 15 elementary schools, all without learning to read. His dyslexia wasn't discovered until he was in the sixth grade, and he started receiving some special help.

He developed a severe stutter, an impediment that made him the frequent target of other children's abuse and a handicap that he still struggles to control.

"It was hard," Dixon says as he slaps his wrists, a device he employs when he just can't get the words to come. "All my brothers could read, but I just couldn't pick it up. Kids would tease me a lot. I have a short temper, and when I was younger I couldn't control it. I used to get in a whole bunch of fights."

Despite his troubled circumstances, Dixon didn't succumb to the obvious temptations.

"A lot of kids were selling drugs and smoking marijuana, but he was always a good kid," Corenthia says. "Antonio would always come straight home. He would pray every night."

And as Dixon reached high school, his prayers began to be answered.

Dixon saw his father for the first time in prison when he was 15, a first step in re-establishing a relationship that eventually included regular phone calls and visits whenever possible.

His mother, now drug-free, found work in the kitchen at the same shelter in Miami's rundown Overtown neighborhood where she and her children had lived at six different times during the worst years.

Dixon's size - he's now 6-foot-3 and 322 pounds - made him a major asset to Tim Harris, the football coach at Miami's Booker T. Washington High, the only school Dixon attended for a prolonged period. The stability of staying in one spot allowed him, among other things, finally to learn to read.

Not only did the teasing about his stutter stop, but college coaches, particularly Miami recruiting coordinator Randy Shannon, started paying attention to the rising prospect.

"We thought Antonio could make it at Miami with our support system," says Shannon, now the Hurricanes' coach. "Tim Harris told me that Antonio wasn't a bad kid. He just hadn't had nobody to help him. We sent him to prep school so he could catch up."

Dixon attended Milford Academy in New Berlin, N.Y., riding a bus back and forth to Florida because he couldn't afford to fly.

Then he enrolled at Miami, striving to make up for lost time.

"We are very proud of Antonio," Shannon says. "He worked very hard for what he has accomplished. [A school assignment] that might take you or me 15, 20 minutes to read might take him an hour, but he would get it done."
Dixon spent long hours in Miami's academic support center when his fellow students and teammates were enjoying South Florida's warm weather and hot parties.

"I used to put in 20 hours a week in study hall when everybody else was out partying and having fun," Dixon says. "I had this tremendous opportunity. Why waste [it]?"

Dixon and tutor Kelly Pierce, later his academic adviser, virtually made the study center room and its Kurzweil text-to-speech synthesizer their own.

Dixon earned a liberal arts degree from Miami in four years, becoming the first person in his family to graduate from college.

And on June 13, Dixon was saluted in Miami as one of just six student-athletes nationwide to win the Wilma Rudolph award for persistence in overcoming hurdles to achieve on and off the field.

"It's beyond amazing what Antonio has achieved," Pierce says. "He was committed to being a role model for his brothers. He is someone you would idolize."

At Redskin Park, no one idolizes Dixon. As a rookie, he was assigned to lug veteran defensive tackle Cornelius Griffin's helmet off the practice field every day. The challenge he faces in making the Redskins is much tougher.
Griffin and five others are ahead of Dixon on the depth chart. Only four or five defensive tackles will be on the 53-man roster.

Still, Griffin has been impressed with Dixon, who started 10 games at Miami and recorded 62 tackles and 5.5 sacks.

"We [haven't had] pads on, but I can tell the run technique is there," Griffin says. "Antonio's big and strong. He wants to learn. He asks a lot of questions. His graduating after all he's been through speaks volumes about his character. The guy's a man."

However, often times Dixon is too much of a man. Physically, that is.

"Antonio hurt his back lifting here, and as soon as he did, he went up six pounds," says John Palermo, the Redskins' defensive line coach who also served as Dixon's position coach during his sophomore season. "His worst enemy is his weight. When it's 95, 98 degrees out here and we have two-a-days, that will be a real test for Antonio's conditioning. I see a great attitude, a good work ethic. He's got really good quickness for a big guy. He has good feet and hands. He's got a big upside to him.

"It's a tough road to hoe at defensive tackle, but it would be great if he could be on the practice squad and learn."
Dixon received a minimal signing bonus and will draw the $310,000 rookie minimum salary if he earns a roster spot.

If he doesn't, the practice squad would make a fine consolation prize for Dixon and his family.

"I am really proud of Antonio," Corenthia says. " If he puts his mind to something, he's going to do it. I know he's going to make it in the NFL because that's what he wants to do."



(washigtontimes.com)

ASHBURN - The little child sat in the homeless shelter, trying to figure a way out of this life. At that time, his answer was to pray. So he did it all the time. Little Antonio Dixon was hit by a grand slam of obstacles: he stuttered; had a learning disability; had a father in prison and was in and out of shelters.

That beat him up on occasion. It didn't beat him down.

And Dixon would make a constant vow to his mom.

"He always used to tell me he would take care of me when he was older," his mom said. "And when he said he wanted to do something, he did it."

He's on his way. Dixon is an undrafted rookie free agent practicing with the Washington Redskins, trying to make the roster at a stacked position (defensive tackle).

He's also one of six people in the country who will receive the Wilma Rudolph Student Athlete Achievement Award this Saturday, for overcoming tremendous obstacles to graduate. Dixon graduated with a degree in liberal arts from the University of Miami last month, the first in his family to graduate.

"I know I deserve [the award]," Dixon said. "When everyone else was partying and having fun, I'm doing my work."
He did it with a background few could match.

"Stuff would get good and then it would just turn bad," Dixon said. "And when it turned bad, it was real bad."
Dixon once estimated he attended 15 elementary schools. He was in and out of shelters in Miami and Atlanta six times, at least. Dyslexia prevented him from learning to read until the sixth grade. His stuttering has improved. Still, he often taps his knee or arm or even his chest when he struggles with words.

His mom was a single parent raising five kids. Dixon's dad, Frazier Hawkins, was released from prison two months ago after serving 17 years for drug trafficking charges. And the burden eventually got to Corenthia Dixon.

"I started using drugs and I was using for two years," Corenthia said. "I was really stressed out."

Because of that, for a year Antonio Dixon, then around 10, and his siblings lived in foster care. When they were reunited with their mom -- who would visit them every Sunday -- they again would occasionally live in shelters.
"We were in the shelter and he would try to hide from his friends," said his mom, who now works as a server in the kitchen at the Miami shelter they once lived in. "He would say, 'Why do we always have to come back here?' He would be sad some days É I used to see him in his room praying all the time."

By the time Antonio Dixon was in eighth grade, his mother had turned her life around. A couple years later they moved into an apartment. And Dixon attended only one high school (Booker T. Washington in Miami).

Football became a salvation for Dixon, who started playing in the ninth grade. He wasn't a star at Miami. But at 6-foot-3, 325 pounds, he has the size and ability to play inside, provided he controls weight issues.

He's a longshot to earn a roster spot. He also was a longshot to earn a college degree.

"He's the kind of guy you want to hug," said Redskins defensive line coach John Palermo, who coached him for one season at Miami. "He's such a good person and a hard worker."

Corenthia Dixon said, "I told him if he doesn't make the team [he's] still my son and I'm really proud for what [he] did already. He was like, 'I'm making the team.'"


(washigtonexaminer.com)

Signings among undrafted Canes: Antonio Dixon (Redskins), Bruce Johnson (Giants), Dwayne Hendricks (Giants). Tryouts this weekend: Chris Rutledge (Dolphins), Chris Zellner (Bucs), Anthony Reddick (Bears), Kayne Farquharson (Saints).


(miamiherald.com)

Not much activity so far for UM on the day after the NFL Draft.

The only player to land a free agent contract is defensive tackle Antonio Dixon, who signed with the Washington Redskins. The 6-foot-2, 325-pound Dixon had just 45 tackles and 2.5 sacks in his career, but has impressed scouts with his mobility. Dwayne Hendricks signed with the NY Giants as well.

Cornerbacks Bruce Johnson and Carlos Armour, receiver Kayne Farquharson, linebacker Glenn Cook and tackle Reggie Youngblood are among those still searching. Don't be surprised to see Johnson and Youngblood wind up with the New York Giants. Also, former troubled UM linebacker Willie Williams, who transferred after his freshman season, was picked up by the Green Bay Packers.

(sun-sentinel.com)