Antonio Dixon Gets To See A Charity Event From The Other Side

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)