Brian Dawkins was almost a Gamecock, but Patrick Sapp had other ideas |
Brian Dawkins is one of the most decorated players in Clemson football history, and no one would question you if you said he’s the best player in program history simply because he’s the Tigers’ only Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee. But Dawkins didn’t always want to be a Tiger – he wanted to be a South Carolina Gamecock. Thanks to Patrick Sapp and the lack of interest from the Gamecocks, Dawkins wound up in orange instead of garnet.
A three-year starter at free safety for the Tigers, he finished his Clemson career with 247 tackles and 11 interceptions. He received first-team All-ACC Honors in 1995 and was selected by the Associated Press and Sporting News as a second-team All-American as a senior when his team-high six interceptions tied him for the conference lead. He was named the first-team strong safety on Clemson's all-centennial team in 1996 and was selected to their Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009. On January 11, 2013, Clemson University established the Brian Dawkins Lifetime Achievement Award to annually honor a former Clemson player for their performance on the field, contributions in leadership and community service. After being selected in the second round of the 1996 draft, the nine-time Pro Bowler spent 13 of his 16 years in the NFL in Philadelphia with the Eagles. Dawkins is still the only defensive player in league history to record 25 or more interceptions, sacks and forced fumbles. However, Dawkins wasn’t always destined to be a Tiger. Sapp, who played for the Tigers and four years in the NFL, had been friends with Dawkins since junior high school. The two lived in different neighborhoods but attended the same school and rode the same bus each morning. The duo became fast friends and played AAU basketball together and played football on the same junior high team and then varsity for Raines High School in Jacksonville. Sapp was the highly-recruited athlete that everyone wanted, however. “Patrick Sapp is still a good friend of mine to this day. He was highly-recruited and he would be a 4-star or probably a 5-star in today’s ratings,” Dawkins said on the “Glen and Ray Show” in Philadelphia earlier this week. “That is how big he was in Jacksonville and the nation, really. If you went to Jacksonville, everybody knew who Patrick Sapp was. He was not only good at football, he was good at basketball as well. He was all-state and all of those things in those two sports.” Sapp knew late in the process that he wanted to go to Clemson. “Clemson had a history of playing black quarterbacks. At the time, Florida hadn't played a brother at quarterback. Miami really didn't,” Sapp told TigerNet. “And the University of Florida didn't. I was leaning towards Florida State because of Brad Scott. He had been recruiting me since 10th grade and I had really bonded with him. I just felt more comfortable with Clemson and coach (Rick) Stockstill.” Meanwhile, there weren’t many schools taking an interest in Dawkins, the future Hall of Famer. “The time came for me to make a decision, and I made the decision earlier to go to Florida, but because of my grades they took back the scholarship. Being from Florida, that is one of the schools I wanted to go to and I had the opportunity to go to, but because of my grades and I wasn’t a big enough recruit, they took the scholarship back and I had nowhere to go,” Dawkins said. “And then South Carolina had me on their radar, and I tried to call them to tell them that I wanted to come there, and I couldn’t get in touch with anybody. “I know now that if they don’t talk to you and don’t call you back, you are no longer on the radar. So boom, that was out the window. And so Pat called me that night and asked where I was thinking about going, and I told him I was thinking about going to South Carolina. But he said, ‘Don’t go there. They don’t send anybody to the pros on defense from there.’ So then he told me he wanted to make a phone call, and asked me if I was cool going to Clemson. And I told him I would love to go to Clemson.” Sapp was insistent that his friend not choose the Gamecocks, whether they called him back or not. “We literally looked at the brand of South Carolina as an East Carolina type of school. They didn't have the brand us Florida kids were used to. But Clemson was on TV and playing in big bowl games every year and were playing in the Gator Bowl and it was a big-time program,” Sapp said. “We talked through the whole recruiting process and everything that was going on with him. I think Louisville offered but his brother went there and he didn't want to go there, and Florida offered and then backed out. And I think South Carolina was the only other Division I school that was interested in him. “And he called me, probably a week before National Signing Day, and said he was calling South Carolina and said they wouldn't return his calls. And he was scared about that and was wondering where he was going to go. I was leaning towards Clemson and hadn't said anything, so I asked him if he wanted to go to Clemson and he said yes. So, I called Stock (Rick Stockstill) and said, 'Look man, I really want Brian to come.' And Stock said it was a done deal and that is how we got to Clemson.” Dawkins didn’t know at the time that he was part of a package deal. “So he called Clemson and told them that if he went to Clemson, then Brian has to come, too. I didn’t know that,” Dawkins said. “I thought they wanted me. How I got there was somebody looking out for me and taking a chance on me. Not a lot of me was expected when I got there. When I got there, I was 5-10, 175-pounds soaking wet. They had two other safeties in that class, Leomont Evans and Andre Carter, and those guys were 6-1, 6-2, 215-pounds, and that was their vision for a safety. “I was not that vision. So now, I understand why I was treated the way I was treated. Anything I did wasn’t good enough. Anything I did, I had to earn my way, and that was on special teams. And I was a special teams demon. I won the special teams award every week and that is how I started to earn the respect of the older guys and my teammates. The opportunity that was given to me was given to me by somebody else and I took full advantage of it.” The rest is history. Dawkins went on to have a stellar collegiate career and then fashioned his Hall of Fame career in the NFL, but none of that would have happened if not for a friend he met on a school bus. None of it would have happened without Patrick Sapp. “I go out on the speaking circuit sometimes and I tell this story,” Sapp said with a laugh. “And I think to myself that Clemson might owe me a little something for doing that.” Clemson owes you, and Dawkins owes you.
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