Brian Dawkins Wants to Save Your Life

Brian Dawkins Wants to Save Your Life originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

Brian Dawkins has already attained football immortality, but he's still laser-focused on maximizing every ounce of his mortal life away from the gridiron.

Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018, Dawkins spent 16 seasons in the NFL, 13 of them with the Philadelphia Eagles. One of the most fearsome and iconic defenders to ever roam from the safety position, Dawkins' punishing style of play and knack for making highlight reel plays earned him the moniker, "Weapon X."

Dawkins still looks like he could suit up again for the Eagles tomorrow, and his dedication to being in peak physical condition helped him become a four-time first-team All-Pro. He earned three of his nine Pro Bowl nods over the final four years of his career, including in his final season with the Denver Broncos at 38 years old.

That same mentality of prioritizing his health has remained with Dawkins since stepping away from the game.

"One of the things I’ve done in my life, especially as a professional football player, is be very proactive about life, but also when it comes to my health," Dawkins says. "And that same mindset is where I am in retirement, as well."

He also wants to pass that mindset along to others, helping to improve the quality and longevity of their lives.

To that end, Dawkins is working with the "It Takes 2" campaign to raise awareness about the importance of early testing for kidney disease, referencing the two medical tests that can help reveal important information about risk factors.

"Once I found out that information, the first people that came to my mind were my parents, because they both have Type 2 diabetes, and they’ve both battled high blood pressure," Dawkins said. "So, when I got this information, I passed it along to them and their caregivers for them to get the tests that they needed.

Dawkins knows he's not alone when it comes to valuing the health and wellbeing of loved ones, which is a huge motivation for him to pass the word along regarding this initiative.

"When I said those two conditions, Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, if there’s someone that popped into your head, please send that person this information. It could potentially have them here living longer and healthier."

'I Should've Been a 1st-Round Pick'

In college, Dawkins earned All-ACC honors three years in a row at Clemson, and was a second-team All-American in 1995. Heading into the 1996 NFL Draft, Dawkins had high expectations for where he should come off the board, and a strong idea of which team would land him.

He was wrong on both counts.

"I thought I was gonna go to Kansas City, because they were the only team that really came out to take me and my wife out to dinner," Dawkins recalls. "I thought I was gonna be a Kansas City Chief in the first round. It didn’t turn out to be that way."

The Chiefs did take a safety in the first round, but it wasn't Dawkins. Instead, they picked Jerome Woods out of Memphis with the 28th overall selection. Woods spent 10 seasons in the NFL, all with the Chiefs, making the Pro Bowl once in 2003.

Dawkins fell out of the first round entirely, and then watched the second round dwindle without hearing his name called.

"The whole second round went by, pick after pick after pick," Dawkins says. "And in my mind, I should’ve been a first-round pick, so I was getting frustrated, getting real angry with that."

The final slot of the second round was a compensatory selection owned by the Eagles, an extra pick they received because of Seth Joyner's departure in free agency the offseason before.

"People need to thank Seth Joyner for me coming to Philadelphia," Dawkins says with a chuckle.

Dawkins finally had a home in the NFL with that No. 61 overall selection, but the fire had been lit for a player who felt like he went two rounds too late.

"Me being in that position, I basically considered myself a third-round pick, and I used that as motivation throughout my career," Dawkins says. "Like, ‘I should’ve been a first-round pick, and I’m gonna show everybody who didn’t draft me why you should’ve drafted me, and I should’ve been in the first round.’ That was my mindset."

That mindset would help propel Dawkins to NFL stardom, making him one of the most iconic and beloved players in Eagles history, and he's happy to pass along the value of that chip on his shoulder to any future prospects who feel doubted or overlooked.

"Use it," Dawkins says. "Bottle it up and use it. Use it in your workouts, use it in your preparation. Use it."

'I Didn't Know Who I Really Was'

Regardless of his slot on draft day, landing in Philly was a huge win for Dawkins, who found the people and organizational culture that would eventually develop him into one of the best defensive players in all of pro football.

The most important figure in Dawkins' early years with the Eagles was defensive coordinator Emmitt Thomas, who knows a thing or two about what it takes to be a Hall of Fame defensive back. During his own 13-year NFL career (spent entirely with the Chiefs), Thomas grabbed 58 interceptions, which still ranks 12th in NFL history. He got his own gold jacket and bronze bust in Canton back in 2008.

"I didn’t know who I really was when I got to the NFL. He’s the one that woke up who I really was," Dawkins says of Thomas, who led the Philly defense for Dawkins' first three seasons. "He introduced me to who I really was. He saw something in me that I couldn’t see. So, I believed in his vision of me before I could recognize what I could do, and I began to come up with my own visions for myself."

After Thomas followed head coach Ray Rhodes to Green Bay, he was replaced by Jim Johnson under Andy Reid. Dawkins took his play to another level under Johnson's direction, realizing the lofty potential Thomas always saw in him during those early years, maximizing his versatility and playmaking skills.

"Jim got that confident player," Dawkins says. "That player was a chess piece. He used me all over the place. That versatility was something that added to the defense. It allowed us to do a whole lot more, because I was able to do a whole lot more."

Dawkins has enjoyed seeing resurgence in the value placed on dynamic safeties in the modern NFL game, with more players throughout the league being deployed in a similar way to how he was used during his prime in Philadelphia.

"That same premise, that same mindset that Jim used with me, has been perpetuated, and all of these different defensive coordinators have taken their version of it, to make sure the guys they bring in are ‘multiple’ guys, they’re chess pieces that can move all over," Dawkins says.

While in years past, some around the league might have viewed the ability to handle multiple alignments and responsibilities as a limitation rather than an advantage, Dawkins is happy to see coaches and teams recognizing the benefit that versatility brings to every level of a modern NFL defense.

"Obviously, you’re gonna have your corners who stay on the outside for the most part. But everybody inside…even the linebackers have to have the ability to cover a little bit more, to blitz a little bit more…you can’t just be a ‘niche’ guy anymore in the National Football League, especially with these spread offenses, and the things that they do," Dawkins says. "Because of that, the appreciation for the versatility of a guy…at one point, you would be called a ‘tweener’ as a negative thing, right? Today, that’s a great thing, because we can use you all over the place. The whole mindset has shifted, which is a great thing, and it’s allowing these guys to make a whole lot more cheese than I did."

'We Are Human'

It was already a daunting task for even the best defenders in the NFL, like Dawkins, to slow down high-powered NFL offenses that were led by fellow superstars such as Tom Brady and Peyton Manning in their primes.

It's become even harder, with more superstar quarterbacks than ever before, and an ever-changing rulebook that always seems to tip the scales further and further away from the defense.

I ask Dawkins if there's anything about the way the game used to be played (and officiated) that he wishes would return in the present day, but he knows that ship has sailed.

"Things will never go back to the way they were," Dawkins says, laughing. "That’s not happening, so you might as well hang it up. It’s never happening. But I understand why they’ve made some of the changes they’ve made. I really, really do."

Even so, Dawkins has some common-sense criticism for the way the league continues to enforce certain contact rules that don't just penalize defenders on the field, but also hit them in the wallet after the fact, pointing out simple realities of physics that don't seem to be taken into account when flags are thrown.

"The problem is, the verbiage they use when it comes to the defender," Dawkins says. "If you're the defender, you’re in charge of everything. If I go in to make a tackle on a guy, if I lower my shoulder, if I lower my head…and last time I checked, my head is still close to my shoulder, so if I lower my shoulder, my head’s gonna come down there with me, right? I can’t lower my shoulder and keep my head up. When I do that, and then the receiver lowers and we go helmet-to-helmet, there’s nothing that I can do about that at that point, right? I came in lower like I was supposed to, but then he ducked down. That should no longer be something I’m getting fined for. Not just flagged, but fined. They have not adjusted that."

He's not naive enough to think the league will ever swing the rules pendulum back toward his side of the ball, but Dawkins does wish the league would give teams more in-game options to verify that defenders are actually breaking the rules.

"It’s still an offensive league; it will forever be an offensive league," Dawkins says. "They will always make rules to lean more heavily toward the offense. I get it, but in that regard, they won’t make that change. We are human. There are things we can control, and there are things we cannot control. I can’t control what this other cat is doing. That’s the element of the game that’s still frustrating for me. They throw those flags, and there’s no recourse. There’s no, ‘Can we look at that, can we see if that’s the case?’ Maybe you take it to the league office, and they can say, ‘Nah, that was clean.’ Maybe you have a couple of those per game that you can use."

Dawkins would love to see the league use the various advancements in gameday technology at their disposal to help players avoid gratuitous penalties and unnecessary fines.

"If you’re gonna use technology, use doggone technology, and allow these guys to keep some of their cheese in their pockets," Dawkins says.

'You've Got to Have a Different Mentality'

A few years after he retired as a player, Dawkins returned to the Eagles organization, this time in a front-office role.

Dawkins spent two years in the team's scouting department as a football operations executive working with player development, giving him a front-row seat to the deep and detailed process that helped cultivate and maintain the consistency of the championship culture in Philly.

"The thing that I picked out the most from that experience is the appreciation I have for those people," Dawkins says of the Eagles' scouting department. "The work they put in, the hours they put in, the quality of the eye that they have for the talent that’s brought to Philadelphia. It all starts with their eyes on those players first, and they’re trusted. Those players who are brought in are based on the eyes that were placed on them first, by the writeups from those scouts, and that’s obviously passed to (general manager) Howie (Roseman) and the crew."

The life and schedule of an NFL scout are rarely (if ever) glamorous, and Dawkins saw first-hand the amount of effort and dedication that goes into evaluating not just the best players, but the ones who will be the right fit for their franchise.

"The hours, the traveling, the amount of time they’re away from their families," Dawkins says. "And some of those cats are lifers; they’ve been in this thing for a long time. That’s a lot of hours that they log to make sure that the talent is there, yes, but also the mentality is there. Especially in Philadelphia. You've got to have a different mentality to play in Philadelphia. You just have to. So, for them to understand that, and to be able to bring those types of players to the surface, to bring them in and help build that culture…my eyes were opened wide to the quality of those cats. I would love for them to get a whole lot more props than they get."

Speaking of those players, Dawkins has some sage advice for prospects making the jump from the college ranks to the pros.

"When you walk into the building, make sure that your eyes are wide open," Dawkins recommends. "That you’re watching, especially the veteran guys, if there’s a culture that’s been there for a while. When you go to Philadelphia, there’s a culture that’s been put in place, right? So, begin to watch some of the older guys. Same thing with Kansas City, the two teams that were just in the Super Bowl, right? There’s a culture of winning that’s been established."

Dawkins says finding those experienced teammates is critical for young players to reach their full potential on the field, and also when it's time to learn important things about life away from the game.

"You want to find out, ‘What is this culture like?’ Ask questions," Dawkins says. "Find a veteran that can hopefully take you under their wing and show you how things go. That veteran will probably also help you if you ask about financial things. ‘Who do you use, or who’s someone I can talk to?’ To make sure that you’re very frugal with your spending early on, instead of just splurging on everything."

Whether it's helping young players have everything they need to become Pro Bowlers and All-Pros like he was, or raising awareness for important health screenings that can save lives, Dawkins is grateful his on-field success has given him the ability to have a positive influence in every way possible.

"Now that I have that information, I also feel obligated to share it with other individuals," Dawkins says. "I’m blessed to have a platform to be able to share this."

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 29, 2025, where it first appeared.