#Watch: Brian Dawkins' NFL Hall of Fame Speech
"Oh boy, Hallelujah. First of all, Hallelujah!!"
"My shirt says, 'Blessed by the best,' the Lord has blessed me with so many individuals so, if it was up to me Hall of Fame, this is what I would do with my jacket. If you were if you would appease me, I would like to put every last individual that's special in my life in my jacket somewhere so every time that I put this thing on, it reminds me visually and emotionally that I did not do this by myself because I DID NOT DO THIS BY MYSELF."
"To my big brother Troy (Vincent), thank you. Thank you for the example that you set for me. You were a rabbit for me to chase. The way that you handled your business, your techniques on the field. I looked up to you, and that's why I had you present me. Thank you for being the man that you are. It allowed me to look at you, model myself after you, and become the man that I have become."
"P-Sapp (Patrick Sapp former Clemson quarterback), brother man, you were my rabbit. I chased you all through high school; rather you are that dude I wanted much success for. But what I wanted, I wanted to come get you. I wanted to supplant you to be 'that dude'. Listen I know I didn't do it by myself."
"So there's coaches, there's teachers, my family. I'll talk about them later. There's doctors because I was beat up quite a bit. Trainers, massage therapists, my teammates- listen, teammates. Listen, I have a healthy dose of" fear of letting you down". That's why I went so doggone hard. I never wanted to let you down. I did anything that I could do for you, I would do for you. I gave everything I had to the last drop for you because I've loved you so doggone much."
"When I put this jacket on Jacksonville became another Hall of Famer, the Northside, Duvall County became another Hall of Famer. Over on the north side of town, Yancy Park, you have a Hall of Famer. My Pop Warner team, Forest View, they have a Hall of Famer. My high school, Raines High School has a Hall of Famer. Clemson, you have a Hall of Famer and you are a Hall of Famer."
"Football was what I did; it is not who I am. It did not define me. I'll repeat the same things that Brian Urlacher said. I am a blessed man of God, and the Lord has blessed me to do the things that I do. So nothing just happens in my life. The majority of success that I have had have come on the back end of pain. Pain has pushed me to levels unknown to me at the time. All I know is that there was pain, but on the other side of it, all of a sudden, I became better in an area. So when we go through those situations in our lives, pain helps you develop those things that is going to take you to the next level of whatever it is, the Lord has for you. Believe that. I'm a living testimony of that."
"There was a purpose for more pain. There's a purpose for my pain. As you've been listening, all you probably read all this week, I suffer from depression. I went through a moderately during my rookie year. I suffered through suicidal thoughts and I wasn't just suffering through suicidal thoughts, I was actually planning the way that I would kill myself, so my wife would get the money. But what that pain did for me, it increased my faith exponentially. I have grown leaps and bounds because of the things that I've gone through, and that's one of those things that I went through. When I say went through, that means I came out on the other side of it. So for those who are going through right now, there's hope. You do have hope. There is something on the other side of this. Don't get caught up where you are. Don't stay where you are. Keep moving. Keep pushing through."
"It wasn't supposed to be me this. This wasn't supposed to happen to Brian Dawkins. I was not the biggest of guys growing up. I was not always "the dude" that's why I was chasing Pat so doggone much. It was never me. I was always called little this, little that, I got tired of that crap! So I grew a chip on my shoulder, but also what began to grow was anger in me and that anger in me became violent anger that I could lose control of every once in a while, and the Lord spoke to me. He said, "When you have that type of energy, let's think about water, let's think about a flood, it washes everything out of this way. But when you put a dam up, then you put vents in it to allow water to flow through the dam it gives you energy endless. So when you see me crawling like that when you see me acting a fool that's some of that energy that I had from that anger that I had to bottle up. That chip on my shoulder."
"I'm not looking down on those who talked about me, but I want to thank my haters. I want to thank those people that told me that I wouldn't be where I am today, that I couldn't make it because I was too small, because I couldn't do this, that or the other. But what the Lord told me was, listen, you know, the turbines that you have that the wind pushes you can generate energy from it. Guess what their words were to me? They just pushed my turbine. They gave me even more energy. So my haters became my elevators. They helped me out. So thank you, thank you for all those who kept doubting me and told me what I couldn't do."
"I have some thank yous to get through. Coach Stephens, my high school coach is here today. Coach Stephens, I want to thank you for allowing me to play defense coach! And not let me play offense. When I asked you can I go to the defensive side of the ball, you said yes! Coach Stephens, I thank you for that because on that defensive side of the ball is where I love and where I lived and where I was blessed to be. So thank you."
"Coach Black was my high school defensive back coach. I want to thank you for allowing me to come into your office when I was struggling in school. When I was questioning could I even go to college because I didn't know what I didn't know at that time and it was it was struggling so hard for me to learn and you tutored me. You helped me. You brought people into the classroom to help me get my grades up to even get a chance to go to Clemson. Listen, you didn't know this, my major is because of you Industrial Education, Human Resource Development is because of you. Thank you for your trust in me. Thank you."
"To my late basketball coach, Coach Humphrey. What Coach Humphrey taught me is that if he can't break me, nobody can because we ran more than the track team. We did so many things, usually, people would run 20 laps, 15 laps. Coach Humphrey? We'd have 100 laps, 50 laps, 75 laps. There were times we didn't touch the ball we ran the whole practice and then we would think we're about to start doing some basketball drills and he would say, 'Alright, see you next time.' So when I went through that, that pain, what he taught me was that if he can't break me, nobody can break me. So what he did Philadelphia, he got me mentally strong to be able to survive, anything that you could dish out to me."
"I want to thank Ray Rhodes, Mr. John Wooten who believed in me, bringing me. I want to thank Mr. Jeffrey Lurie. Thank you for bringing me to the Philadelphia Eagles. For trusting in me, a smaller safety from Jacksonville, Florida. Emmitt Thomas, Emmitt, I want to thank you. I want to thank you so much. I can't look at you because I'm going to start crying. You blessed me. I call you Uncle Emmitt for a reason. When I was in those depressive states when I was thinking about suicide, it was because of your hand, your guidance and your believing in me helping me to go see somebody about the struggles that I was having, to allow me to be alive today. So you're one of those guardian angels. Blessed by the best, yes. I've been blessed, and he's one of the best that I'm talking about, so Emmitt thank you. But also what Emmitt did for me, he wouldn't let me settle for average. He would not let me settle for good. He saw greatness in me that I did not see. He saw something in me. He would not let me settle. He kept pushing. It was hard. I was angry sometimes. Like, 'Man I had a great game! No, you didn't you should have made that. You saw that play? You should have made this,' So he kept pushing me, so the player that Jim Johnson got, and I'm going to thank him in a second, the player that Jim Johnson got to do everything that he did is because of you and your love for me. So thank you, Uncle Emmitt. Thank you. To the late great Jim Johnson, Jim, thank you. Thank you. I know Jim is looking down on us and it's because of Jim and the way that he used me all over the field, I'm blessed to put up the numbers that I put up. So thank you, Jim. Andy Reid, I want to thank you for believing in this smallish safety as well. You trusted me to lead. Andy what you did also is you continued to help me up when I was trying to do too much, Andy. You always brought me back down so that I can do my job first, and help others second. So thank you, Andy."
"The greatness in my jeans. I want to talk about because there's, I knew some of it. I didn't know all of it, but there is greatness in these jeans. My grandma, Altamese Dawkins, just celebrated her 100th birthday in July. 100 and she sung a couple of songs in an opera voice. So she still has her wits. He still has her lung capacity, and those are wonderful things both of those. But she is an anointed woman of God. So what I saw in her is what a Christian really was, so I saw it on a daily basis, who that was. I can look to her to understand what I need to do to be something like her because I love her to death and I thank God for her being in my life."
"There's my grandfather Ralph Dawkins, Sr. He was the first African American golfer to win a tournament in the state of Florida in an African American golf tournament. So there was greatness in there. My mom. My mom, My mom, My mom. Mom, you want to know where the fighter in me comes from? That's my mom. My mom. My mom has survived a couple of strokes. She survived breast cancer. Don't let that sheepish smile for you. She's a pit bull when it's all said and done. She looks after her family, and she told me this. She said, 'Brian if you ever get In a fight, don't start it, but finish it. If they're bigger than you, pick up something and knock the $%^# out of them until they come get you off of them. So that's why I finish everything. If we gonna fight, we're gonna fight. You may whoop me but we're gonna fight, and they're gonna have to come get me off you. That came from my mom."
"My dad, I thank you Pops. You see the lid he's wearing? You see I wear those type of lids too? That's because of that man right there. I love him to death and what he blessed me. He showed me what a man is supposed to be. How he supposed to treat a wife. How he supposed to be a giver, a provider. My dad worked sometimes, two to three jobs, hustle jobs to bring the ends home to us. So Pops, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And here's the other thing my dad taught me. When I wanted to quit in one of those painful situations in Pop Warner, my dad told me when you start something you finish it. You don't have a bad attitude I bet not have a coach come home, talking to me about you having a bad attitude. When you start something, you finish it. I think also because he paid his money. He was like, you know, what that did is there's a finisher in me. There's a finisher in me that won't quit, and those to my mom and my dad provided with me something that now you see in front of you. That grit, that determination, that fire and then that ability to never quit to never give in came from my mom and dad. Thank you."
"I wanna thank my kids. Brian Jr., I'm proud I gave you my name, brother. I'm proud I gave you my name. I'm proud of the young man you're becoming. Brionni, I love you. I love the personality that you have. I love you, sweetheart. The twins, that's where a lot of times people will say twins they say, 'Oh, double trouble,' nope double-blessings, because that's what they are to me. Chonni and CC, love you, love you, love you. What I wanted to provide for you one of the most important things that you can have and that's a powerful name. So I pray that the name that I'm gonna give you will bless you to get a step up real quick in this world. So I'm going to continue to build this name because I'm still growing. I'm still able to live my life, but I want to let you know that I live the life that I lived for them, yes, but for you first. So thank you."
"I want to make sure that I acknowledge my sister Marion and my brother Ralph Dawkins, III. Ralph, thank you for what you showed me. You showed me that it's possible for me to get out of Jacksonville to go to college and I saw that through you. I saw that it was possible to even get to the NFL because you got there first. So I saw that in you, and I saw your work ethic, and I modeled myself, some of this stupid stuff that I did, I would go and run in the heat of the day in Jacksonville, Florida with a trash bag on. Now. Pat just told you that I was always skinny now. My brother was doing it because he was trying to slim down a little bit, so I saw him do it, and I did it, which was very dumb, but all those things I did because I saw you, I saw you."
"Last but not least is my beautiful bride Connie. Blessed by the best once again. The other part of me being here is because of that woman because of Connie. Because of you, because of you urging me to go see a psychologist to talk about my problems and to be more open with you about my problems so that we can talk things out. You prayed for me. You were there for me. You would not let me settle, and for that, I want to present something to you today. So I have my gold jacket, right? What I want to present to you is something golden as well. Can we get that out? So can we get that out real quick? Yes. Could you stand up, sweetheart, and put that gold veil on right there. Yeah, that's my hall of fame wife right there. Yes, sir. That's my hall of fame bride right there."
"Don't settle in this life. Don't settle. Don't allow yourself to settle. Push through the pain. On the other side of that pain is something special for you to go on to the next level of what God has for you."
"Now see my number is 313, right? So three, I think about the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. That's the Trinity, right? The second 13, I think about my birthday, because I was born October 13, 1973. Now if you add three plus one plus three, I believe that seven. So many of you believe that would be what? The number of completion, right? So this chapter of my life is completed. It is, but I believe that this next chapter was going to be something special with his guidance. The only way that I can have that thought in my head is the fact that I think and I believe that there's gonna be some painful things to come. I know it is, but I'm prepared for the pain. I'm prepared to push through it. I'm gonna persevere through it with his help, and his guidance. With that purpose and with that pain, I'm going to be able to bless so many more people, with what God has put inside of me. So thank you. Thank You. Thank you."
"And finally! Let's talk about these Eagles fans. I know some of you drove all the way from Philly here and I have a good understanding that you don't have money just a waste. So that means, that means that you put hard earned money that you were saving to come out here to celebrate with your boy! So thank you. Thank you for loving me the way that I loved you back. I thank you for everything."
"And finally, what I want to say is thank you, Heavenly Father, for blessing me with the sense to understand that I did not do anything by myself, that you have guided me the whole way. I've had wonderful people around me that you place in perfect positions to reach me. You orchestrated my life, even though my plans wanted to do the opposite. You stayed faithful to me, and you continue to push me, and you continue to pull me towards the purpose. So I thank you Heavenly Father, and I can't wait to see what you're going to do with me next. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."