Dermontti Farra Dawson was born on June 17,1965 and is an American former professional football player who was a center and long snapper in the National Football League.
24 Facts About Dermontti Dawson
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Dermontti Dawson was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second round of the 1988 NFL Draft and spent his entire pro career with the team and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
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Dermontti Dawson was a nationally ranked high school track and field performer in the discus and shot put.
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Dermontti Dawson joined the football team as a junior after being recruited due to his size by the school's football coach.
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Dermontti Dawson was an all-state offensive tackle in high school and eventually accepted a football scholarship to attend the University of Kentucky.
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Dermontti Dawson was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second round of the 1988 NFL Draft.
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When Webster left the team following that season, Dermontti Dawson succeeded him as the starting center.
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Dermontti Dawson soon became one of the more respected players among the Steelers, and one of the best in the league at his position.
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Dermontti Dawson earned the name "Dirt" for the way he would try to grind defenders into the ground.
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Dermontti Dawson was very powerful and explosive, just a rare combination of quickness, explosion, and he was a very dependable player.
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Dermontti Dawson was named to seven consecutive Pro Bowls from 1992 to 1998 and was a six-time AP First-team All-Pro.
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Dermontti Dawson played in 170 consecutive games, the second-most in Steelers history, until severe hamstring injuries forced him to sit out nine games in 1999 and seven more games in 2000.
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Dermontti Dawson was released by the Steelers following the 2000 season partly due to these injuries and partly due to salary cap reasons.
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Dermontti Dawson opted to retire rather than trying to play for another team.
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Dermontti Dawson had exceptional quickness; I think that really the measure of a center is his ability to play against powerful guys that are lined up over him and try to bull-rush the pocket and collapse it in the middle so that the quarterback can't step up.
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Dermontti Dawson had great leverage and quickness with his hands and his feet where he did a great job of keeping that pocket clean for [Neil] O'Donnell and those guys who played behind him.
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Dermontti Dawson returned to Lexington after his retirement, where he spent several years as a real estate developer.
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Dermontti Dawson filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 2010 listing over $69 million in liabilities against just under $1.5 million in assets.
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Dermontti Dawson currently resides in San Diego, California, where he is a sales executive for a promotional products company.
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Dermontti Dawson served an internship in the Steelers scouting department in 2009 and served as an intern coach with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2010.
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Dermontti Dawson is a part owner of the Washington Wild Things, an independent league baseball team in Washington, Pennsylvania.
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Dermontti Dawson was named the first-team center on the National Football League 1990s All-Decade Team.
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Dermontti Dawson was appointed to the school's board of trustees by Kentucky governor Ernie Fletcher in 2005.
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Dermontti Dawson is a member of UK's College of Education's "Alumni Hall of Fame" and the UK Hall of Distinguished Alumni as well as a charter member of the UK Athletics Hall of Fame.