We will call it a week. First of all... Hallelujah! So as you look on my shirt it says blessed by the best And throughout my life, 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 would appease me, I would like to put every last one of the individuals that I told you was special in my life in my jacket somewhere. Alright?
So every time that I put this thing on, it reminds me. It reminds me visually and emotionally that I did not do this by myself because I did not do this by myself. I did not.
To my big brother Troy, brother, I thank you. I thank you for the example that you set for me. Like, you were a rabbit for me to chase.
The way that you handled your business, the way that you, techniques on the field, I looked up to you. And that's why I had you present me. So thank you for being the man that you are that allowed me to look at you, model myself after you, and become the man that I have become.
Thank you, my brother. Peace out, peace out. Brother man, you were my rabbit I chased all through high school, brother.
You were that dude, I wanted much success for you, but what I wanted, I wanted to come get you, brother. I wanted to supplant you, to be... that dude listen I know I didn't do it by myself and so there's coaches there's teachers my family I'll talk about them later there's doctors because I'm a physical safety so I was beat up quite a bit trainers massage therapists my teammates listen teammates listen I had 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 didn't.
Anything that I can do for you, you know I would do for you. And it's not just those who are sitting here looking at me now, but all of you looking at this on TV. I gave everything I had to the last drop for you because I loved you so doggone much. So thank you.
So when I put this jacket on, Jacksonville became another Hall of Famer. The north side, Duval County, became another Hall of Famer. Over on the north side of town, Yancey Park, they have a Hall of Famer.
My high school, Pop Warner, excuse me, 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 defy 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. 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 for me at the time. I know that that 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 See there's a purpose for my pain. There's a purpose for my pain.
As you've been listening all and you've probably read all this week, I suffer from depression. I went through it mightily my rookie year. I've 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. Not yet, not yet. 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. And when I say went through, that means I came 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 wasn't supposed to happen to Brian Dawkins. It was not.
I was not the biggest of guys growing up. I was not always the dude. That's why I was chasing Pat so dog on much.
But it was never me. And I was always called little this, little that. And I got tired of that crap. And 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.
but lose control of everyone to the wild and the lord spoke to me he said when you have that type of energy just let's think about a water let's think about a flood when the flood comes it comes and it washes everything out of its way but when you put a dam up And 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 the fool, that's some of that energy that I let out from that angle that I had bottled up. Yeah.
That chip on my shoulder. And I'm not looking down on those who talked about me, but I want to thank for my haters. I want to thank those people that told me through other people that I wouldn't be where I am today, that I couldn't make it because I was too small. 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 and 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. I have to be respectful of others times.
I got some thank yous to get to. Coach Stevens, my high school coach, he's here today. Coach Stevens, I want to thank you. And I want to thank you for allowing me to be here. to play defense coach and not let me play offense when I asked you could I go to the defensive side of the ball you said yes and coach Stevens I thank you for that because on that defensive side of the ball is where I love and where I live and where I'm blessed to be so thank you coach Black Coach Black was my high school defensive back, Black, defensive back coach.
Coach Black, here's what I want to tell you. I want to thank you for allowing me to come into your office when I was struggling in school. When I was questioning...
I even go to college because I didn't know what I didn't know at that time and it was strong it was so hard for me to learn you tutored me you help me you brought people into the classroom to help tutor me to help me get my grades up to even get a chance to go to Clemson. So, listen, you didn't know this, my major is because of you. Industrial education, human resource development is because of you. So thank you for your trust in me. Thank you for showing me the way, brother.
Thank you. To my late grade, to my late high school basketball coach, Coach Humphrey, he's not here, but what Coach Humphrey taught me is that if he can't break me, nobody can, because we ran more than a track team. So many things.
Usually when people would run 20 laps, 15 laps, Coach Humphrey would have us run 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.
He would say all right. 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't break me. So what he did is Philadelphia He got me mentally strong to be able to survive anything that you can dish out to me I want to thank Ray Rhodes, Mr. John Wooten for believing in me, bringing me. I want to thank Mr. Jeffrey Lurie. Thank you for bringing me to the Philadelphia Eagles, for trusting in me, for the safety from Jacksonville Quarter.
I'm going to try to hold on to it right now. Emmitt Thomas. Alright Emmett, I want to thank you.
I want to thank you. Where you at E? Where you at E? I can't look at you, I'm going to start crying. E!
You blessed me. I call you Uncle Emmett 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 and angels that blessed by the best yes I've been blessed he's one of the best that I'm talking about so thank you but also what did for me is Emmett would not 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 and he would not let me settle He kept pushing me.
It was hard. I was angry sometimes. Like, man, I had a good 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 E.T., 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 Emmett. Thank you.
Then there's Jim Johnson, the late great Jim Johnson. Jim, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I know Jim is looking down on us. I know he's looking down on us and it's because of Jim and the way that he used me all over the field that I'm blessed to put up the numbers that I put up and bless my teammates the way and bless the city the way that I blessed it.
So thank you, Jim. Andy Reid, I want to thank you for believing in this small and safe as well. You trusted me to leave. You trusted me to leave. And Andy, what you did also, you continued to help me out when I was trying to do too much, Andy.
You always brought me back down to not going to do my job first and then help others second. So thank you, Andy. I got some, I got some, the greatness coming at me right now.
The greatness in my genes I want to talk about. Because there's, I knew some of it, I didn't know all of it, but there's greatness in these genes. There's greatness.
See, my grandma, Alchemist Dawkins, just celebrated her 100th birthday in July. 100! And she sung a melody, a couple of songs in an opera voice.
So she still has her wits, she 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 on a daily basis who that was. I can look to her, 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. Then there's my grandfather. My grandfather Ralph Dawkins Sr. 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 like, you want to know where the fighter in me come from? Yeah, that's my mom.
That's my mom. My mom. My mom has survived a couple of strokes.
She survived breast cancer. And don't let that stupid smile fool you like she's a pit bull when it's all said and done. She looks after her family and she told me this.
She said, Ryan, if you ever get in a fight, don't start it, but finish it. And if they're bigger than you... And if they're bigger than you, pick up something and knock them out of them until they come get you off of them.
So that's why I finished everything. If we're going to fight, we're going to fight. You may woo me, but we're going to fight.
They're going to have to come get me off you. And that came from my mom. My dad, I thank you pops.
Man, the reason why, can you see the lid that he's wearing? You see, I wear those type of lids too, don't I? 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's supposed to treat a wife.
How he's supposed to be a giver, a provider. My dad worked sometimes two and three jobs, hustle jobs, to bring the ends meet 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. And you don't have a bad attitude.
I better not have a coach come home and talk to me, you're having a bad attitude. When you start something, you finish it. I think also because he paid his money, he was like, you know.
But what that did is, there's a finisher in me. There's a finisher in me that won't quit. And those two, my mom and my dad, provided with me something that now you see in front of you.
That grit, that determination, that fire. Then that ability to never quit to never give in came from my mom and dad Thank you. I want my kids Why in junior? 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 Briani. Love you.
I love the personality that you have I love you, sweetheart the twins the twins now a lot of times when people say twins they say oh double trouble No, oh double blessings because that's what they are to me Charlie ZZ, love you, love you, love you. And what I wanted to provide for you, I want 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 going to give you will bless you to get a step up real quick in this world.
So I'm going to continue to bend and build this name because I'm still growing, right? I'm still able to live my life. But I want to let you know that I live the life that I live.
For them, yes, but for you first. So thank you. I want to make sure I acknowledge my sister Marion and my brother Ralph Dawkins Jr. Excuse me, the third. I'm all over the place.
The third, Ralph, I thank you for what you showed me. You showed me that it's possible for me to get out of jail. to go to college and I saw that through you and 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 some of that stuff.
So some of the stupid stuff that I did was I would go and run in the heat of the day in Jacksonville, Florida with a bag on, a trash bag on. Now Pat just told you I was already skinny. Now my brother was doing it because he was trying to, you know, 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. Now, last but not least, is my beautiful Rod Connie. The 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 your urging me to go see a psychologist to go up to.
talk about my problems and be more open with you about my problems so 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. All right.
So I have my gold jacket, right? But what I want to present to you, sweetheart, is something golden as well. So can we get that out real quick?
Yes, could you stand up sweetheart? Can you put that gold, that gold veil on right there? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, that's my hall of fame wife right there. Yes sir. That's my hall of fame girl right there. Yes.
Don't settle. 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 into the next level of what God has for you. Now see, my number... is 313 right so three i think about okay the first three i think about the father the son the holy spirit that's just trinity right the second 13 i think about my birthday because i was born the october 13th in 1973 three now if you add three plus one plus three I believe that's seven and so many of you believe that to be what the number of completion huh 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.
And the only way that I can have that thought in my head is the fact that I think and I believe that there's going to be some painful things to come. It is. I know it is.
But I'm prepared for the pain. I'm prepared to push through it. I'm going to persevere through it with his help and his guidance. And 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.
Some of you drove all the way from Philly here. Listen, I have a good understanding that you don't have money just to waste. So that means that you put hard-earned money that you could be saving to come out here and celebrate with your boy. So thank you!
Thank you for loving me the way that I love you. I love you back. And I thank you. Thank you for everything. And finally, what I want to say is, thank you Heavenly Father.
Thank you Heavenly Father. Father, for blessing me with the sense to understand that I did not do everything by myself, that you have guided me the whole way, that I've had wonderful people around me, that you've placed in perfect positions to reach me, that you've orchestrated my life even though my... plans for you to do the opposite you stand 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 I can't wait to see what you're gonna do with me next thank you thank you thank you quarter of a speech Dawkins