DETROIT – Andre Lamar Dyson was fighting from the very start.
Born prematurely and weighing only 1 pound, 9 ounces, he was dubbed “Miracle Baby” by his family because of his small stature.
“I wasn’t supposed to be here,” the Seattle Seahawks’ 5-foot-10 cornerback said this week. “I’ve been a fighter my whole life. I’ve been fighting, struggling my whole life just to be average size.”
Sometimes the smaller ones are the ones who’ve fought the most. Not all have to fight for their lives, but athletes who lack stature are constantly in a struggle just to prove that they belong. Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
“It just makes you work harder,” said 5-foot-10 Seahawks backup quarterback Seneca Wallace, whom NFL scouts made work at wide receiver during the scouting combine because they didn’t think he was tall enough to play quarterback. “If somebody tells you that you can’t do something, you want to make sure that you prove to them that you can do it.”
Several players in this year’s Super Bowl have already proven the doubters wrong. While the 40th installment of the annual game has been dubbed Super Bowl XL, the extra-small guys might actually be the ones who make the biggest difference.
“To my way of thinking, it really comes down to the player, and the guy who makes plays and the guy that gets the job done,” Seahawks team president Tim Ruskell said. ” … It doesn’t come down to: he’s 6-5, 260. It doesn’t come down to that. It comes down to: he gets it done, bottom line.”
Ruskell’s willingness to bring in “little guys” has been a big part of the Seahawks’ success this season. Dyson, 6-foot defensive tackle Chartric Darby, 5-11 middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu 6-3, 268-pound defensive end Bryce Fisher are all the types of players that past Seattle teams would have crossed off their wish lists because they don’t have prototypical size for their positions. Yet all have been keys to this year’s success.
Carryovers like 5-10 wide receiver Bobby Engram and 6-1 starting linebacker D.D. Lewis have also played bigger than their statures.
“I don’t think (size) matters,” said Lewis, who had a storied career at the University of Texas but went undrafted because he was seen as too small. “It’s your character and your heart that define you. When you step on the field, size is not everything. It’s all about your desire to get to the ball, the passion that you play with. That’s the amazing part of football.”
Because most of them have been small for the entire lives, the mini-Seahawks have been trying to compensate for years – and have been toughened up because of it.
Engram remembers being the 34th of 35 first cousins who all lived in the same part of South Carolina. His older brother – nine years his senior – and 33 cousins would pound little Bobby for hours while playing street football of Camden, S.C.
“I was the second-to-the-youngest one, yet somehow the ball always ended up in my hands,” he said. “I’ve been used to going against bigger, stronger people all my life. It’s just made me a better player and a tougher individual for it.”
Now a rock-solid 188 pounds, Engram is one of the Seahawks’ most impressive specimens in the weight room. But he still gets overlooked by opponents because of his lack of size.
“I’m just a football player,” he said. “I just make plays. I don’t get caught up in: ‘He’s too small. He can’t do this, he can’t do that.’ I just go out and show them what I can do.”
Even 46-year-old running backs coach Lyvonia “Stump” Mitchell remembers being inspired by a lack of size. Mitchell, who has gone by his nickname since being an undersized child, recalls entering the ninth grade at Camden County (Ga.) High School and being told that his 88-pound frame was too small for him to try out for the varsity football team.
“They wanted me to play JV,” said Mitchell, who now claims to be 5-foot-9. “I was really upset. I ended up moving to Miami with my aunt.”
Mitchell’s size continued to be a hindrance, but it also drove him. He ended up playing football at The Citadel, then slipped to the late rounds of the 1981 NFL draft despite a solid college career.
“When the (St. Louis) Cardinals drafted me in the ninth round,” Mitchell said Wednesday, “and (director of player personnel) Larry Wilson called me, I was frustrated.
“I said, ‘You drafted me in the ninth round, on the second day of the draft, and I’m going to make your damn team. I just want you to know that.’ He goes: ‘We have six running backs.’ I said: ‘That’s not my fault. One of them has got to go.’”
Mitchell, who went on to make the team and become the Cardinals’ second all-time leading rusher, sees a lot of himself in guys like Dyson, Engram, Wallace, Tatupu and Darby.
“The little guy’s attitude is that he’s destined to play, whereas everybody making the decisions thinks that guy is not destined to play,” Mitchell said. “So we take it to another level. We want to prove everybody wrong.”
The player once dubbed “Miracle Baby” continues to prove people wrong. Whereas doctors once believed he wouldn’t live for very long, Andre Dyson continues to thrive as a professional football player.
“It’s kind of been my motto,” the Seahawks’ cornerback said. ” ‘You’re too small for this, too small for that. You’re the youngest, so you can’t do this.’ It’s always been my way, to go out and prove it.”
Dyson, who sports a tattoo that reads, “Don’t quit,” has established himself as a solid cover cornerback despite going against much taller receivers.
“It’s funny,” he said. “When I got drafted, they were talking about: ‘We’ve got to get guys to cover the Randy Moss types. We’ve got to have these tall, big, physical guys.’ That dropped me in the draft.
“Now, with the new rules, they’re looking for more quick guys, guys that can move their feet and stay with guys because of the illegal contact rules.”
Despite his size, Dyson has been a perfect fit for the Seahawks’ defense.
“I may be 5-foot-10 during the week,” he said, “but I like to say that I’m 6-foot on game days.
“It doesn’t matter the size. It just matters the heart and if you can play the game. I’ve been proving that for five years.”
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