After FSU, Dunn was drafted #12 in the 1997 draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Him being drafted by the Bucs helped make me a Buccaneers fan back in the day. He was the rookie of the year in that initial season with Tampa. While with the Bucs, Dunn was named to the Pro Bowl twice and helped turn the franchise around in a positive way.
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Dunn spent one final season with the Bucs in 2008 and even had a 100 yd game that season. After that, his career was over. He finished with over 10,000 yards and is an unlikely, but fringe Hall of Fame candidate. I think he deserves it. Hey, if Curtis Martin is considered one of the best RBs of all-time, why not Dunn? Dunn was one of 10 rushers under 5'11 to rush for 10,000 career yards. Now how many did it 5'8 or under?
During his career, Dunn was known as one of the good guys. He started the Warrick Dunn Foundation and Homes for the Holidays, charities which he is even more involved with today. These charities are set up in cities which Dunn is famous. They exist in Baton Rouge (hometown), Tallahassee (FSU), Tampa, and Atlanta. He also helped found an organization with Cal Ripken Jr., that helps athletes get involved in charitable causes. That charity is called Athletes for Hope. Dunn also famously challenged each NFL player to donate $5,000 to the Hurricane Katrina victims. Dunn's efforts raised 5 million for the victims.
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Nowadays, Dunn does speaking appearances and runs his charities. He also is a minority owner with the Atlanta Falcons. This makes Dunn the most loveable owner in sports. Despite Dunn asking for a little bit too much $$ to speak at my school's sports banquet, I think Warrick Dunn is as classy as they get. Need more guys in sports like Warrick Dunn. I hope he gets in the Hall of Fame, because he was one of the NFL's best people and not just a football player.
-Noland
I am not going to say this is the best post of yours I have ever read (because I would be hard-pressed to single out any one piece, so high is the overall quality of this blog, and I say that not out of friendship but honesty), but I agree with every word of it. (As my friend in Sarasota Steve Plotkin says, "Don´t you just love it when people agree with opinions you already have? Doesn´t it always make you think of those people as really smart?") And as for how hard it is to write both simply and well, the first sentence of this comment? Total run-on, dude...
ReplyDelete*ohh, also, keyboards in Latin America don´t do apostrophes the right way, so that´s not on me...
ReplyDeleteHahaha. I didn't know that about the keyboards, that would drive me crazy. Thanks for the compliments. It is funny that you always think people are smart when they agree with you. This was a fun post to write. I like to look into things more deeply, but these posts also take longer so its give and take.
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