Marcus Dixon, the Steelers, and the 2008 NFL Draft

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Update 1: Marcus Dixon was not drafted. Scouts Inc. ranks him seventh among undrafted DEs. As expected, then, he could get an invitation to a pre-season camp as a rookie free agent. Hopefully some team is willing to give him a shot -- preferably more than one. He deserves it.

Update 2: Dixon has signed as an undrafted free agent with the Cowboys, one of the Steelers' arch-nemeses. I wish him the very best (even as I don't wish the very best for the 'Boys). For more, see his Wikipedia entry. For more on the Cowboys' draft and related news, see The Dallas Morning News.

Update 3: For more, see Todd Archer at the DMN's Cowboys blog. It's good to hear that the team was "aggressive" in trying to acquire Dixon (and that it would have drafted him in the seventh round if it had had a pick left).

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I'm not a huge college football fan, but I'll be paying close attention to the 2008 NFL Draft today. Specifically, I'll be paying close attention to what the Steelers do. I've read far too many mock drafts and far too many player analyses and far too many pre-draft articles for my own good, and I'm a frequent visitor to the Steelers pages at the Post-Gazette and, to a lesser extent, the Tribune-Review (even if it is Dick Scaife's rag).

Prediction for the Steelers in Round 1: Gosder Cherilus, (OT - Boston College).

Although the PG's Ed Bouchette thinks it'll be Kentwan Balmer (DT - North Carolina).

Other possibilities: Jerod Mayo (LB - Tennessee), Calais Campbell (DE - Miami), and Jonathan Stewart (RB - Oregon).

However, Stewart will likely be gone by the time the Steelers pick at #23. So, too, others, all O-linemen, I'd love to see in black and gold: Branden Albert (G/T - Virginia), Jeff Otah (OT - Pittsburgh), Ryan Clady, (OT - Boise State), and Chris Williams (OT - Vanderbilt).

I know the NFL Draft is overhyped and overdramatized, but it's still an exciting event.

Update: Well, no Cherilus or Balmer, but... wow! Rashard Mendenhall (RB - Illinois) and Limus Sweed (WR - Texas) with their first two picks. Two awesome offensive weapons. Sure, they still need help on the DL and, to a lesser extent, on the OL, but there was no way they could pass up these guys (both of whom fell into their lap). And they ended up with some solid players in later rounds, too: Bruce Davis (LB - UCLA), Tony Hills (OT - Texas), Dennis Dixon (QB - Oregon), Mike Humpal (LB - Iowa), and Ryan Mundy (S - West Virginia).

See Ed Bouchette's Q&A here.

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Anyway, regardless of what the Steelers do today, one player I'll be rooting for is Marcus Dixon, a DE from Hampton. He may not be drafted, either Saturday or Sunday, and, if not, he may end up a rookie free agent.

He's a solid, if unexceptional, player. But his story is incredible.

Dixon spent 15 months in prison for aggravated child molestation and statutory rape. Actually, though, he didn't do anything wrong. When he was 18, he had sex with a 15-year old. It was consensual, but the girl, likely pressured by her racist father (in a small racist town in Georgia), claimed he had raped her. He was acquitted of rape and other charges -- the jury determined it was consensual sex -- but the prosecutors (also racist?), seeking a major conviction, got him on child molestation, which they had added to the list of charges only to ensure that he would be handed a long prison sentence.

The rest is a long story, but one that ends with justice triumphant.

His story became a cause célèbre in the media, and, at long last, in May 2004, upon a favourable ruling by the George Supreme Court, he was released from prison.

And he went to Hampton to study and play football.

For more, read Greg Garber's fantastic piece on Dixon at ESPN.com -- seriously, read it.

Is there a happy ending to Dixon's story? Yes -- regardless of what happens this weekend, regardless of whether he makes it to the NFL or not.

Marcus Dixon is a good and admirable young man -- and, with all that he's been through, the victim of injustice, one wishes for him only the best.

Maybe he'll even end up with the Steelers.