IRVING, Texas - Making the team will be hard enough as an undrafted free agent for rookie Marcus Dixon.
But that's not even close to the biggest challenge he has faced in his young life.
Which makes the fact that the defensive end is spending time here at Valley Ranch trying to make his NFL dreams come true just a little bit sweeter.
"The fact I have a chance to play in the NFL and have a chance to play for the Dallas Cowboys, everybody is overwhelmed," said the 23-year-old Dixon.
The "everybody" he refers to are the people - some strangers, even - who rallied to his side after he was sentenced to prison as an 18-year-old in a messy case that blurred the lines of modern-day race relations in his small Georgia town.
Dixon was set to graduate at the top of his Pepperell High School class in Lindale, Ga., his 3.96 GPA and National Honor Society membership enough to earn a football scholarship to Vanderbilt University. Instead he wound up serving 15 months (2003-04) after a jury found him guilty of statutory rape and aggravated child molestation of a 15-year-old girl.
During the trial in May 2003, Dixon's lawyer said the girl, a white classmate of Dixon's, told Dixon her father would "kill them both" if he found out about the two being together. Dixon, 18 years old at the time, maintained what took place was on the school grounds was consensual sex, not rape.
Dixon wound up being acquitted of four charges - rape, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and sexual battery - the jury convinced he did not use force and that the sexual encounter was consensual. But since the girl was underage, jurors found Dixon guilty of statutory rape, a misdemeanor, and aggravated child molestation, a felony.
According to Georgia law he had to be sentenced to a mandatory 10 years in prison, for the aggravated child molestation charge, because the girl was 15 years old. Some members of the jury were appalled at the sentencing, thinking they had basically convicted him of a much lesser crime only to find the Georgia state law was quite archaic, initially written to punish child predators.
Dixon's scholarship to Vanderbilt disappeared and he found himself in jail instead of playing ball at a Division I school.
But there were people who had taken notice of what happened in small-town Georgia and a concerted effort to get him out of jail took place. Most important, a powerful Atlanta-based attorney took his case pro-bono after simply reading about what appeared to him to be an injustice against a young man who had been represented by a first-time public defender.
His case, and the cause which gained national attention, also was featured on HBO's Real Sports, 60 Minutes and even on Oprah.
"I was in there and a lot of guys didn't have any support at all, no one to talk to," Dixon said. "So having that support and getting letters every day, definitely made the time a whole lot easier."
Dixon, an admitted self-motivator, also found other ways to ease the boredom of prison and remain calm but strong. The first and most important shoulder he leaned on was his faith, saying doing so was the only way to ensure getting through his time in jail.
"My faith is so strong now that I feel that it makes me stronger than most people because I know where my strength comes from," Dixon said.
Eventually Dixon's lawyers got the case in front of the Georgia Supreme Court, which ruled 4-3 in his favor on May 3, 2004. They said he should have only been prosecuted under the statutory rape charge, not the child molestation one. Since the statutory rape charge carries a one-year sentence the Court said Dixon had more than served his time and could be immediately released.
Since that time, the Georgia law concerning cases such as this has been amended, and now it's no longer a felony when consensual sex has been proven.
With his scholarship to Vanderbilt long gone and not wanting to sit out a season, Dixon got his second chance at Hampton University, a historically black college in Virginia. While there he made the Dean's list while also serving as team captain during three of his four years at the Division I-AA school in Hampton, Va.
Dixon wasted little time making an impression at Hampton, playing in all 12 games as a freshman and actually starting in six of the final seven games in 2004. He would go on to become a fulltime starter over the next three years at Hampton.
And he did enough to catch the NFL's eyes his senior season, recoding 58 tackles at defensive end, along with racking up six sacks and a team-high 16 tackles for losses. That at least earned him one of the 350 invitations to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, where he ran a 5.2 40 and benched 225 pounds 21 times, which is not bad for a 6-4, 294-pound lineman.
But in the back of his mind he knew his past could come back to haunt him, likely causing teams to place a caution tag on him for the draft.
"I went into the draft and thought I was going to get drafted," said Dixon, projected to be anywhere from a fifth- to seventh-round pick. "You know you have no character issues, but still, it could be a red flag."
Sure enough, no team took a chance spending a draft choice on the Dixon, and he figures he knows why, saying the Georgia case and his time spent in prison likely was the reason.
But that's when the Cowboys came into the picture, and maybe it's not surprising that America's Team stretched out its arms to Dixon. Recent acquisitions by the club, including Pacman Jones and Tank Johnson, have looked past any legal issues and focused more on the individual at this time in their life and what he brings to the table as a player. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been known to take chances on players who bring a huge upside with no financial risk.
Dixon said Jones doesn't ignore a player's past, per se, but rather "I think he just looks at the things you've done since your past. He looks at that and not (just) your past. And that's why I think this organization is so good."
The Cowboys signed Dixon to a non-guaranteed three-year, $1 million free-agent deal made up of three minimum base salaries, along with a modest signing bonus, and days later he found himself here at Valley Ranch for the rookie mini-camp.
"I haven't gotten any calls from Oprah, but I have gotten calls from people who have supported me," he said after his first practice. "I've gotten e-mails. Everyone is just overwhelmed."
Dixon was just like every other rookie that first weekend - cramming in an unfamiliar playbook and trying to keep up with the speed a pro team works at during these non-pad practices. He returned with the majority of the rookies this past week to also begin his off-season strength and conditioning program, along with taking part in the three-day OTA workouts, which continue with another three-day session out here on Tuesday.
That's all a start, but Dixon still faces an uphill battle to make the final roster this fall. The Cowboys' defensive line does not have many openings, with Chris Canty and Marcus Spears the starting anchors of the unit, and Stephen Bowen and Jason Hatcher rotating in behind them.
It likely will take a breakout performance in training camp for Dixon to work his way onto the team, but if at least he shows enough potential and that he's a hard-working, self-starter, the practice squad might be the eventual landing spot for him.
But at least the coaching staff knows his story, and how Dixon has persevered through what could have been a life-destroying struggle had he become filled with bitterness.
"I mean, a guy falsely accused is able to get out and pursue his career," Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips said of Dixon, who is just four classes short of obtaining his degree. "He was a Dean's list guy who is a hard worker and he's got some talent . . . he's a real smart kid, too, so he'll just get better and better."
And now he has a chance with the Cowboys to get better and better without his past hanging over him.
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