SEATTLE _ All the successes of Michael Dickson's initial NFL season _ earning the first Pro Bowl bid for a rookie punter since 1985 while setting a slew of Seahawks records and achieving cult status along the way _ are rooted in his greatest disappointment.
On a recent day at the team's training facility, Dickson marveled at the twists of fate that led to him sitting in an NFL locker room, regarded as a budding star at his position at the age of 22.
If he'd been taken in the Australian Football League draft on that fateful November day in 2014, Dickson says, none of this would ever have occurred.
Had he followed through with what was his original plan after not being drafted _ to earn a business degree at the University of Technology Sydney _ he probably would not be sitting here wearing a Seahawks uniform, preparing for his first playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys.
But not only had Dickson gone undrafted, he also hadn't been selected for any AFL team's "rookie list" _ in which he would be a member of a team and could practice but not play.
Not being drafted, Dickson said, wasn't necessarily a surprise. But not being on a rookie list, that was something else.
